Redirect Audit: Find the Rules That Are Quietly Broken
Redirects get added and never checked again. A broken one usually looks perfect from the settings screen.
Why broken redirects hide so well
The settings screen shows what was intended. Only a request shows what actually happens.
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Rules pile up
Migrations, deletions, plugins and developers all add them. Nobody removes any.
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They stop working quietly
Destinations get deleted, chains form, and some rules save with nothing in them at all.
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Every rule gets requested
Not read, requested. Chains flattened, dead ends repointed, empty rules repaired, and the whole set proved afterwards.
Redirects are the part of a website nobody checks after setting up.
They get added during migrations, after deletions, by plugins, by developers and sometimes by two different systems at once. Years later nobody knows what points where, and some of them are quietly sending your visitors and Google into dead ends.
The worst part is that a broken redirect usually looks perfect from the admin screen.
The Honest Version: The Settings Screen Lies
This is the thing that makes redirects different from most SEO problems.
A rule can look right and do nothing
I have found redirect rules sitting in a plugin, marked active, with a destination field that was empty. The list looked completely normal. Every one of those addresses was dead.
Two systems can fight each other
Most sites end up with rules in more than one place: the server configuration, a plugin, and sometimes the theme. Server rules run first and win. So you can switch a rule off in your plugin, watch nothing change, and conclude the plugin is broken when the real rule lives somewhere else entirely.
And the platform can cover for you
This is the trap. WordPress quietly redirects some old addresses on its own. So a broken rule can appear to work, right up until the day the page it was covering for gets removed and everything 404s at once.
Which is why I check redirects by requesting them, not by reading the settings.
What Goes Wrong
Redirects into dead pages
The old address sends visitors to a page that has since been deleted. Two requests to arrive at the same dead end.
Chains
A goes to B, B goes to C. Every hop loses a little and wastes Google’s time. Long chains sometimes stop being followed at all.
Loops
A sends to B and B sends back to A. The browser gives up and shows an error. Nobody notices until a customer calls.
Everything sent to the homepage
The lazy cleanup. Google treats an irrelevant redirect as a dead end, so you get the downside without the benefit.
Rules with no destination
Created by an import or a bad save. Looks active in the list. Does nothing at all.
Hundreds of rules nobody understands
Built up over years. Most sites I audit are carrying rules for pages that stopped existing long ago.
How the Audit Works
1. Find every place rules can live
Server configuration, plugins, the theme, and the platform’s own behaviour. Auditing only the plugin is how people miss the rule that is actually running.
2. Request every one of them
Not read them. Request them, and follow where they land. This is the only way to catch the ones that look correct and are not.
3. Sort them by what they actually do
Working, chained, looping, landing on a dead page, or doing nothing. Most sites have some of each.
4. Flatten, repair and remove
Chains collapsed to one hop, dead destinations repointed at something genuinely relevant, empty rules fixed or deleted, and rules for pages nobody has requested in years cleared out.
5. Prove it afterwards
Every rule requested again after the work. A redirect audit that is not verified by request is not an audit.
A Real Example
This site had 565 redirect rules. 515 of them sent visitors to pages that had been deleted, so every one was two requests to reach a dead end. Four more were leftover template rows from a spreadsheet import.
The rule actually doing the redirecting was not in the plugin at all. It was one line in the server configuration, which is why switching the plugin rules off changed nothing.
And later, a fresh set of rules created to fix the mess saved with empty destinations. They passed a browser test only because the platform was quietly covering for them, and failed the moment that stopped.
All eighteen were repaired and then re-requested one by one to prove it.
When You Do Not Need This
Your site has never moved. Same addresses since launch, nothing deleted, no migrations. You probably have almost no redirects to audit.
You have fewer than about twenty rules. You can check those yourself by clicking them. I will tell you how rather than charge you.
You are about to migrate anyway. Wait. Auditing rules you are about to replace is wasted money, and the migration is the job that matters.
Price and Turnaround
Number of rules |
Price |
Turnaround |
|---|---|---|
Up to 100 |
$199 |
2 – 3 days |
100 – 500 |
$349 |
4 – 6 days |
Over 500 |
From $549 |
1 – 2 weeks |
Every rule requested before and after. You get the list of what was broken, what changed, and what I removed.
Common Questions
Do redirect chains really matter?
Short ones are survivable. Long ones waste crawl budget, slow the page for real visitors, and past a certain length stop being followed.
Should I delete old redirects?
Only ones nothing has requested in a long time. If something out there still links to that address, the rule is still earning its place.
Why can I not just test a few in my browser?
You can, and it is worth doing. The catch is that the platform sometimes covers for a broken rule, so a browser test can pass while the rule itself is dead. That only shows up when you check the rule and the request together.
Is 301 always the right type?
For a permanent move, yes. Temporary redirects left in place for years are a common and quiet mistake.
Will this affect my live visitors?
Only by fixing things. Nothing goes live without being requested and confirmed first.
How many redirects are you carrying?
If you do not know, that is the answer. I will check a sample for free and tell you whether a full audit is worth it.
Or email info@shazzseo.com