Redirect Checker
Follow a URL hop by hop and see what every redirect does.
Check a URL
Following the redirects from MySmartCoPilot’s server… slow sites can take up to a minute.
Redirect chain
What this means
Checked from MySmartCoPilot’s server (Cloudflare) as MySmartCoPilotBot. Sites can answer bots, regions or browsers differently, so a chain you see in your browser may differ.
About the Redirect Checker
Enter a URL and the checker requests it from MySmartCoPilot’s server, follows every redirect one hop at a time and shows what happened at each step: the status code, the Location it pointed to, how long the server took to answer and the headers that matter for redirects (caching, X-Redirect-By, HSTS). It stops where browsers and crawlers stop: at the final page, at a loop, at an error, or after 10 hops — the limit Google documents for Googlebot.
Every hop is explained against RFC 9110 and Google’s redirect documentation: permanent (301, 308) versus temporary (302, 303, 307) redirects, HTTPS-to-HTTP downgrades, chains that should be shortened, and redirects made by the page itself — instant or delayed meta refresh, the Refresh header, and JavaScript location changes that Google only sees if the page renders.
How to use it
- Paste the address you want to test: an old URL, a short link, or the plain
http://version of your domain. - Press Check redirects. Leave Follow meta refresh on to also follow redirects made by the page’s HTML or its
Refreshheader. - Read the chain from top to bottom. Each card is one request, with its status code, where it pointed and how long it took; open All response headers for the full list.
- Fix what What this means reports — usually by pointing the first URL straight at the final one with a single 301, and updating your own links to the final URL.
- Copy the report or download the chain as CSV to share it, or to compare before and after a fix.
Examples
http://example.com/
1. 301 Moved Permanently http://example.com/ → https://example.com/ 2. 301 Moved Permanently https://example.com/ → https://www.example.com/ 3. 200 OK https://www.example.com/
Two hops for every visitor and crawler. Redirecting http://example.com/ straight to https://www.example.com/ removes the middle request.
https://www.example.com/old-product
1. 302 Found → /new-product 2. 200 OK https://www.example.com/new-product
Google treats 302 as temporary and may keep showing the old URL. Use 301 (or 308) when the page has moved for good.
Common uses
- Checking a site migration or domain change: every old URL should reach its new page in one permanent redirect.
- Confirming that
http://,wwwand non-wwwversions all end on the one canonical address. - Finding out where a short link, tracking link or affiliate link really goes before you share it.
- Debugging “too many redirects” errors and redirect loops between a CDN, a plugin and the server.
Which redirect should I use?
- 301 Moved Permanently — the standard choice for moved pages and domain changes. For historical reasons browsers may turn a POST into a GET when following it.
- 308 Permanent Redirect — permanent and keeps the request method (a POST stays a POST). Google treats it like a 301.
- 302 Found and 307 Temporary Redirect — temporary moves such as maintenance pages, A/B tests or a short campaign; 307 keeps the method.
- 303 See Other — after a form is submitted, to show a result page with GET.
- Meta refresh (or the
Refreshheader) — only when you cannot redirect on the server. Google interprets an instant (0 second) refresh as a permanent redirect and a delayed one as temporary. - JavaScript (
window.location) — a last resort: Google only sees it if the page renders successfully.
Sources: RFC 9110 §15.4 and Google Search Central’s Redirects and Google Search.
How Google treats redirects
- Googlebot generally follows up to 10 redirect hops when crawling web pages. Content returned by the redirecting URLs is ignored; the final target is processed instead (HTTP status codes, network and DNS errors).
- A permanent server-side redirect tells Google’s indexing pipeline that the target should be canonical and shown in results. A temporary redirect does not, so the source URL usually stays in results unless other signals point to the target.
- Google recommends permanent server-side redirects whenever possible; they have the best chance of being interpreted correctly.
- After a move, Google may keep showing the old URLs for a while as “alternate names”; they fade without any action from you.
What the checker sends
Requests come from Cloudflare’s network with the user agent MySmartCoPilotBot/1.0 and no cookies. Before each new host is contacted, its DNS records are looked up over HTTPS and every address must be public: private, loopback, link-local, carrier-grade NAT and cloud metadata addresses are never fetched, and every redirect target is checked again. Only http:// and https:// on the standard ports are allowed, each request times out after 8 seconds, and at most 512 KB of the final page is read to look for meta refresh and JavaScript redirects.
Limitations
- JavaScript redirects are found by searching the final page’s inline scripts for
locationchanges. Scripts in separate files, redirects that depend on cookies, location or device, and single-page-app routers are not run. - Sites can answer MySmartCoPilot’s server differently from your browser: geo or language redirects, bot protection and A/B tests may send you somewhere else.
- Your browser caches permanent redirects and HSTS, so it may skip hops that the checker still sees (or the other way round after you change a redirect).
- Timings are measured from Cloudflare’s network to each server and do not include your own connection.
- Each visitor can run a limited number of checks per hour (and the whole site a limited number per day) to stay within free hosting limits.
Privacy
The URL you enter is sent to MySmartCoPilot’s server, which requests it from the website. MySmartCoPilot does not store the URL or the result. For abuse prevention, the server log records only the host name, status code and time of each request — never the full URL or your IP address.
Frequently asked questions
How many redirects is too many?
Googlebot generally follows up to 10 hops and then stops, but long before that every hop costs visitors another round trip. Aim for one redirect from any old URL to its final address, and point your own links straight at the final URL.
Is a 302 redirect bad for SEO?
Not when the move really is temporary. Google treats 302, 303 and 307 as temporary: it does not take them as a signal that the target should be canonical, so the old URL may stay in results. For permanent moves, use 301 or 308.
What is the difference between 301 and 308, or 302 and 307?
307 and 308 guarantee that the request method stays the same (a POST stays a POST); with 301 and 302 browsers may switch a POST to a GET (RFC 9110). For ordinary links there is no difference, and Google treats 308 like 301 and 307 like 302.
Why does the checker show a different chain from my browser?
Browsers cache permanent redirects and HSTS, so they may skip hops. Sites can also redirect by country, language, cookie or device, and bot protection may treat server requests differently. Compare in a private browser window.
Does it follow JavaScript redirects?
No — it never runs scripts. It reports inline scripts that set window.location or call location.replace(), as a tip, so you can see that the page may redirect in the browser (the code can also belong to a button or run only under some condition).
Why was my URL blocked?
For security the checker only fetches public websites on ports 80 and 443. Private or local addresses (such as 192.168.x.x or 127.0.0.1), internal host names and MySmartCoPilot’s own pages are refused, and every redirect target is checked again before it is followed.