✓ Free to Use • No Signup • Live Check — We Fetch the URL for You
Enter a URL and watch where it actually goes. The tool requests it without following redirects, records the status and the next hop, and repeats — up to ten hops — until the chain ends. You see every step: 301s, 302s, the http-to-https upgrade, and the final page that answers.
A redirect is the web’s change-of-address card: this URL now lives over there. Search engines follow them, pass most of the original page’s signals to the destination, and re-index the new address. Used well, redirects make migrations and cleanups invisible to rankings.
Used carelessly they compound: homepages redirected through two legacy domains, http-to-https plus www-to-non-www plus a trailing-slash hop, each adding latency and a small chance of a crawler giving up. This checker exists to make chains visible — most site owners have never actually seen theirs. Pair it with the Bulk HTTP Status Checker when a whole list needs verdicts.
A 301 redirect is the web's way of saying a page has moved for good. When a search engine sees a 301, it transfers the indexing signals it had collected for the old address — inbound links, relevance, history — to the new one, and over time it replaces the old URL in its index with the destination. That is why 301 is the correct choice for domain migrations, merged pages, and any change you never intend to reverse.
A 302 tells engines the move is temporary, so the original URL keeps its place in the index and the destination is treated as a stand-in — the right pattern for short campaigns or testing, and the wrong one for a permanent move you want indexed. The 307 and 308 codes add one refinement: they preserve the request method exactly as sent. A 307 is the strict temporary redirect and a 308 the strict permanent one, and both matter most where forms, logins, or APIs are involved rather than plain page views.
A redirect chain forms when one redirected URL points to another redirected URL instead of to the final page. Every hop is an extra request for the visitor and for the crawler, and search engines will only follow so many hops before giving up on the trail — a page at the end of a long chain may be crawled late, rarely, or not at all. Signals travelling through each intermediate step also tend to arrive weakened, so a chain rarely delivers the full value of the links pointing into it.
The fix is flattening: wherever you find a chain, repoint the earliest URL directly at the final destination so a single hop does the whole job. Loops need the same attention in reverse — a loop is a chain that circles back on itself, so the destination never loads at all and the browser eventually reports too many redirects. Work through the hops this checker shows you, correct the first link in each sequence, and the rest of the chain usually disappears on its own.
Privacy: to run this check, our server fetches the public URL you enter — the same request any browser or crawler makes. The URL and its results are not stored; close the tab and they are gone.
A 301 is a permanent move: search engines transfer the old URL’s signals to the new one and drop the old address. A 302 is temporary: the original stays the canonical address and keeps most of its signals. Using 302 for a move that is actually permanent is the classic mistake.
Google follows up to 10 hops, but every hop costs load time and a little signal confidence. Aim for exactly one hop between any old URL and its final home; chains of three or more deserve flattening.
Usually one hop upgrades http to https and a second settles www vs non-www (or a trailing slash). Both are legitimate, but they can be combined into a single redirect at the server — the checker shows you the evidence to hand to your developer.
Yes, indirectly: slow chains bleed visitors, and very long chains risk crawlers stopping early. The fix is mechanical — point each old URL directly at the final destination — and this tool gives you the map.
Tools handle the technical setup. Rankings come from authority — browse 1,502 real publisher sites with live metrics and fixed prices, or see our packages.