Redirect Checker

About this tool

Enter a URL and the checker follows it the way a browser or Googlebot does, one hop at a time, up to 10 redirects. For each step you see the URL, the status code, where it points and the server that answered, plus a meta refresh redirect in the final page if there is one. It's the quickest way to confirm that http goes to https, that the www and non-www versions end up on one address, and that an old page moved with a 301.

301, 302, 307 and 308

301 and 308 mean moved permanently: search engines move rankings to the new URL and browsers remember the jump. 302 and 307 are temporary: Google may keep the old URL in its index while the redirect is short-lived. 307 and 308 also keep the request method, so a POST stays a POST. For a page that has moved for good, use 301.

Redirect chains and loops

A chain is A redirecting to B, which redirects to C. Each hop adds a round trip, and Google says Googlebot follows up to 10 hops before giving up. A common chain is http://example.com to https://example.com to https://www.example.com; point every old address straight at the final one instead. A loop, where C points back to A, never loads: the checker stops and shows where it turns around.

Do redirects hurt SEO?

It's a question that keeps coming up on Reddit and webmaster forums. Google has said that 301, 302 and other server-side redirects don't lose PageRank. What hurts is a long chain, a redirect to an unrelated page (often treated like a soft 404), or sending every old URL to the home page. Redirect each old page to its closest new match, in one hop.

Check redirects in Chrome

Open DevTools (F12), go to the Network tab, tick Preserve log and load the old URL: each redirect shows as its own row with its 301 or 302 status. Browsers cache 301 redirects, so test changes in an incognito window or with this tool.

Bulk redirect check with curl

This tool checks one URL at a time. For a list, curl can do it from a terminal: put one URL per line in urls.txt and run the loop below (Linux, Mac or Git Bash).

while read -r url; do
  printf '%s -> ' "$url"
  curl -s -o /dev/null -L --max-redirs 10 \
       -w '%{http_code} %{url_effective} (%{num_redirects} redirects)\n' "$url"
done < urls.txt

DNS redirects

DNS can't redirect a URL; it only points a name at a server. The domain forwarding offered by registrars is really an HTTP 301 or 302 sent by the registrar's server, which is why it shows up here as a normal hop. To see where the name itself points, use the DNS lookup tool.

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