Redirect checker: see every hop.

We request each URL without letting the client follow redirects automatically, so every response is recorded on its own: its status code, how long it took, the server, and where it points next. When the last page carries a <meta http-equiv="refresh"> tag, that counts as a hop too.

1. 1Chains

   More than one redirect before a page loads. Each hop is another round trip and another request against your crawl budget.

2. 2Temporary redirects

   302, 303 and 307 used for a move that's really permanent, which can keep the old URL in the index.

3. 3Loops

   A chain that comes back to a URL it already visited. Nothing ever loads.

4. 4HTTPS downgrades

   A hop from https:// to http://, which browsers warn about and which leaks the request.

5. 5Dead ends

   Chains that finish on a 4xx or 5xx, or never finish at all.

6. 6Soft 404s

   Deep URLs redirected to the homepage. Google usually treats these as not found.

Collapse chains. Chains build up over years: http to https, then non-www to www, then an old slug to a new one. Update each rule so the original URL goes straight to the final destination, and update internal links so they don't hit a redirect at all.

Use 301 or 308 for permanent moves. Many frameworks and plugins default to 302. If the old URL isn't coming back, make it permanent.

Redirect to the closest match. When a page is gone, send it to the page that replaces it. If nothing does, a 404 or 410 is more honest than the homepage.

After a site migration, run your sitemap through our validator: a sitemap full of redirecting URLs is a common leftover. Then check your key pages with the broken link checker.

The fetchers behind ChatGPT, Perplexity and other assistants grab pages live while they answer. They follow redirects, but every extra hop eats into a short time budget, and a loop or a dead end means your page simply isn't read. Clean single-hop redirects are the safe default for every crawler, not just Google's.