Redirect Checker

Trace where a URL actually ends up, hop by hop. Paste one URL or a hundred, and the checker reports every status code in the chain, flags the temporary redirects that should be permanent, and names the chains worth collapsing.

URLs to trace (one per line, up to 100)

Paste full URLs, one per line. A bare domain such as example.com is traced over https, so enter the http address in full when the http side is what you want to test.

Reading the status codes

301 Moved Permanently. The URL has moved for good. Google transfers the indexing signals to the destination and eventually drops the old URL from its index. This is the redirect you want after a migration.
302 Found and 307 Temporary Redirect. The move is temporary, so Google keeps the original URL indexed. Correct for a maintenance page or a geographic bounce, wrong for anything permanent.
308 Permanent Redirect. A 301 that also preserves the request method. Safe to use, and treated as permanent.
200 OK. No redirect at all: the URL responds directly. This is the healthy state for a URL you link to.
404 and 410. The destination does not exist. Any link, sitemap entry, or redirect pointing here is wasted.

Reading the verdicts

Each URL you paste gets one badge, which names the single thing worth acting on. The chain underneath it lists every hop in order, so you may see where the badge came from.

Direct. The URL answers on its own, with no redirect in front of it. Nothing to do.
301 or 308. One permanent redirect to the destination. This is the healthy shape for a moved URL.
302 temporary. The redirect is marked temporary, so Google keeps the old URL indexed. Change it to a 301 unless the move really will be reversed.
2 hops and 3 hops. The redirect lands on another redirect. Point the first rule at the final URL and the extra round trips disappear.
Via http. The chain drops to an insecure http URL before it reaches https. Rewrite the first rule to send visitors straight to the https address.
Ends on http. The chain finishes on http, so the page is served insecurely no matter how the visitor arrived. Fix this before anything else on the list.
Loop and Too many hops. The chain never resolves within ten hops. Two rules are usually sending each other back and forth, and the trace shows you which URLs they are.
404 and other 4xx or 5xx codes. The chain resolves, but the destination does not load. Redirect the URL somewhere that does.
Failed. The URL could not be reached at all, and the reason is printed beside it. A misspelled domain, an expired certificate, and a firewall that blocks unknown crawlers all land here.

Checking a migration

A site migration succeeds or fails on its redirect map, and the failure is rarely visible on the day. Export the old URLs from the old site's sitemap, paste them here after the launch, and read the table for three things: anything ending in a 404, anything taking more than one hop, and anything answering 302.

Run it again a week later. Redirect rules get reordered, edge caches expire, and a rule that worked at launch can be shadowed by one added since. The sitemap validator will give you the URL list to check against, and the HTTP header checker shows the headers behind each response when a redirect behaves in a way the status code alone does not explain.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a redirect chain and why does it matter?

A chain is a redirect that lands on another redirect: A points to B, and B points to C. Every hop costs a round trip for the visitor and a crawl for the search engine, and Google has said it follows a limited number of hops before giving up. The fix is always the same: point A directly at C.

Should I use a 301 or a 302?

Use 301 when the move is permanent, which is almost always. A 301 tells Google to move the indexing signals to the new URL; a 302 tells it to keep the old URL indexed because the change is temporary. A 302 left in place after a migration is one of the most common reasons a site loses rankings it should have kept.

Can I check many URLs at once?

Yes, paste up to 100 URLs, one per line. Each is traced independently and the results fill in as they land. This is the check to run before and after a migration, against the full list of URLs you are moving.

Do redirects pass link equity?

Google has stated that 301 and 302 redirects both pass PageRank, and that no equity is lost through a redirect itself. What is lost is time and crawl budget, and what is risked is the chain breaking or exceeding the hop limit. Treat chains as a performance and reliability problem rather than an equity one.

What is a redirect loop?

A loop is a chain that returns to a URL it already visited, so it never resolves. Browsers give up after a few hops and show an error, and search engines drop the URL. This tool follows ten hops, then stops and reports the chain as looping rather than hanging.

Why does my http URL redirect twice?

Usually because http redirects to https on the same path, and https then redirects to the canonical host or trailing slash. Two hops for every insecure request is a very common and very fixable pattern: configure the http listener to redirect straight to the final https URL.