Ever seen your browser spin for a few seconds, only to give up and display a blunt message like "This page isn’t working"? If so, you’ve likely run into the infamous ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error.

It’s a frustratingly common problem that happens when your website gets its wires crossed, sending browsers on a wild goose chase between two or more URLs. The browser gets trapped in an infinite loop, hopping from one page to another and back again, until it eventually cuts its losses and displays the error.

Think of it like sending a parcel from Post Office A to Post Office B. But when it gets there, Post Office B is under instructions to send it right back to A. This creates a pointless cycle where the parcel is perpetually in transit but never actually arrives. That’s exactly what’s happening in your browser.

This digital merry-go-round is more than just a minor hiccup. It makes your site completely inaccessible to visitors and, if left unfixed, can start to harm your search engine rankings. To get a better handle on why this matters, it’s worth taking a moment to understand the broader implications of technical SEO.

So, What's Causing the Redirect Loop?

The good news is that this error almost always boils down to a simple misconfiguration somewhere. The real challenge is tracking down exactly where the problem lies. From my experience, it’s usually one of a few usual suspects:

• Incorrect WordPress Settings: A classic mistake. If your WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) in the settings don't match perfectly, it’s a recipe for a redirect loop.

• Plugin Conflicts: Caching, security, or even SEO plugins can be a bit too aggressive with their own redirect rules, causing them to clash with each other or with your server’s settings.

• Server Configuration Issues: This is a big one. A poorly written rule in your server’s .htaccess file (for Apache) or nginx.conf file (for Nginx) is a frequent cause of redirect mayhem.

• A Botched HTTPS Migration: Moving from HTTP to HTTPS is a common trigger. If the SSL certificate isn't installed correctly or the redirect rules are wrong, it can easily create a loop. This is a particularly common issue for UK websites where small mistakes during the SSL setup can have big consequences.

• Third-Party Service Conflicts: Are you using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) like Cloudflare? An incorrect SSL setting (like setting it to 'Flexible' when your server already has SSL) is a textbook cause for a redirect cycle between the CDN and your server.

To help you quickly diagnose the issue, here's a quick rundown of where to start looking.

Common Causes of Redirect Errors at a Glance

This table summarises the most frequent triggers for the 'too many redirects' error, helping you quickly identify potential problem areas.

By checking these common areas first, you can often pinpoint the source of the redirect loop much faster and get your site back online.

Your First Steps for a Quick Diagnosis

Before you start digging around in server files, the simplest checks are often the ones that solve the error too many redirects in a flash. Your browser, in its quest for speed, can sometimes hold onto old, outdated information. This can trap it in a redirect loop that you’ve already fixed on the server.

The very first thing to try is clearing your browser’s cache and cookies. This simple action forces it to fetch a completely fresh copy of your website, wiping out any dodgy redirect instructions it had stored away. Think of it as hitting the reset button. Another brilliant little trick is to open your site in an incognito or private window. These windows don't use the existing cache or cookies, so if the site loads properly, you know for a fact the problem is localised to your browser's data.

Pinpointing the Problem Source

If a private window doesn't fix it, then the culprit is almost certainly on your server or with a third-party service you're using. To get a proper look at what's going on under the bonnet, you need to trace the redirect path from start to finish. This is where online redirect checker tools are an absolute lifesaver.

These free tools act like a private investigator for your URL. You just pop in your web address, and the tool meticulously follows every single redirect, mapping out the entire chain for you. This process instantly shows you where the loop is happening. It might reveal that URL A is redirecting to URL B, which is then mistakenly pointing straight back to URL A.

A redirect checker is your best friend for diagnosing a redirect loop. It takes all the guesswork out of the equation and visually confirms the exact point of failure, telling you whether to investigate your CMS settings, server rules, or CDN configuration next.

This decision tree gives you a helpful visual guide for where to look first, based on the most common causes I've seen over the years.

As the flowchart shows, your investigation should start with the browser and then branch out to server-level files like .htaccess, your CMS settings (especially common with WordPress), and finally your CDN. Having this clear map saves a massive amount of time and frustration when you're trying to get things back online.

Solving Redirect Loops in WordPress

If you’re running a WordPress site, chances are you've bumped into the frustrating "error too many redirects" message at some point. With its powerful plugins and endless customisation, it’s surprisingly easy for a small misconfiguration to send your site into an infinite loop. Let's dig into the most common culprits and walk through how to fix them, even if you’re completely locked out of your admin dashboard.

The first place I always check is the core URL settings. WordPress leans on two crucial fields: the 'WordPress Address (URL)' and the 'Site Address (URL)'. If these don't match perfectly, you’ve just created the ideal conditions for a redirect loop.

A classic mistake is having one set to http:// while the other uses https://. Another common slip-up is including a www. prefix on one but not the other. This tiny discrepancy forces WordPress to constantly bounce visitors between the two conflicting versions.

Manually Correcting WordPress URLs

So what happens when the error locks you out of your admin panel? You can’t just log in and tweak the settings. The solution is to define them directly in your site's wp-config.php file, which is a powerful file that overrides any settings stored in your database.

You'll need to get into your site's files using an FTP client (like FileZilla) or your hosting provider's File Manager. Find the wp-config.php file in your site's root directory and add these two lines near the top. Just be sure to pop in your correct domain.

define('WP_HOME','https://www.yourdomain.co.uk');
define('WP_SITEURL','https://www.yourdomain.co.uk');

By hard-coding these values, you remove any confusion and tell WordPress exactly which URLs to use. In my experience, this single change is often enough to resolve the redirect loop instantly.

The Impact of Conflicting Plugins

If fixing the URLs didn't do the trick, the next suspect is almost always a plugin. Plugins for caching, security, or SEO are notorious for creating their own redirect rules. These can easily clash with WordPress's core settings or even your server's configuration. You might have a security plugin forcing SSL while a caching plugin redirects non-www traffic, creating a messy conflict.

When you're locked out, the only real way to diagnose this is by disabling your plugins manually. Again, fire up your FTP client or File Manager and navigate to the wp-content directory.

• Find the plugins folder inside wp-content.
• Simply rename this folder to something else, like plugins_deactivated.

This simple action immediately deactivates every single plugin on your site. Now, try to load your website. If it comes back to life, you’ve confirmed a plugin was the problem. To find the specific culprit, rename the folder back to plugins, then head into your now-accessible WordPress dashboard. Reactivate each plugin one by one, checking your site after each activation until the error returns.

Key Takeaway: A redirect loop isn't just an annoyance for your visitors; it's a serious SEO problem. When search engine bots encounter these loops, they give up on crawling your pages. This can lead to your pages being dropped from search results and a noticeable dip in organic traffic.

This has real, measurable consequences for both user access and search performance on UK websites. Technical guidance from digital agencies consistently shows that search engines will stop trying to index pages trapped in these infinite chains. As detailed in performance insights from tools like Semrush, fixing an "error too many redirects" issue quickly is vital for protecting your rankings. This proactive approach ensures your site stays visible and accessible to both people and search engines.

If the problem isn't your CMS, the next place I always look is the server itself and any services sitting in front of it, like a Content Delivery Network (CDN). These layers handle traffic before it even gets close to your website's code, making them a really common source of the error too many redirects. It's easy for a misconfigured rule here to create a redirect loop that your website is completely oblivious to.

Having a solid grasp of your hosting environment is crucial for figuring out server-level redirect problems. For a deeper dive into the different parts of hosting, this guide on understanding Django website hosting has some fantastic context, even if you aren't using Django. The core principles of how servers are configured often carry over.

Unravelling Faulty Apache and Nginx Rules

For anyone running on an Apache server, the .htaccess file is where all the redirect magic happens. A classic mistake I see is setting up rules that fight each other. For example, you might have one rule forcing all traffic to HTTPS and a completely separate one redirecting from a www domain to non-www.

Here’s what that "bad" .htaccess setup looks like in the wild:

Bad Example: Conflicting Rules

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.yourdomain.co.uk [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://yourdomain.co.uk/$1 [L,R=301]
The problem is simple: the first rule sends traffic to https://, but the second rule immediately sends it back to http:// just to get rid of the www. It's a perfect recipe for a redirect ping-pong match.

The proper way to do this is to combine both intentions into a single, clean rule. This prevents the conflict entirely.

Good Example: Combined Rules

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.yourdomain.co.uk [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://yourdomain.co.uk/$1 [L,R=301]

This corrected version simply checks if HTTPS is off OR if the host starts with www. If either of those is true, it redirects to the secure, non-www version in one clean step. The same logic applies to Nginx config files, where you can run into identical problems with conflicting return directives in separate server blocks. If you're using other platforms, you can find more helpful setup advice in our ultimate guide to Webflow website hosting.

The Common Cloudflare SSL Conflict

Cloudflare is an amazing service, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't one of the most frequent culprits behind the error too many redirects. The issue, almost every single time, boils down to the SSL/TLS encryption mode setting, specifically the ‘Flexible’ option.

Here’s how the redirect loop gets started:

1. You have a working SSL certificate installed on your own server (often called the origin server).
2. Your server is correctly set up to redirect all http:// traffic to https://.
3. You then set your Cloudflare SSL/TLS mode to ‘Flexible’.

The ‘Flexible’ setting tells Cloudflare it’s okay to talk to your server over an unencrypted http:// connection, even if the visitor connected to Cloudflare securely over https://. Your server gets this http:// request and, following its own rules, sends back a redirect to https://. That request hits Cloudflare again, which tries to connect to your server over http:// again... and you’re caught in a loop.

The fix is straightforward but absolutely critical: Change your Cloudflare SSL/TLS setting from ‘Flexible’ to ‘Full (Strict)’. This mode forces the entire connection to be encrypted, from the browser to Cloudflare and from Cloudflare to your server. It immediately resolves the conflict and, just as importantly, makes your site significantly more secure.

Advanced Checks and Future Prevention

Fixing a redirect loop feels great, but the real win is making sure it never happens again. Once you've dealt with the common culprits, it's time to shift from a reactive to a proactive mindset. This means digging into less obvious issues and building solid habits to keep your site’s redirect health in top shape for the long haul.

One of the sneakiest causes of the error too many redirects is a "mixed content" issue. This usually crops up after an incomplete move to HTTPS. Your main pages might be loading securely over https://, but some assets—images, scripts, or stylesheets—are still being called from an old, insecure http:// address. Browsers and servers can get confused by this, sometimes triggering a redirect loop as they try (and fail) to enforce security.

Enforcing Site-Wide HTTPS Correctly

The only real fix here is to force HTTPS across your entire site, not just the main pages. Every single asset has to load securely. While some plugins claim to handle this, the most bulletproof method is a server-level rule that automatically upgrades all insecure requests.

You can also hunt down these issues yourself. Just open your browser's developer tools (usually by pressing F12) and click on the "Console" tab. Any mixed content warnings will be flagged, often in red, telling you exactly which files are causing the problem so you can go in and update their URLs. It’s a crucial check to perform after any site migration.

A healthy website doesn't just avoid errors; it's built to prevent them. By periodically auditing your redirect chains and planning migrations carefully, you transform firefighting into routine maintenance, ensuring a stable and reliable experience for users and search engines.

Best Practices for Future Redirect Management

To avoid future headaches and downtime, it’s worth weaving a few key habits into your regular website maintenance. A bit of forward-thinking here saves you from frantic troubleshooting later.

• Map URLs Before Migrating: Before making any big changes to your site structure, open up a spreadsheet. Carefully map every single old URL to its new destination. Think of it as a blueprint for your migration—it ensures nothing gets missed and helps you spot potential loops before they ever go live.
• Prioritise Server-Side Redirects: Whenever you can, use server-side (301) redirects set up directly in your .htaccess or server configuration file. They’re faster and send a much clearer signal to search engines compared to client-side redirects that depend on JavaScript to run.
• Conduct Regular Redirect Audits: Every few months, run a crawl of your site using an SEO tool like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs. These tools are fantastic at sniffing out long redirect chains or loops that might have crept in after recent updates. Catching a chain of three or four redirects before it turns into an infinite loop is a simple, but incredibly effective, preventative step.

By pairing a thorough approach to HTTPS with disciplined redirect management, you can build a much more resilient website. This doesn't just stop the dreaded "error too many redirects" message; it also shores up your technical SEO and makes for a much smoother journey for your visitors.

Frequently Asked Questions

After sorting out the immediate headache of a redirect loop, it's pretty normal to have a few questions lingering. Let's tackle some of the most common ones we hear, giving you clear answers to help you understand what comes next and how to prevent it from happening again.

How Long Does a Redirect Fix Take to Work

So you've tweaked that server rule or corrected a plugin setting, but the error is still there. Don't panic. The fix on your server is usually immediate, but your browser or a CDN might be stubbornly holding on to a cached, broken version of the redirect.

This is exactly why clearing your browser cache is always the first thing to try. If you’re using a service like Cloudflare, you’ll want to purge its cache too. While your fix is live on the server, what your visitors see depends entirely on these layers of caching, which can sometimes take a few minutes to catch up globally.

Pro Tip: Want to check if your fix is live without waiting around for caches to clear? Use an online redirect checker tool again. They usually bypass cached data and give you a real-time look at the redirect path straight from your server.

Can a Third Party Service Cause This Error

Absolutely. It’s easy to point the finger at your own website, but external services are a frequent—and often overlooked—culprit.

Just think about all the services that get their hands on your site's traffic before a visitor even lands on the page. This could include:

• Ad Networks: Some ad platforms have their own complex redirect chains for tracking clicks, which can easily clash with your site's own rules.
• Security Scanners or Firewalls: A Web Application Firewall (WAF) can sometimes misread legitimate traffic and trigger a redirect loop as a protective measure.
• External Analytics Tools: This is less common, but now and then, a tracking script can interfere with how a page loads, contributing to a redirect mess.

The best way to diagnose this is to start disabling these services one by one. If the error disappears after you pause a specific service, you’ve found your culprit.

Will Fixing a Redirect Loop Recover My SEO Ranking

Fixing the error too many redirects is mission-critical for your site’s SEO health. While the error is active, search engine crawlers like Googlebot can't get to your pages, essentially making them invisible. If you leave it unfixed for a long time, you could see a temporary drop in your rankings because those pages are flagged as inaccessible.

The good news? Recovery is usually quick. Once you've fixed the loop and crawlers can successfully reach your content again, they'll get right back to re-indexing the pages. There’s no magic "undo" button for the visibility you lost, but solving the problem promptly lets your SEO performance bounce back to where it was as your site becomes fully crawlable again. Often, a misconfigured redirect is tied to your site's security setup; you can learn more about this by reading our guide explaining what an SSL certificate is.

Struggling with a persistent redirect loop or other Webflow issues? At Derrick.dk, we specialise in diagnosing and fixing the technical problems that hold your site back. Book a call with us to get your high-performing, conversion-focused website back on track.