URL Redirect Checker

The URL Redirect Checker follows the chain of HTTP redirects a URL goes through and shows you every hop along the way until it reaches a final destination. For each step it reports the status code, such as 301 Moved Permanently, 302 Found, 307 Temporary Redirect, or 308, along with the Location header that points to the next URL. This lets you see at a glance whether a link resolves cleanly in one hop or bounces through several intermediaries before landing.

Redirects are everywhere: forcing HTTP to HTTPS, normalizing www to non-www, consolidating old pages to new ones after a site migration, and shortening links. Each hop, though, adds a full network round trip, so long chains slow down page loads and waste crawl budget. The distinction between 301 and 308 (permanent) versus 302 and 307 (temporary) matters for SEO, because permanent redirects pass link equity and tell search engines to update their index, while temporary ones do not.

This tool is invaluable when auditing a domain migration, debugging why a campaign link lands on the wrong page, detecting redirect loops that cause browsers to error out, and unmasking the true destination of a shortened or tracking URL before clicking it. It works hand in hand with the HTTP Status Checker for single-response inspection and the Website Speed Test, since redundant redirects are a common hidden cause of slow first loads.

A practical tip: aim for at most one redirect, and never chain more than necessary, for example HTTP to HTTPS and then HTTPS-www to HTTPS-non-www in two hops can be collapsed into one rule. Watch for mixing permanent and temporary codes in the same chain, which confuses search engines, and be alert to redirect loops where a URL eventually points back to itself. Always use 301 or 308 for permanent moves so ranking signals transfer to the new URL.