Redirect Checker

A redirect checker follows a URL through every hop and shows each status code and location until it reaches the final page. Long chains and temporary redirects waste crawl effort and can dilute signals.

This tool fetches the address you enter once, from our server, and reports what a crawler would receive. The URL is not stored; only a short-lived rate-limit counter is kept. Results show the page at the moment of the check and can differ from what a logged-in browser or a bot with different headers sees.

How to read the result and act on it

Read the chain from top to bottom. The ideal result is either no redirect or a single 301 straight to the final URL with a 200 at the end. If you see two or more hops, update the original redirect so it points directly to the destination, and update internal links, canonical tags and sitemap entries to use the final URL. Check that each status matches your intent: 301 or 308 for permanent moves, 302 or 307 only for actually temporary ones. Confirm the final URL is the one you want indexed, with the right protocol, host and trailing slash. If the chain ends in a 404 or loops, fix that first because it breaks the journey for users and crawlers alike.

Common mistakes to avoid

A frequent mistake is stacking rules over time, such as HTTP to HTTPS, then non-www to www, then an old path to a new path, so one request takes three hops. Combine them into one rule. Another is leaving a temporary 302 in place for months after a permanent move. Redirecting to an irrelevant page, such as sending a retired product to the homepage, gives users and search engines a poor signal. Do not rely on redirects to fix internal links; the links should be updated. Also remember that this check shows server-side redirects, so meta refresh and script redirects need to be reviewed in the page source separately.

How many redirects are too many?

Keep it to one hop. Chains of more than a few hops slow users and crawlers, and Google may stop following very long chains.

What is the difference between 301 and 302?

A 301 is a permanent move, a 302 is temporary. Use 301 when the old URL is gone for good.

Do redirects lose link equity?

Google has said 3xx redirects do not lose PageRank, but redirecting to an irrelevant page can be treated like a soft 404.

How do I find redirect chains on my site?

Check key URLs one at a time with a redirect checker, or crawl the site with a crawler that reports redirect chains. Look for any URL that needs more than one hop to reach a final 200 page, then point it straight to the destination.

What is a redirect loop and how do I fix it?

A redirect loop happens when URL A sends visitors to B and B sends them back to A, so the browser gives up with an error. Find the conflicting rules in your server config, CMS or plugins and remove the one that sends traffic back.

• HTTP Status Code Checker: Check the HTTP status of up to 10 URLs at once: 200, 301, 404, 500 and more.
• HTTPS Redirect Checker: Check that http:// and www variants of a site redirect to one secure canonical address.
• .htaccess Redirect Generator: Generate Apache 301 and 302 redirect rules, including HTTPS and www forcing.

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