Redirect Checker

How the Redirect Checker Works

This tool follows every redirect step from your input URL to the final destination. Here's the process:

1. Enter a URL, type or paste any web address. If you leave out the protocol, the tool adds https:// automatically.
2. Follow each hop, the checker makes an HTTP request to the URL. If the server returns a 3xx redirect, it reads the Location header and follows it to the next URL.
3. Record everything, for each step, the tool records the status code, redirect type, response time, server header, and whether the connection uses HTTPS.
4. Detect issues, it identifies redirect chains (more than one hop), redirect loops, mixed HTTP/HTTPS transitions, and slow response times.

Why URL Redirects Matter for SEO

Redirects are one of the most common technical SEO elements, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Here's why they matter:

• Permanent moves, 301 and 308 redirects are strong signals that the destination should become canonical. Use an equivalent replacement and keep links updated; rankings and traffic are not guaranteed.
• Crawl budget, every redirect hop costs Googlebot time. Redirect chains (A→B→C→D) waste crawl budget that could be spent indexing your actual content. Google has indicated it may stop following after a few hops.
• User experience, each redirect adds a request before the destination loads. Delay varies with network, caching and server response; use the measured hops in this report as one observation.
• HTTPS migration, use a permanent 301 or 308 redirect for a permanent HTTP-to-HTTPS move. A temporary 302 or 307 communicates a different canonical intent, rather than a fixed percentage of ranking loss.
• Site migrations, domain changes, URL restructuring, and CMS migrations all require redirect mapping. Broken or circular redirects during migration can tank your traffic overnight.

Use this tool alongside the SSL Certificate Checker to verify that your HTTPS redirects and certificates are working together, or the Meta Tag Checker to confirm the final destination has correct meta tags.

When to Run a Redirect Check

Running a redirect check takes seconds and can prevent serious SEO and usability issues. Here are the most common scenarios:

• After a site migration, moved to a new domain or restructured URLs? Verify that every old URL correctly reaches the new destination with a single 301 hop.
• HTTPS setup, after installing an SSL certificate, confirm that HTTP requests redirect to HTTPS with a 301 (not 302) and that no mixed-content loops exist.
• Shortened or affiliate links, trace shortened URLs (bit.ly, t.co) or affiliate links to see where they actually lead before clicking or sharing them.
• Debugging 404s, if users report broken pages, check whether the old URL has a redirect in place or if it's returning a 404 directly.
• Cleaning up redirect chains, over time, URL changes stack up. Check existing redirects periodically to collapse chains (A→B→C) into direct redirects (A→C).

For a broader SEO audit, combine redirect checks with the Robots.txt Tester and Sitemap Checker to ensure your crawling, indexing, and redirects are all aligned. For bulk URL checking across an entire page's links, the HTTP Status Code Checker handles up to 50 URLs at once. To find all broken links on a given page, use the Broken Link Checker.

Redirect Status Codes Explained (301 vs 302 vs 307 vs 308)

Every redirect returns a 3xx HTTP status code that tells browsers and search engines how to treat the move. Here's a quick reference for the codes this tool detects, including when to use each and what it means for SEO.