Free Redirect Checker
Follow a public URL step by step without automatic redirect handling so you can inspect each status code, Location header, final URL, and HTTPS upgrade behavior.
Common use cases
- Verify HTTP-to-HTTPS and canonical hostname redirects after a launch or migration.
- Find long redirect chains that can slow users and search crawlers.
- Troubleshoot unexpected final URLs, loops, or cross-domain redirects.
The redirect checker requests a public URL without silently hiding intermediate responses, records each status and Location target, validates every destination, and reports the final reachable URL.
Prefer one clear route to the final URL
A canonical redirect should normally move users and crawlers directly from an old or non-preferred URL to the final equivalent destination. Extra protocol, hostname, slash, and legacy-path hops add latency and complicate debugging.
- Use permanent redirects for durable moves and temporary redirects for genuinely temporary routing.
- Preserve path and query information when the destination needs it.
- Avoid redirecting unrelated removed pages to the home page.
Check the destination signals too
A technically valid chain can still land on a noindex page, an error-shaped 200 response, or a page canonicalized elsewhere. Review the final status, canonical, robots directives, internal links, and sitemap URLs together.
- Update internal links so normal navigation does not rely on redirects.
- Remove redirected URLs from current XML sitemaps.
- Retest a representative URL set after migrations and routing-rule changes.
Standards and further reading
Diagnostic output is evidence, not a guarantee of security, deliverability, availability, or search ranking. Read the NerdTools methodology and limitations before making consequential changes.
Frequently asked questions
How many redirects are followed?
The redirect checker follows up to 10 redirects and reports when the chain reaches that limit.
Are redirected hosts validated?
Yes. Each redirected hostname is validated before NerdTools fetches the next hop so checks stay limited to public hosts.