HTTP status code and redirect checker

Browsers follow redirects silently, so a link that works can still pass through three redirects, a temporary 302 and a detour over plain HTTP. The checker requests each address without following redirects automatically, then follows each Location header itself (up to ten hops) and shows every step.

When a page moves, a permanent redirect tells search engines to transfer its signals to the new address. A temporary redirect suggests the old URL will return, so it may stay indexed. Each extra hop adds a round trip for visitors, and long chains are followed less reliably by crawlers.

Status codes also reveal problems that look fine in a browser: a “page not found” message served with status 200 (a soft 404), a maintenance page returning 500, or a CDN error that only appears for some requests. Testing the variants of your domain (http and https, with and without www) confirms that every one ends on the same canonical address in a single step.

1. 01
   Collapse chains

   Point every old URL directly at the final address. After several migrations, rules often redirect to URLs that redirect again.

2. 02
   Use 301 or 308 for permanent moves

   Reserve 302 and 307 for genuinely temporary situations such as short campaigns or maintenance.

3. 03
   Handle HTTPS and www in one rule

   Redirect http://www.example.com to https://example.com directly, not through https://www.example.com first.

4. 04
   Update internal links

   Redirects are for outside links and bookmarks. Your own navigation, sitemaps and canonicals should use final addresses.