Every redirect is a small detour. One detour is fine. Three or four detours in a row slow down visitors, waste search engine crawl time and can weaken the value passed from backlinks. After a website moves to HTTPS, changes its domain and restructures URLs, redirect chains quietly pile up. A redirect checker makes them visible.
What our checker shows
The URL Redirect Checker follows a URL hop by hop and shows:
- Each hop with its URL and status code
- Where each redirect points
- Response time for each hop
- Checks for loops, number of redirects, temporary redirects and the final status
How to use it
- Open the URL Redirect Checker.
- Enter any URL, for example an old page address or http version of your site.
- Click Check Redirect Chain.
- Look at the number of hops and the final destination.
Status codes explained
- 200 OK: the page loads normally
- 301 Moved Permanently: best for permanent moves
- 302 Found and 307 Temporary: temporary moves, use only when the original URL will return
- 308 Permanent: similar to 301
- 404 Not Found: the final page is missing
- 5xx errors: the server has a problem
The ideal setup
Every old URL should reach its final page in one 301 hop. For example, http://yoursite.com/old-page should go directly to https://yoursite.com/new-page, not through http to https to www to the new path in four steps.
How to fix chains and loops
- Update redirect rules so old URLs point directly to the final destination.
- Update internal links to the final URL so visitors never hit a redirect.
- Fix loops where two URLs redirect to each other. These usually come from conflicting rules in hosting settings and plugins.
- Replace 302 with 301 for permanent moves.
Check your main versions
Test these four versions of your homepage: http without www, http with www, https without www and https with www. Three of them should redirect in one hop to the one main version. The Technical SEO Checker also checks this automatically.
Test many URLs at once
For a list of old URLs after a migration, use the HTTP Status Code Checker to check up to 20 URLs in one go.
A real example
A company moved from an old domain to a new brand domain and also switched to HTTPS. Their old blog posts went through four hops: old http, old https, new domain http and finally new domain https. Each hop added delay and the chain made Google slow to transfer rankings. We rewrote the rules so every old URL pointed straight to the final new URL. The chain dropped to one hop and the new domain recovered its rankings faster.
Redirects and page speed
Each redirect hop adds a full round trip between the browser and the server, which can take a few hundred milliseconds on mobile networks. Visitors clicking an old link from social media or a printed QR code feel this delay. Keeping redirects to one hop makes those first impressions faster and smoother.
Document your redirects
Keep a simple list of important redirects you have created, with the old URL, new URL and date. When something breaks later, this list makes it easy to find and fix the problem quickly.
Frequently asked questions
How many redirects are too many
More than one hop is worth fixing. More than three is a real problem.
Do redirects hurt SEO
A single proper 301 is fine. Chains, loops and temporary redirects for permanent moves can cause issues.
How long should I keep redirects
Keep them for at least a year, and longer for pages with valuable backlinks.
Check your redirects now with the free URL Redirect Checker.