Redirect Checker
Follows every hop manually and reports the whole chain — most tools show you only where you landed.
Free · No sign-up · Reads the raw HTML a crawler sees
Why the whole chain matters
Most tools follow redirects silently and show you where you landed. The intermediate hops are where the problems live: an HTTP-to-HTTPS hop, then a www hop, then a trailing-slash hop is three round trips before any content arrives.
This tool follows each hop manually and reports all of them, which is also how it detects loops rather than just timing out on them.
301 versus 302
A 301 says the move is permanent: consolidate the signals onto the new URL and let browsers cache the redirect. A 302 says the original will be back, so hold on to it.
Google is good at inferring intent when the choice looks wrong, but "good at guessing" is not the same as "does what you meant". A permanent move deserves a 301. The common cause of accidental 302s is a framework or host default that nobody changed.
- 301 — permanent. The default choice for a move you intend to keep.
- 308 — permanent, and preserves the HTTP method. Relevant for POST endpoints.
- 302 — temporary. Correct for A/B tests and maintenance pages.
- 307 — temporary, method preserved.
How to use it
- Enter the starting URL — Use the old URL, the one people or links still point at.
- Read the chain — Every hop is listed with its status code.
- Collapse it to one hop — Point the first URL straight at the final destination.
Frequently asked questions
How many redirects are too many?
One is ideal, two is tolerable, more than that costs measurable latency. Google gives up after about five hops in a single crawl attempt.
Do redirects lose link equity?
Google has said 301s pass essentially all of it. The real costs are latency and the risk of a chain breaking somewhere in the middle.
Should I use 301 or 302?
301 for permanent moves, 302 for genuinely temporary ones like maintenance pages and A/B tests. Accidental 302s usually come from an unchanged platform default.