Trace results
What the redirect checker shows you
Each request is made server-side and every Location header is followed
manually, one hop at a time. That makes the intermediate status codes visible — the
ones a browser follows silently before it shows you the final page. For each hop you
get the URL, the status code, whether the redirect is permanent or temporary, how long
it took, and optionally the complete request and response headers.
It is the quickest way to answer the questions that come up during a migration: is the
old URL really sending a 301, or a temporary 302? How
many hops before the destination? Is HTTPS being forced before or after the
www redirect? Is a redirect quietly looping?
The status codes you will see
- 301 Moved Permanently
- Permanent. Ranking signals move to the target and browsers cache the redirect.
- 302 Found / 303 See Other
- Temporary. The original URL keeps its ranking; nothing is cached long-term.
- 307 Temporary Redirect
- Temporary, and the HTTP method is preserved rather than rewritten to GET.
- 308 Permanent Redirect
- Permanent, with the method preserved. The strict counterpart of a 301.
- 200 OK
- The end of the chain — the URL that actually answers.
- 404 / 410 / 5xx
- A chain that ends here is broken: the redirect points at something missing or failing.
Frequently asked questions
What does this redirect checker do?
It requests your URL from our server and follows each Location header by hand, one hop at a time. You get every intermediate URL, its HTTP status code and, optionally, the full request and response headers — the steps a browser silently collapses into the final page.
What is the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect?
A 301 (and its stricter twin 308) is permanent: search engines transfer ranking signals to the new URL and browsers cache it. A 302, 303 or 307 is temporary: the original URL keeps its ranking and nothing is cached long-term. Using a temporary redirect for a permanent move is one of the most common SEO mistakes this tool exposes.
Why should I care how long my redirect chain is?
Every hop costs a full round trip before anything renders, and search crawlers give up on long chains. Keeping it to a single redirect — source straight to destination, no HTTP-to-HTTPS-to-www-to-path daisy chain — is the goal.
Does it detect meta refresh and JavaScript redirects?
No. Only HTTP-level redirects are traced, because the response body is never downloaded. A meta refresh or a window.location assignment lives in the HTML or in JavaScript and will show up here as an ordinary 200 response.
Can I check a URL on my own network or on localhost?
No. Requests to private, loopback, link-local and other non-public addresses are refused, so the tool cannot be pointed at internal infrastructure or cloud metadata endpoints. Run your own copy with ALLOW_PRIVATE_HOSTS enabled if you need that.