What's the difference between a 301 and 302 redirect?

A 301 is permanent — search engines transfer ranking signals to the new URL and browsers may cache the redirect. A 302 is temporary — every visit re-checks the redirect server, so you keep the ability to change the destination and log every click. Most link shorteners use 302s for that reason.

How much does a redirect chain slow down a page?

Each hop typically adds 100–300 milliseconds on a fast connection. On weak mobile signal, three hops can add a full second. Google's Core Web Vitals (particularly LCP) are directly affected, and Google Ads Quality Score penalizes slow landing pages.

Why are my UTM parameters disappearing?

They're almost always being stripped at an intermediate redirect hop — an affiliate network, a CMS trailing-slash redirect, or a destination URL that already has its own UTMs. Trace the chain hop by hop with a redirect checker, then enable parameter forwarding or rebuild the URL to include UTMs at the final destination.

How often should I audit my redirects?

Monthly for top campaign short links, current email campaigns, and paid ad destinations. Quarterly for evergreen blog content. Always immediately after migrating a CMS or changing redirect rules.

The 30-Second Redirect Audit Every Marketer Should Run Monthly

Every redirect hop between a user's click and your landing page costs you something. Time. Conversions. Attribution data. In some cases, search rankings. And yet most marketing teams have no idea how many redirects are hiding inside their campaigns, email newsletters, and paid ad links.

This guide explains what redirects are, why different types matter, what redirect chains actually cost you, and how to run a fast monthly audit to catch problems before they hurt your campaigns.

What Is a Redirect?

A redirect is an instruction that sends a browser from one URL to another. When you click a link, your browser sends a request to the server. A redirect means the server responds with "don't load this page — go to this other URL instead," and your browser follows the instruction.^[1]

This happens invisibly and almost instantly in most cases. The problem is that "almost instantly" adds up — and not all redirects are created equal.

The Four Redirect Types Marketers Need to Know

HTTP defines several redirect status codes.^[1] Four of them come up constantly in marketing work.

301 — Permanent Redirect

A 301 tells browsers and search engines: "This page has moved permanently. Update your records." Search engines will transfer most of the original page's ranking signals to the new destination. Browsers may cache a 301, meaning repeat visitors could go directly to the destination without ever pinging your server again.

Marketing implication: Good for permanently retired URLs (an old product page pointing to its replacement). Not ideal for short links, because if a browser caches the 301, you lose the ability to change the destination later without a cache-busting workaround — and some click tracking may be missed on cached requests.

302 — Temporary Redirect

A 302 tells browsers and search engines: "Go to this other URL for now, but don't update your records — this might change." Browsers won't cache 302s the same way, so every visit passes through the redirect server.^[1]

Marketing implication: The default choice for link shorteners and campaign links, because it preserves the ability to update the destination and ensures every click is logged. If you're using a link management platform, it almost certainly uses 302s.

307 — Temporary Redirect with Method Preservation

A 307 is like a 302, but it explicitly preserves the HTTP method of the original request (GET, POST, etc.). This mostly matters for developers building forms or API integrations — not for typical marketing links.^[1]

308 — Permanent Redirect with Method Preservation

A 308 is the permanent version of 307 — like a 301 that also preserves the request method. Again, primarily a developer concern.^[1]

The practical summary for most marketers: 302 is what you want for campaign links. 301 is for permanent URL migrations. If you're seeing 307s or 308s in your marketing links, something unusual is happening worth investigating.

What Is a Redirect Chain, and Why Is It a Problem?

A redirect chain occurs when a URL redirects to another URL that itself redirects — creating a sequence of hops before the browser reaches the final destination.

A simple example:

Your short link (hop 1)
  → Tracking/affiliate URL (hop 2)
    → Old campaign URL (hop 3)
      → Final landing page

This is three hops. Here's what each one costs you:

Latency

Every redirect hop adds a round-trip network request. Each hop typically adds 100–300 milliseconds of load time.^[2] On a fast desktop connection, three hops might add 300ms — noticeable but tolerable. On mobile on a weak signal, it can add a full second or more.

Google has made page speed a ranking factor for mobile search results, and Core Web Vitals — particularly Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — are directly affected by redirect delays.^[3]

Broken UTM Attribution

When a UTM-tagged URL passes through a redirect chain, there's a real risk that UTM parameters get dropped at one of the intermediate hops.^[4] This causes conversions to appear as "direct" traffic in your analytics, making it impossible to attribute them back to the campaign that actually drove them.

This is particularly common when:

A short link redirects to a URL that already has different UTM parameters
An affiliate network uses a redirect that strips query strings
A CMS auto-redirects non-trailing-slash URLs (e.g., /page → /page/) and doesn't forward parameters

Broken Link Previews

As covered in our Open Graph guide, social media scrapers — especially LinkedIn's — often don't follow redirect chains reliably. A link with two or more hops may produce no preview, or a preview from the wrong page.

Redirect Loops

The worst-case scenario: URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects back to URL A. Browsers will eventually give up and show an error.^[1] These are usually caused by misconfigured CMS settings, conflicting redirect rules, or incorrect HTTPS/HTTP enforcement.

How to Audit Your Redirects: The Monthly Checklist

Use the Redirect Checker tool below to inspect any URL — paste it in and see the full chain, each status code, and the final destination.

Try it free, no signup

Redirect Checker

Trace the full redirect chain for any URL.

Open tool

What to audit each month

1. Your most-used campaign short links. Pull your top 10 most-clicked short links from the past 30 days. Check each one for chain length (more than 1 hop is worth investigating) and correct final destination (pages get moved without redirect updates more often than you'd think).

2. Links in your current email campaigns. Email links are often the worst offenders for redirect chains. A typical chain might look like: ESP click-tracking URL → your short link → destination. That's already two hops before the page even loads. Add a CMS redirect and you're at three.

3. Paid ad destination URLs. Google Ads, Meta Ads, and LinkedIn Ads all have URL policies around redirect behavior. Google Ads specifically prohibits redirect chains that obscure the final destination domain.^[5] Beyond policy compliance, chains in paid ad URLs directly inflate your cost-per-click because slower landing pages reduce Quality Score.^[5]

4. Links in high-traffic blog posts. If you have articles linking out to partner pages, product pages, or resources, those destination pages may have moved since you published. A quick monthly sweep catches 404s and accidental chains early.

5. Any link that recently "stopped working" but technically still redirects. Sometimes a redirect chain is technically functional but routes to an outdated page. The browser reaches a destination — it's just the wrong one. These are easy to miss without an explicit audit.

How to Fix the Problems You Find

Too many hops

The fix is usually straightforward: update the original short link to point directly to the final destination, bypassing intermediate URLs. Most link management platforms let you edit the destination of any existing short link without changing the link itself — this is one of the key advantages of using managed short links over hard-coded URLs.

Wrong redirect type (301 where you want 302)

If you set a redirect to 301 and later need to change the destination, the browser cache becomes a problem. The only reliable fix is to use a link management platform that issues 302s by default, or to wait out the cache TTL and update the destination at the CDN or server level.

UTM parameters being dropped

First, verify the problem: set up a test click from the link and check your analytics in real time to see what source/medium/campaign is recorded. If the UTMs are missing, trace the chain manually to identify which hop strips them.

Fixes include:

Enabling parameter forwarding on your short link platform (this appends incoming query strings to the destination URL automatically)
Rebuilding the destination URL to include the UTM parameters directly, removing the dependency on pass-through
Removing the intermediate hop that strips the parameters

Redirect loops

These need to be diagnosed at the server or CMS level. Common causes include:

A WordPress plugin (often SSL enforcement or caching plugins) creating a circular rule
An .htaccess file with conflicting rewrite rules
HTTPS-to-HTTP and HTTP-to-HTTPS rules set simultaneously on different systems
A CDN and origin server both trying to enforce redirects in conflicting directions

The Redirect Checker will identify loops by showing a circular reference. Once you know which hop creates the circle, isolate and remove the conflicting rule.

A Note on Short Links and Redirect Performance

Well-built link management platforms optimize redirect performance by caching destination lookups at the edge — meaning the redirect happens from a server close to the user rather than routing all the way to a central origin server. This can reduce redirect latency to under 20 milliseconds even for a global audience.

If you're using a self-hosted or poorly optimized redirect setup, the single hop from a short link to a destination can take 400–800ms — more than a well-built multi-hop chain on optimized infrastructure. Infrastructure quality matters more than hop count in those cases, but minimizing hops remains best practice regardless.

Copy-Paste Monthly Audit Template

REDIRECT AUDIT — [Month, Year]

Date completed: ___________
Auditor: ___________

URLs checked:
[ ] Top 10 short links (by clicks)
[ ] All links in current email campaign
[ ] All paid ad destination URLs
[ ] Top 5 blog posts (external links)
[ ] Any links flagged by team in past month

For each URL, note:
- Final destination correct? (Y/N)
- Number of redirect hops: ___
- Redirect types (301/302/other): ___
- UTM parameters intact at destination? (Y/N)
- Any loops or errors? (Y/N)

Actions logged:
[ ] Updated destination on: ___________
[ ] Fixed UTM passthrough on: ___________
[ ] Resolved loop on: ___________
[ ] Flagged for dev: ___________

Next audit scheduled: ___________

References

[1] Fielding, R., Nottingham, M., & Reschke, J. (2022). RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics, §15.4 (Redirection 3xx). IETF. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110#section-15.4

[2] Google Developers. (2024). Avoid multiple page redirects. web.dev / Chrome for Developers. https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/performance/redirects/

[3] Google Search Central. (2024). Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/core-web-vitals

[4] Google LLC. (2024). Collect campaign data with custom URLs. Google Analytics Help. https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033863

[5] Google LLC. (2024). Google Ads destination requirements policy. https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6368661

Last updated: May 2026. See also: Link Shortening Glossary — Redirect, 301/302/307/308, Redirect chain, Redirect loop, Parameter forwarding, UTM parameters.