Q: How do I tell the difference between a redirect chain and a redirect loop — and which tool catches each?

Q: How do I tell the difference between a redirect chain and a redirect loop — and which tool catches each?

Good to separate these, because one slowly leaks equity and the other fully breaks the page.

Short answer: a chain is A→B→C (wasteful); a loop is A→B→A (broken). Both show up in any redirect-tracing crawler.

Long answer:
Chains happen when you stack migrations — an old 301 still points to a URL that you later redirected again. Each hop dilutes signals and adds latency. Fix by pointing the first URL straight to the final 200.

Loops are worse: the browser bounces forever and users get an error. They usually come from conflicting rules across layers (CDN sends to https, server sends back to non-www).

Screaming Frog's 'Redirect Chains' report lists hop counts; the httpstatus.io bulk checker is a fast free option for a quick audit.

Next step: run the Redirect Chains report and flatten anything with more than one hop to a single 301.