Why internal links must not use redirects
Internal links should point directly to the final page, without detouring through a redirect.
What does this actually mean
An internal link is a link on your own site that refers to another page of your own. Think of a link in the menu, in the text, or in the footer. That link should go directly to the correct page, without taking a detour.
A redirect is a technical arrangement that says: this page no longer exists here, go to that other address. That is normal and sometimes necessary, for example after moving a page to a new name.
The problem arises when you let an internal link point to the old address, while you know it immediately forwards to the new one. The visitor gets there, but via a detour that was not necessary.
This rule, checkpoint 4.3 from our checklist, simply says: if you place a link yourself, point directly to the final destination. Not to an intermediate station that forwards again anyway.
Why this is more than a technical detail
Every redirect takes time, however small. A visitor may not notice it consciously, but the page loads slightly slower. With one link, that is negligible, but if this pattern repeats throughout your site, it adds up.
Search engines follow links to understand how your site is structured and which pages are important. A redirect between those steps makes that path unnecessarily complicated. It works similarly to the way we describe it when discussing the role of your sitemap: clarity about structure helps, detours confuse.
There is also a practical risk. Redirects are sometimes cleaned up or misconfigured over time. If your internal links depend on them, you risk a link that once worked suddenly going nowhere.
In short: it is not about a forbidden trick, but about an unnecessary intermediate step that you control yourself. You determine where the link points to, so you can get it right immediately.
How to see if things are in order with you
The simplest way is to manually check a few important pages. Click on the links in your main menu and notice whether the page loads directly, or whether the address bar of your browser first jumps to another address before the page appears.
For larger sites, manual checking is impractical. A technical check, for example with a crawl tool that scans your site the way a search engine does, shows which internal links run through a redirect. That is work for someone with experience in it.
Pay special attention to places where you have recently made changes: changed a page name, renamed a category, moved a product page. It is precisely at those moments that redirects are created, and precisely there that people often forget to update the internal links.
This is related to a number of other points on our list. If you have not yet looked at the status of your most important files or at how search engines are allowed to scan your site, this is a good time to include that in the same round.
What it costs if you leave it as it is
In the short term, you probably will not notice anything. The visitor arrives on the correct page, the redirect works as intended after all. It does not cost visitors in the sense that they get stuck, but it does cost speed and clarity.
In the long term, the consequences accumulate. More redirects means a slower site, a less clear structure, and more chance of errors when you later make changes. It becomes harder to see what points where.
There is also an indirect consequence. If your site is full of internal links that run through detours, it becomes difficult to detect other problems, such as incorrectly configured error pages. That touches on what we discuss about the importance of a proper error message: a messy link structure makes everything slower to understand.
It is not a problem that causes damage from one day to the next. It is a creeping problem: every new page that links via a redirect makes the cleanup later slightly larger.
What needs to happen
The approach is not complicated, although it does take time. All internal links that currently point to a redirect must be adjusted so that they go directly to the final page. This is not a matter of removing the redirect; it can remain for visitors who found the old link elsewhere.
Start with the most important places: the main menu, the footer, and links that appear on many pages. These are the places where one correction has the most impact, because the link is updated everywhere at once.
Make it a habit after that. Whenever you move a page or change an address, immediately check which internal links pointed to the old address and update them. This prevents the problem from returning.
This work combines well with a broader cleanup. If you are already working on it, it is a logical time to also look at things like pagination in long lists or whether your search results pages are rightly visible to search engines or not.
Frequently asked questions
Is a redirect in itself a problem
No, a redirect is a normal and sometimes necessary technical tool, for example after moving a page. The problem only arises when you yourself, in your own internal links, continue to refer to the old address while knowing that it redirects anyway. Then you might as well link directly to the final destination.
How many internal links with a redirect are needed before this becomes a problem
There is no fixed threshold where it suddenly does or does not matter. A single link with a redirect is rarely noticeable, but if this pattern repeats across dozens or hundreds of pages, the delay adds up and the structure of your site becomes unnecessarily complicated. It is smarter to just do it structurally right than to seek a threshold.
Can I check this myself without technical knowledge
For a few important pages, you can check this yourself by clicking on the links and paying attention to whether the address in the browser remains stable immediately. For a complete overview of your entire site, a technical check is needed, for example with a tool that crawls your site. The latter is work for someone with experience in this type of checks.
Further reading
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