Will Google Follow Multiple Redirects?
Over time your website might have many pages that you no longer use and want to delete. You can redirect these pages to a page that is still in use. If you later want to remove the page to which you redirected another page, you need to be sure that Google will follow the chain redirect.
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Why Redirect?
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Redirecting your deleted Web pages is good for your users and for search engine optimization. When you redirect, your users will automatically go to the new page, which prevents them from receiving a "404 File not found" error. Redirects also tell Google that any Page Rank from links to the old page should go to the new page, so it is an important way to maintain your search engine position. The question then becomes how many redirects can you have in a chain before Google will no longer follow the chain. The answer depends on what type of redirect you use.
Server Side Redirects
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If you set up redirects on your server with an .htaccess page, you can set up multiple chains. Internet marketing consultant Bruce Clay tested a redirect chain and discovered that Google will follow approximately five redirects before stopping. The results were the same for 301 permanent redirects and 302 temporary redirects.
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Javascript Redirects
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If you do not have the ability to redirect on a server, you might consider using Javascript redirects. Google does not follow these redirects at all as they are a common cloaking technique, which means displaying a different page to users than you do to search engines. Since Google will not follow a single Javascript redirect, it obviously will not follow multiple redirects in a chain.
Fixing Long Redirect Chains
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If you have a redirect chain that is longer than five pages, you should delete the least needed members of the chain. Try to determine how many outside sites link to each page in the chain and delete the redirects for the pages with the least number of links or the least valuable links. Usually, the older the page, the fewer links it will have, as sites that used to link to it will have disappeared from the Internet or changed the pages to which they link. If you still have incoming links on pages that you wish to remove from your redirect chain, contact the webmasters of the linking sites and ask them to update the links on their sites.
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