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Klyro Digital

Website & Technical3 min read

How to Check URL Redirects for Free

A redirect sends one address to another. Chains of them build up quietly over the years. Here is how to see exactly where a link goes and how many stops it makes.

KLYRO TeamPublished

klyro / tools / redirect-checkerFreeREDIRECT CHAIN3 hops301http://example.comMoved permanently301https://example.comMoved permanently200https://www.example.com/Final destination

A redirect is a server telling a browser "not here, go there instead". They are useful and completely normal. The problem is that they accumulate: a domain change here, a www rule there, a campaign URL that points at a page that has since moved.

A redirect checker follows the whole chain and shows you each stop, so you can see how many hops a visitor really takes and whether any of them are wrong.

Why redirect chains matter

Each hop is a full round trip to a server before anything is displayed. Three hops on a slow connection is a noticeable delay before the page even starts loading.

They also make things harder to reason about. When a link stops working, a four-step chain has four places the problem could be, and the one that broke is rarely the one you typed.

HOPS4 hops · 530 ms301http://example.com/offerhttp to https118 ms301https://example.com/offeradds www96 ms302https://www.example.com/offertemporary104 ms200https://www.example.com/spring-offerfinal page212 ms
Four hops to reach one page. Two of them could be collapsed into the first rule.

How to trace a chain

  1. Start from the address people actually use

    Check the link as it appears in your email, your printed material or your ad, including the http:// version if that is what is out there.

  2. Read the hops in order

    Each row shows the status code, the address it points to and how long that step took. The last row is where the visitor lands.

  3. Look for hops you did not expect

    A step that goes to the homepage, or to a page in a different language, means a rule is doing more than it was meant to.

What to look for

  • More than two hops. One redirect is normal. Two is usually fine. Beyond that, the rules can nearly always be flattened so the first address points straight at the last.
  • A `302` on a permanent move. Temporary redirects keep search engines pointed at the old address. See what the codes mean if you are unsure which to use.
  • A drop to `http://` partway through. The chain should reach HTTPS and stay there. A step back to plain HTTP is a real problem, not a cosmetic one.
  • A hop into the homepage. This is what happens when a deleted page is redirected somewhere generic. The link works and the content is gone.
Redirect loopThis address returned to a URL it had already visited. The chain was stopped./a/bA browser gives up here too, and showsan error page instead of your content.
Two rules that each send traffic to the other. Nobody ever reaches a page.

Common mistakes

  • Redirecting every missing page to the homepage. It hides the problem and gives visitors a page that does not answer what they clicked for.
  • Setting up www and HTTPS as two separate rules, so every visitor takes two hops instead of one.
  • Leaving old campaign URLs pointing at pages that have since been redirected again, adding a hop nobody knows about.
  • Redirecting a page and forgetting the internal links that still point at the old address. The redirect works, but every one of those links now costs an extra request.

Questions

How many redirects are too many?
There is no hard rule, but if a visitor takes more than two hops to reach a page it is normally possible to point the first address straight at the last one.
Do redirects affect search rankings?
A single permanent redirect passes a page's standing to its new address. Long chains and temporary redirects make that less reliable, which is the practical reason to keep chains short.
Why does my address redirect when I did not set one up?
Hosting platforms, CDNs and security services often add their own rules, usually to force HTTPS or a preferred www setting. The checker shows them whether or not you configured them.

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