What the redirect checker shows
Enter any URL and the tool follows it hop by hop, up to 10 redirects, the way a browser or a search engine crawler would. For each step you get the status code, the URL and the response time, plus a summary with the problems we detect.
Redirect status codes
- 301 Moved Permanently: the page has moved for good. Search engines transfer ranking signals to the new URL. Use it for migrations and changed URLs.
- 308 Permanent Redirect: like 301, but the request method is kept. Treated as permanent by Google.
- 302 Found and 307 Temporary Redirect: a temporary move. Google keeps the original URL indexed if the redirect looks temporary, so do not use them for permanent changes.
- Meta refresh and JavaScript redirects: work in browsers but are slower and less reliable for SEO. This tool checks HTTP redirects only.
Common redirect problems
- Redirect chains: A to B to C. Each hop adds latency and Googlebot follows only a limited number of hops. Point A straight to C.
- Redirect loops: A to B and back to A. The page never loads for anyone.
- HTTP and www variants: http://example.com to https://example.com to https://www.example.com is a chain of two. Redirect every variant to the final URL in one step.
- Redirects to a 404: the final URL must return 200, or the link value is lost.
- Internal links to redirected URLs: update them to point directly to the final URL.
When to use redirects
Use a 301 when you change a URL, merge two pages, move to HTTPS or change domains. Keep old redirects for at least a year, and ideally forever if the old URLs still have backlinks. Check the response headers of the final page with our HTTP Header Checker.
Frequently asked questions
How many redirects does Google follow?
Googlebot follows up to 10 redirect hops in a chain, but fewer is always better. One hop is ideal.
Do 301 redirects lose PageRank?
Google has said that 301, 302 and 308 redirects do not lose PageRank. Chains still waste crawl time and add latency for users.
Why does a site show a 403 error?
Some large sites block automated requests with bot protection. The page may work in a browser even if our checker cannot reach it.