Definition
Old-to-new migrations stack redirects: A goes to B goes to C. Each hop leaks link equity and adds latency for users and crawlers. Chains should collapse to single 301 hops pointing at final destinations.
Why it matters
After redesigns, redirect archaeology is mandatory housekeeping - chains are invisible in analytics but visible in everything they slow down.
Benchmarks
Maximum one hop; zero after cleanup passes
All glossary terms