HTTP Redirect Checker
Follow a URL to its final destination and see every step on the way. The checker lists each redirect with its status code and time, detects loops, long chains and temporary redirects, and tests whether all versions of your home page lead to the same address.
- Encrypted connection
- No sign-up
- Free to use
How to use HTTP Redirect Checker
- Enter the address you want to trace. Type a domain without https:// to start from the plain http version.
- Leave the home page versions option ticked to test http, https, www and non-www together.
- Select Trace redirects.
- Read the chain, the checks and the table of home page versions.
HTTP Redirect Checker features
Hop-by-hop chain
Every address in the chain with status code, redirect type and response time.
Loop and break detection
Reports loops and hops that fail instead of ending in a generic error.
Permanent versus temporary
Flags 302, 303 and 307 redirects that should probably be 301 or 308.
HTTPS checks
Confirms the upgrade from HTTP to HTTPS and warns about downgrades.
Canonical host test
Compares the four scheme and www variants of the home page.
Meta refresh detection
Finds redirects done in HTML on the final page.
When to use HTTP Redirect Checker
- Verifying redirects after a site migration or a change of URL structure.
- Making sure old links, campaign URLs and short links still reach the right page.
- Finding redirect chains that slow down a page.
- Checking that a site resolves to one canonical version for SEO.
HTTP Redirect Checker FAQ
What is the difference between 301, 302, 307 and 308?
301 and 308 are permanent: the resource has moved for good, and search engines transfer the old address's standing to the new one. 302 and 307 are temporary: the original address remains the one to remember. 307 and 308 additionally guarantee that the request method is kept, which matters for form submissions and API calls.
Why are redirect chains a problem?
Each hop is a full round trip to a server, which adds delay, most noticeably on mobile connections. Search engine crawlers follow only a limited number of hops per attempt. Chains usually build up over the years as one redirect is stacked on another, and they are fixed by pointing each old address directly at the final destination.
What causes a redirect loop?
Two rules that send requests to each other, for example one forcing www and another removing it, or an HTTPS redirect on a server that sits behind a proxy and never sees the request as secure. The browser shows “too many redirects”. The chain view shows which addresses are involved.
Why should http, https, www and non-www all end at the same address?
Otherwise the same content exists at several addresses. Visitors bookmark and link to different versions, cookies may not carry over, and search engines have to guess which one to index. One canonical version with 301 redirects from the other three avoids all of that.
Does the tool follow JavaScript redirects?
No. It follows HTTP redirects and reports meta refresh tags it finds in the final page. Redirects performed by scripts after the page loads cannot be seen without running the page in a browser.
Are redirects bad for SEO?
A single permanent redirect is the correct way to move a page and passes its ranking signals on. Problems come from chains, loops, temporary redirects used for permanent moves, and redirecting many unrelated pages to the home page.
Getting redirects right
A redirect is the web's change-of-address notice. When a browser requests an address and receives a status code in the 300 range with a Location header, it requests the new address instead, and the visitor ends up on the right page without noticing. Because this happens silently, redirect problems tend to go unseen until they cost something: pages that take a second longer to open, link value that never reaches the new address, or a section of the site that is unreachable after a configuration change.
The chain view makes the hidden steps visible. A healthy result is short: either no redirect at all, or one permanent hop. A typical unhealthy result looks like this: the http address redirects to https, which redirects to the www host, which redirects to a path with a trailing slash, which redirects to a renamed page. Each rule was reasonable when it was added. Together they turn one request into five. Combining them into a single rule that goes straight to the final address is nearly always possible.
Status codes carry meaning beyond “go there”. A permanent code tells browsers to remember the redirect and tells search engines to replace the old address in their index. A temporary code says the opposite. Using 302 for a permanent move is a common default in frameworks and server software, and it delays the transfer of ranking signals to the new address.
The home page test addresses the most basic redirect setup of all. Every site is reachable under four names, with and without www and with and without encryption. Three of them should redirect to the fourth in one step. It is worth re-testing after any change to hosting, CDN or certificate configuration, since each of those can reset the behaviour.