Check a site
Redirect checker
Paste up to 10 addresses and see every redirect between the link and the page: each hop's status code, chains, loops, temporary redirects and http to https or www mix-ups.
Free · No signup · Reads public pages only
How it works
Paste up to 10 addresses, one per line. A bare domain like example.com is fine.
We request each address ourselves and follow every redirect one hop at a time, recording the status code of each.
You see each chain from first address to final page, with a verdict and what to change.
What a redirect chain is
A redirect is the server saying "this page lives somewhere else now" and sending the visitor on. A chain is when the new address redirects again, and maybe again. A typical one: http://example.com/shoes goes to https://example.com/shoes, which goes to https://www.example.com/shoes, which goes to https://www.example.com/shoes/. Three hops to arrive at one page.
Each hop is a full round trip to the server before anything loads. People on slow connections feel it, and every link pointing at the first address has to travel the whole chain. Google follows chains, but its documentation says Googlebot follows up to 10 hops, and the clean pattern is one redirect from the old address straight to the final one.
301, 302, 307 and 308: which one to use
- 301 (moved permanently) and 308 (permanent redirect) say the old address is gone for good. Search engines move the old page's signals, like links, to the new address and show the new address in results.
- 302 (found) and 307 (temporary redirect) say the move is temporary and the old address will be back. Search engines may keep the old address in results.
- 303 (see other) is mostly used after a form is submitted. It isn't meant for moved pages.
The difference between 301 and 308, and between 302 and 307, is technical: when a browser follows a 301 or 302 it may turn a form submission into a normal page request, and with a 307 or 308 it may not. For a moved page, either permanent code is fine.
The common mistake is a 302 for a permanent change. Moving the whole site to https, choosing www or no-www, or adding a trailing slash are all permanent decisions, so they should use a 301 or 308. Google has said a 302 left in place for a long time ends up treated much like a 301, but a permanent code says what you mean from day one.
How to read the results
Each address gets a vertical list. The first line is the address you entered, with the status code it answered with. Every line after it is where that redirect pointed, until the final page, which should answer 200 OK. Next to each hop we say what changed: http to https, adds www, adds a trailing slash, goes to a different page or to the homepage.
The verdict at the top of each card is the short version: - One 301: a single permanent redirect to a working page. Nothing to do. - No redirect: the address loads its own page. - Temporary: a 302 or 307 where a 301 is probably meant. - 2 hops or more: a chain to shorten. - Loop, Dead end, Broken target or Not found: visitors never reach a working page.
Problems this checker flags
- Loops, where two addresses redirect to each other forever.
- More than 10 hops, where Google stops following.
- Redirects from https back to http, which browsers warn about.
- Old pages redirected to the homepage. Google tends to treat these as soft 404s, so the old page's rankings aren't passed on. Redirect to the closest matching page instead.
- Final pages that return 404, 410 or a server error.
- Final pages that redirect again with a meta refresh tag, or that look like they redirect with JavaScript.
When a final page answers 403 or 429, the site has probably refused an automated request rather than broken. We say so instead of calling it broken. Open the address in your own browser to confirm.
What this checker can't see
It checks from one server in one country, so redirects that depend on where the visitor is (country or language redirects) show the version that server gets. Choosing Googlebot changes the name we send, not where we connect from, and sites that verify Google's crawler by its address may still treat us as a stranger.
It also doesn't know which links on your site point at these addresses. To find links that go through redirects on a page, use the broken link checker. To check a migration's whole list of old and new addresses, use the bulk redirect checker.
Questions people ask
How many redirects are too many?
One is ideal. Two is worth tidying. Google's documentation says Googlebot follows up to 10 hops, but every hop slows the page down, so point each old address straight at its final page.
Do redirects lose link value?
Google has said 301, 302 and 308 redirects don't lose PageRank. The real risks are a redirect to an unrelated page or the homepage, which Google may treat as a soft 404, and long chains that slow crawling.
Why does my redirect show a different result in my browser?
Browsers cache 301 redirects, sometimes for a long time, so your browser may still follow an old rule. This checker asks fresh every time. Some sites also redirect by country, language or device.
What is a meta refresh redirect?
A tag in the page's HTML that tells the browser to load another address after a few seconds. Google can follow it, but it's slower than a server redirect and harder for other tools to read, so a 301 is better.
Is this redirect checker free?
Yes. No signup. It checks up to 10 addresses at a time and only reads public pages.
Want it done for you?
Romeo fixes links that go the long way round
He crawls every page on your site, finds internal links that pass through redirects, chains or dead ends, updates them to point straight at the final page, and sends the changes for you to approve.
