What is the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect?

301 is permanent: search engines transfer the old URL's ranking signals to the new one and update their index. 302 is temporary: engines keep the old URL indexed and pass less weight. Using 302 for a permanent move is one of the most common SEO mistakes this tool uncovers.

Why are long redirect chains bad?

Each hop adds a full network round trip for every visitor and dilutes ranking signals. Google follows up to 10 hops but recommends redirecting directly to the final URL; two or more chained hops is worth flattening.

What is a redirect loop?

A chain that circles back to a URL it already visited, so the browser gives up with ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS. Typical causes are conflicting http-to-https and www rules, or a CDN and origin both trying to redirect each other.

Redirect Checker

URL to trace

What this tool shows

Enter any URL and the checker requests it server-side without following redirects automatically, so every hop becomes visible: the exact status code (301, 302, 307, 308, meta-less HTTP redirects only), the Location target, and how long each response took. The chain stops at the first non-redirect answer or after 10 hops, which is also where browsers and Googlebot give up.

Chains you should care about: an http to https hop followed by a www hop followed by a trailing-slash hop means three round trips before a visitor sees content, and each 302 in a chain that should be 301 leaks ranking signals. Affiliate and shortened links also unravel here, showing where a link really lands before you click it.

To inspect the headers of the final destination in full, use the HTTP Headers Checker; to verify its certificate, the SSL Checker.