Redirect loop detected — the fix
This URL is part of a circular redirect chain where the final redirect points back to a URL already in the chain. The page is completely inaccessible to both users and search engines.
Where this fits: indexability in SEO
Indexability is whether a crawled page is allowed into the search index at all. A page can be perfectly reachable and still tell Google to ignore it — through a noindex directive, a conflicting canonical, or an X-Robots-Tag header set by the server. These directives are absolute: one stray meta tag removes a page from search entirely. Indexability issues are the most binary in SEO — the page either can rank or it cannot — which is why they sit at the top of every serious audit.
Why redirect loop detected hurts your rankings
A redirect loop results in a browser error (ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS) and makes the page completely unreachable. Search engines will drop the URL from their index after encountering the loop. Any link equity flowing to URLs in the loop is effectively lost.
This is a critical issue: it can remove pages from search results entirely or block them from being crawled at all. Treat it as an outage, not a backlog item — every day it persists is compounding lost visibility.
How to fix it
Trace the full redirect chain to identify where the loop occurs. Common causes include conflicting redirect rules (e.g., www-to-non-www and non-www-to-www simultaneously), CMS-level redirects conflicting with server-level redirects, or HTTP-to-HTTPS rules interacting with other redirects. Fix the conflicting rules so the chain terminates at a 200-status page.
# Common cause: conflicting .htaccess rules
# Rule 1 sends non-www to www
# Rule 2 sends www to non-www
# Fix: remove one of the conflicting rulesIndexability best practices
- Audit noindex directives after every deploy — one templating mistake can deindex a section overnight.
- Give every indexable page exactly one self-referencing canonical URL.
- Never mix signals: a page should not be canonicalised away AND noindexed AND in the sitemap.
- Use hreflang pairs that reciprocate; a one-way hreflang is ignored.
- Check the HTTP layer too — X-Robots-Tag headers override what you see in the HTML.
The full library: SEO best practices, by category.
Frequently asked questions
What does "Redirect loop detected" mean?
This URL is part of a circular redirect chain where the final redirect points back to a URL already in the chain. The page is completely inaccessible to both users and search engines.
Why does redirect loop detected matter for SEO?
A redirect loop results in a browser error (ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS) and makes the page completely unreachable. Search engines will drop the URL from their index after encountering the loop. Any link equity flowing to URLs in the loop is effectively lost.
How do I fix redirect loop detected?
Trace the full redirect chain to identify where the loop occurs. Common causes include conflicting redirect rules (e.g., www-to-non-www and non-www-to-www simultaneously), CMS-level redirects conflicting with server-level redirects, or HTTP-to-HTTPS rules interacting with other redirects. Fix the conflicting rules so the chain terminates at a 200-status page.
How serious is this issue?
This is a critical issue: it can remove pages from search results entirely or block them from being crawled at all. Treat it as an outage, not a backlog item — every day it persists is compounding lost visibility. It belongs to the indexability family of checks.
How do I find every page affected by this on my site?
Run a free Dr Urls audit: it crawls your site, detects redirect loop detected on every affected page, shows example URLs, and generates a ready-to-use fix task. Re-scan after fixing to verify the issue is gone.
Does your site have this issue?
A free Dr Urls audit crawls your site, finds every page affected by redirect loop detected, and hands you a ready-made fix task.
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