Hunting hidden link equity through redirect chains

Hunting hidden link equity through redirect chains
Spotted in more than one profile: a domain rebuilt its entire authority through old redirects, and the backlink tools barely flag it. Here's the equity hunt:
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Run the target through Ahrefs, then check 'Best by links' for URLs returning 301/302 in the status column
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Follow each redirect chain manually — a money page riding a redirect from an expired authority domain is inheriting borrowed trust
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Check the redirecting domain's old topic in Wayback. Off-topic 301s are a manipulation tell editors and Google both dislike
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Look for chains longer than two hops — equity leaks at each hop, so a 4-hop chain is a botched job worth noting
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Map which of their top pages depend on redirected equity versus direct links
Word is the cleverest authority plays are laundered through redirects. Follow the hops and the real source shows up. Watch this space.