Measure the latency and equity cost of redirect chains.
Redirect chains compound both latency and equity loss multiplicatively. Crawlers commonly abandon chains beyond about five hops, which effectively deindexes the destination. Collapsing chains so every old URL points directly at the final destination is a one-off fix with permanent benefit.
Redirect Chain
Added latency = hops × per-hop latency; equity retained = (1 − loss per hop)^hops
Added latency = hops × per-hop latency; equity retained = (1 − loss per hop)^hops Redirect chains compound both latency and equity loss multiplicatively. Crawlers commonly abandon chains beyond about five hops, which effectively deindexes the destination.
Collapsing chains so every old URL points directly at the final destination is a one-off fix with permanent benefit.
This calculator takes 4 inputs: Redirects in the chain, Latency per hop, Equity lost per hop, URLs affected. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.