In practice
Rewrite every hop to point straight at the final URL, and re-audit after each migration — chains form when old rules are layered on new ones.
Watch the redirect rules that fire on protocol and trailing slash; these silently add hops nobody wrote deliberately.
Why it matters
Each hop costs latency for the visitor and dilutes the signal passed through the link.
Long chains are where crawlers give up, leaving the destination page undiscovered.
Related terms