Redirect checker
Follow a link's redirects hop by hop from real computers, see each status code and how long the detour takes, and catch loops, long chains and temporary moves.
- Every hopEach address in the chain, with its status code
- What it costsHow long the detour adds before the page loads
- What to fixLoops, temporary moves and drops back to http
Related tools
See all toolsHow to use the redirect checker
Paste a link, for example the plain http:// address of your site or an old page you moved, and press Follow redirects. Real computers on the Globalping network ask for the address, note the answer, and follow each redirect hop by hop from the same places until they reach a page that is not a redirect. You see every address in the chain, the status code it answered with, and how long each step took. The chain is followed from three places at once, enough to notice when a site sends visitors from different countries to different pages.
What the redirect chain checker shows
- Every hop with its status in plain words. 301 and 308 mean moved for good; 302 and 307 mean moved for now; 303 means see another page. The last row is the page visitors land on.
- What the detour costs. Each redirect is another round trip before the page can start loading, and often a new connection to another host. The checker adds up the time the chain takes.
- Problems to fix: redirect loops that browsers stop with an error, chains of three or more hops, a secure page that drops back to plain http, and temporary redirects used for a move that looks permanent.
- Different answers by country. When places are sent to different pages, the checker lists who went where, which usually means a language or country redirect.
Using a 301 redirect checker for SEO
Search engines treat a permanent redirect as a move and carry the old address's ranking over to the new one. A temporary redirect tells them to keep the old address, so a 302 left in place after a site move can hold rankings back. The fix is simple: answer with 301 or 308, and point every old address straight at its final page instead of through a chain.
For an http to https redirect check, test the address with http:// in front. A good set-up answers once with 301 or 308 and lands on the https page, with or without www as you prefer, in a single hop.
Privacy and limits
The test computers' results are public on the Globalping network, so the checker leaves out the part of the address after ? unless you choose to keep it under More options; see the privacy page. Only redirects sent by the server are followed. A page that moves visitors on with a script or a meta refresh ends the chain at that page. Chains longer than ten hops are reported as too long, since browsers give up at about twenty.
Questions
Why does the first hop take longer than the rest?
It includes looking up the address and opening the first connection. Later hops on the same host can reuse it.
Can I trace a redirect from a short link?
Yes. Paste the short link and the checker shows every service it passes through before the final page.
What else should I test?
The other sections of the same check test the final page: Security for the certificate and security headers, Speed for loading time in a browser, and the summary at the top for the whole website checker report.