Redirect Checker
Trace the complete HTTP redirect path, identify redirect loops, analyze status codes, and check headers for any URL.
Last updated: July 2, 2026
Redirect Checker
The Redirect Checker (Redirect Path Tracer) allows you to enter any URL and trace the entire redirect chain, showing you each intermediate hop, its HTTP response status code, and latency times. Easily debug SEO redirect issues such as infinite loops, temporary redirects where permanent redirects should be used, or long redirect chains that waste search engine crawl budget. For each step in the chain, you can inspect full response headers (like Server, Cache-Control, and X-Redirect-By) to diagnose server configuration issues. Perfect for web developers, SEO managers, and server administrators who want to optimize website loading speeds and SEO crawl budget.
Why This Tool Exists
What makes this useful — and why I built it this way.
Optimize Crawl Budget: Keep search engine bots crawling your actual target pages, not intermediate redirects.
Preserve SEO equity (Link juice): Verify that 301 redirects are used permanently to pass PageRank value.
Improve Site Load Time: Minimize HTTP request latency by reducing the number of redirects in the chain.
Catch Forced Hops: The tracer flags HTTP-to-HTTPS upgrades and temporary 302/307 responses so you can collapse them into one permanent redirect.
When You'd Use This
Real situations where this tool saves the day.
Domain Migration: Validating that all old domain URLs redirect properly to the new domain.
HTTPS Migrations: Ensuring HTTP requests redirect permanently to secure HTTPS counterparts.
Broken Link Audits: Tracing target paths of external links to find redirect loops.
Hosting Cutovers: Confirming a new host or CDN returns the final 200 directly instead of bouncing visitors through leftover staging redirects.
Using Redirect Checker
It's straightforward — here's how it works.
Enter the starting URL you want to analyze.
Click 'Check Redirects' to execute the server-side tracer.
Review the visual timeline showing each redirect step.
Inspect the latency and status code (e.g. 301 Moved Permanently) for each hop.
Expand any step in the path to inspect detailed response headers.
Read the diagnostic suggestions to optimize redirect performance.
Questions People Ask
Honest answers about how this works.
What even is a redirect chain?
A redirect chain is a series of redirects between the initial URL and the final destination URL (e.g. URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects to URL C). Chains slow down page loading speeds and dilute search engine link authority.
How many redirects are allowed before it harms SEO?
Honestly? Ideally zero redirects, but a single hop is acceptable and common. Google's guidance suggests keeping chains to about five hops or fewer, because search bots may stop following them beyond that and drop the final destination from the index. The Redirect Checker follows up to ten hops and flags longer chains so you can flatten them.
How many hops will the Redirect Checker follow?
The tracer follows each response manually up to 10 hops, resolving relative Location headers against the current URL and prefixing https:// when you omit the protocol. A URL it has already visited produces a Loop Detected entry, and hitting the cap reports Limit Reached instead of hanging.
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