Enter a URL above to trace its redirect chain
Supports HTTP and HTTPS — up to 15 hops// trace every hop in your redirect chain
Trace and analyze HTTP redirect chains for any URL. Check 301, 302, 307, 308 redirects with full headers, status codes, and response times instantly.
Enter a URL above to trace its redirect chain
Supports HTTP and HTTPS — up to 15 hopsPaste any URL you want to check — with or without https://
The tool follows every redirect hop automatically server-side
Review each hop's status code, headers, and response time
The Redirect Checker traces every HTTP redirect a URL goes through before reaching its final destination. It shows each hop's status code, response headers, and timing — essential for SEO audits, debugging, and server configuration verification.
A redirect checker is a tool that follows the HTTP redirect chain of a URL — showing every hop from the original address to the final destination, along with the status code and headers at each step.
A 301 (Moved Permanently) tells search engines the page has permanently moved — passing full link equity to the new URL. A 302 (Found / Temporary) signals a temporary redirect, so search engines keep the original URL indexed.
Search engines like Google recommend keeping redirect chains to a maximum of 3–5 hops. More than that can slow page load times, dilute link equity, and cause crawl issues. This tool highlights long chains so you can fix them.
A redirect loop occurs when URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects back to URL A (or through a cycle). This is usually caused by misconfigured server rules, conflicting .htaccess directives, or CMS permalink settings.
Yes. The Redirect Checker handles all HTTP and HTTPS URLs, including the common HTTP → HTTPS redirect pattern. It also tracks the WWW to non-WWW redirect (and vice versa) as part of the chain.
The main redirect status codes are: 301 (Permanent), 302 (Found/Temporary), 303 (See Other), 307 (Temporary Redirect — preserves method), and 308 (Permanent Redirect — preserves method). All are detected and labeled by this tool.
Yes. The check is performed server-side using PHP cURL, which means it accurately follows the same redirect chain that search engine crawlers and browsers would see — not blocked by JavaScript or client-side restrictions.
Yes. You can copy the full report as plain text or download the complete redirect chain as a JSON file — useful for documentation, audits, or sharing with your team.
A redirect checker is an online tool that traces the complete HTTP redirect path of any URL, revealing every intermediate step between the original address and the final destination. When you type a URL into a browser or a search engine crawler visits a page, it may be silently bounced through one or more redirects before landing on the actual content. A redirect checker makes this invisible process fully visible, showing you each hop's URL, HTTP status code, response headers, and timing.
For web developers, SEO professionals, and site administrators, understanding redirect chains is critical. A single misconfigured redirect can harm your search rankings, slow down page load times for visitors, or result in a frustrating redirect loop that prevents the page from loading altogether.
URLs redirect for many reasons. The most common scenario is moving a page permanently to a new address — for example, after a website rebrand, domain migration, or URL structure overhaul. HTTPS enforcement is another extremely common redirect: when a site is configured to automatically upgrade insecure HTTP requests to HTTPS, every HTTP URL triggers at least one redirect.
Other reasons include www to non-www canonicalization (or the reverse), trailing slash normalization, locale or region detection that forwards users to a country-specific subdomain, and content management system permalink changes. Each of these creates additional hops in the redirect chain.
Not all redirects are created equal. The HTTP specification defines several redirect status codes, each with distinct implications for browsers and search engines:
301 Moved Permanently — The resource has permanently moved to a new URL. Search engines transfer the original page's authority (link equity) to the new URL and update their index.302 Found — A temporary redirect. Search engines typically retain the original URL in their index and do not fully transfer link equity.303 See Other — Similar to 302, but explicitly instructs the client to use GET for the next request. Often used after POST form submissions.307 Temporary Redirect — Like 302, but guarantees the original HTTP method is preserved.308 Permanent Redirect — Like 301, but method-preserving. The permanent equivalent of 307.Redirect chains occur when a URL redirects to a second URL, which redirects to a third, and so on. While a single redirect is generally harmless, long chains create multiple problems for SEO and performance. Search engine crawlers have a limited crawl budget. Each hop in a redirect chain consumes part of that budget. Long chains also dilute link equity: each additional hop represents a potential loss point.
From a performance perspective, each redirect hop adds an additional HTTP round-trip, increasing the Time to First Byte (TTFB) for real users. On high-latency mobile connections, a three-hop redirect chain can add hundreds of milliseconds of perceptible delay — directly impacting Core Web Vitals scores.
Long redirect chains: If URL A redirects to B, which redirects to C, update URL A's redirect to point directly to C. Each hop that can be eliminated should be. This is especially important after multiple site migrations that layered redirects on top of each other.
HTTP to HTTPS + www to non-www: Many sites have two separate redirects for this common pattern. These can typically be combined into a single server-level redirect rule, reducing two hops to one.
Redirect loops: If the tool detects a loop, check your server configuration files (.htaccess, nginx.conf), your CDN redirect rules, and your CMS settings for conflicting directives. A loop almost always means two or more rules are each trying to redirect to the other.
During and after a website migration, the Redirect Checker becomes an essential quality assurance tool. After implementing redirect mappings, systematically test your highest-traffic and most-linked URLs to verify each old URL redirects to the correct new URL, the redirect uses a 301 (permanent), the chain is as short as possible, no redirect loops exist, and response times are acceptable (consistently under 200ms per hop).
Combining this tool with a sitemap crawler lets you audit your entire redirect mapping systematically, ensuring that no legacy URLs are left pointing to broken or looping destinations.