Redirect Checker.
Follow every hop. Spot every chain. Catch every loop.
Paste a URL and we follow every redirect — HTTP, HTML meta, JavaScript — recording each hop's status code, final destination, latency, and any chain or loop in the path. Up to 20 hops, all in one view.
Bookmark-worthy moments.
Four moments when knowing the exact redirect chain on a URL saves you a deploy, a deindex, or a migration disaster.
Audit a migration
Just moved 5,000 URLs to a new structure? Run a sample through the checker, confirm each one 301s (not 302s) to the correct new URL with one hop, not three.
Find redirect chains stealing link equity
A → B → C → D loses 10-15% equity per hop. The tool flags every chain longer than 1 hop so you can collapse it back to a direct redirect.
Verify a single redirect went live
Engineering pushed a 301 from /old to /new. Confirm in two seconds — without disabling Chrome's redirect cache or opening a private window.
Catch orphan 302s and redirect loops
302s pass equity differently than 301s; loops eat link equity entirely. Both are accidental more often than intentional. Surface them before Google does.
Why redirects matter more than you think.
The four types, when each is right, and the equity math every team forgets.
Redirects are the plumbing of the web. Every URL change, every site migration, every domain switch, every promo link, every 'pretty URL' on top of an ugly one — all of it runs through redirects. Get them wrong and you lose link equity, deindex pages, break tracking, and create chains that compound the damage with every additional hop.
There are four redirect types worth knowing in 2026. 301 (permanent) is the default — it tells search engines and browsers "this URL has moved forever, transfer equity, update your records." 302 (temporary) tells them "this URL has moved for now, don't transfer equity." 307 and 308 are HTTP/1.1 strict versions of 302 and 301 — they preserve the request method (a POST stays a POST). Then there's meta refresh and JavaScript redirects, which are slower, leak some equity, and should be avoided unless server-side redirects aren't possible.
The equity math: each hop in a redirect chain loses approximately 10-15% of the PageRank it was carrying. A direct A→B 301 transfers ~85-90% of equity. An A→B→C→D chain transfers ~60-70%. Beyond 5 hops, search engines often stop following entirely. This tool maps the full chain so you can collapse it, redeploy as a direct redirect, and recover the lost equity.
Redirect types · quick reference
Permanent. Passes ~85-90% equity. Updates browser bookmarks and search index.
Default for any moveTemporary. Passes equity differently — Google treats long-lived 302s as 301s anyway.
Real temporary moves onlyStrict temporary. Preserves HTTP method (a POST stays a POST).
Modern temporaryStrict permanent. Preserves HTTP method. Modern 301 replacement.
Modern permanentHTML <meta http-equiv="refresh">. Slow, leaky, avoid if possible.
<meta refresh=0;url=>Set via location.href. Browsers respect; crawlers respect with delay.
window.location = ...A→B→C. Each hop loses equity and adds latency. Collapse to A→C.
Max 5 before Google stopsA→B→A. Infinite. Browser shows ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS. Always a bug.
Eats all equityAsked. Answered.
Tool questions, topic questions — straight answers. Anything missing? Email hi@seonova.io and we'll fold it in.
301 is permanent and passes ~85-90% of link equity to the destination. 302 is temporary and historically passed less. Google now treats long-lived 302s as if they were 301s — but only after months of consistency. Use 301 whenever you mean 'permanent'.
More to bookmark.
Tools that share the same engine — and tend to land in the same tab group.
Audit every redirect on your site, automatically.
SEONova Pro crawls your entire URL inventory, maps every redirect chain, flags every loop, and quantifies the equity bleeding out of each one. Especially valuable post-migration. The free tool checks one URL. The platform checks every URL you own.