A redirect does its job whether or not anyone points a link straight at it. But every internal link that still targets the old, redirecting address is asking every visitor and every crawler to take an extra hop they never needed to take.
What this finding means
Crawl Cove's internal-link-to-redirect check looks at every internal link on the site and flags the hosting page when a link's target resolves to a redirect rather than the final destination. A link that already points at the final URL is correct and is not flagged, even if that URL used to be reached through a chain elsewhere.
A real finding looks like this:
2 internal link(s) point at a redirecting URL: /old-page -> /new-page, /blog/2024-post -> /blog/2025-post
One finding per page that hosts the links, listing every redirecting target found on it alongside the final URL it should point at instead.
Why it matters
Linking through a redirect makes every visitor and every crawler take an extra hop for no reason. It is a small cost paid on every single page load through that link, and it compounds across a site with many internal links still pointing at old addresses. Pointing the link at the final URL is free speed and a cleaner internal-linking signal, with nothing given up.
How to fix it
- Open the page named in the finding and find each redirecting link using the
fromaddresses listed in the evidence. - Update the href to the
toaddress shown, which is the redirect's actual final destination. - Leave the redirect itself in place on the old URL, since external links and bookmarks may still rely on it.
- Re-crawl the site to confirm the finding clears once every internal link points straight at the final page.
False positives and edge cases
- A link that already points at the final destination is never flagged, so fixing this finding once means it stays fixed; it will not reappear just because the URL was historically reached through a redirect somewhere else.
- A target the crawl never reached is not covered here. Broken-link checking owns links whose destination was never crawled at all; this check only fires once a target is confirmed to be a live redirect.
- This is a link-repointing fix, not a redirect-removal one. The correct fix is always to edit the link, never to delete the redirect it points through.
Related reading
For a link whose href could not be parsed as a URL at all, rather than one that resolves to a redirect, see Malformed Links.
Frequently asked questions
- Should I remove the redirect these links point at?
- No, keep it. Old bookmarks and external backlinks may still use the old address, so the redirect stays. The fix is repointing your own internal links at the final URL, not removing the redirect itself.
- Does this check flag every link on my site that touches a redirect?
- No, only links whose target has not already been repointed. A link that already points at the final destination is correct and is never flagged, even if that same URL used to be reached through a redirect elsewhere on the site.
- Is this the same as a redirect chain?
- No. A redirect chain is about hops on the redirecting page itself; this check is about the page doing the LINKING, so the fix here is editing a link's href, not touching the redirect.
- Why is this worth fixing if the redirect still gets visitors to the right page?
- It works, but it costs an extra request every time: crawl budget for search engines and a small delay for every visitor. Pointing the link straight at the destination is a free, permanent improvement with no downside.