How to use it

Paste the address in Link to follow (for example http://example.com or a short link) and press Check.
Read the verdict: the number of redirects and the final status.
Go through the table row by row: Status, URL and Time for each hop, with Total time below.
Follow the tips under the table, then press Check again after changing your server settings.

What each redirect code means

Code	Kind	Request method	Google Search
301 Moved permanently	Permanent	GET stays GET; a POST may become GET	shows the new address
308 Permanent redirect	Permanent	never changed	shows the new address
302 Found	Temporary	GET stays GET; a POST may become GET	keeps showing the old address
303 See other	Temporary	always becomes GET	keeps showing the old address
307 Temporary redirect	Temporary	never changed	keeps showing the old address

The method column is from RFC 9110: for 301 and 302, browsers may switch a POST to GET "for historical reasons", which is why 307 and 308 exist. The last column is from Google's redirect documentation.

How the checker follows a link

It sends a GET request from Cloudflare's network, reads the Location header, works out relative addresses against the current one and requests the next address, one hop at a time. Each request may take 8 seconds. It stops after 10 redirects, reports a loop when the same address comes back, and stops any redirect that points into a private network.

Only HTTP redirects are followed. A <meta http-equiv="refresh"> tag or a JavaScript redirect inside a page, both described by MDN, isn't run, so such a page shows as No redirect: the link answers directly.

Cleaning up a chain

Send http://example.com straight to the final https://www.example.com/ in one hop instead of fixing the scheme and the www one after the other.
Update links, sitemaps and canonical tags to the final address so visitors skip the redirect entirely.
Use 301 or 308 for moves that are permanent. On Apache, Redirect permanent "/old" "https://example.com/new" sets a 301.
Add HSTS once HTTPS works: browsers then go to https:// without asking the server, so the http hop disappears for returning visitors.

Reading the times

Each time is measured from our request until that server's response headers arrive at the Cloudflare data centre that ran the check. Every hop to a new domain adds at least one more DNS lookup and connection for a real visitor too, which is why the checker warns above two redirects.

Questions

Is a 302 redirect bad for SEO?: Not when the move really is temporary. Google keeps showing the original address for temporary redirects, so if the page has moved for good, use 301 or 308.
Should I use 301 or 308?: Both are permanent. 308 guarantees the request method stays the same, which matters for forms and APIs; for ordinary pages, 301 is fine.
Why does my browser end up somewhere else than the checker?: Your browser may run a meta refresh or JavaScript redirect, follow HSTS, or remember an old 301: RFC 9110 allows browsers to cache 301 responses. Try a private window.
What counts as a redirect loop?: A chain that comes back to an address it already visited, for example https to http and back, usually from two rules that contradict each other.
Can I see where a short link goes without opening it?: Yes. The checker requests each hop from Cloudflare and lists the destination, so your browser never visits it.

Results come from public DNS, registry and certificate data and from checks run from Cloudflare's network at the moment you ask. They can differ from what another network sees. How our tools work · Terms of use.

Redirect checker