Redirect checker.
The redirect checker follows a list of old addresses line by line and shows where each one goes, in how many steps and with which status code.
How to use
- Paste the old site’s addresses one per line (20 at most)
- Press Check; the server follows each address along with its redirects
- Read the lines: chains, temporary redirects and addresses returning 404 are the lines to fix in the map
This tool sends the address you enter to this site’s own server; the server reads that address, returns the result to your browser and stores nothing.
When a site is rebuilt or its domain changes, whether rankings survive depends largely on a single table: where each old address goes on the new site. This tool tests that table. You paste the old addresses one per line; for each one it writes the status code, the final address reached and the number of steps in between.
What the lines tell you
A “permanent redirect” is a line that goes to the new address in a single step with 301 or 308 — that is how it should be. A “temporary redirect” is 302 or 307; if the move is permanent, it sends the search engine the wrong signal. A “chain” is more than one step and should be reduced to a single one. A “page missing” line says the old address returns 404: it should either be redirected to an equivalent page or be removed deliberately. The reasoning behind these decisions is in the migration checklist.
This site’s own migration record
The reason we built this tool is our own mistake: for a time, the check that tested this site’s redirects looked only at the status code, not at the destination, and counted a redirect that went to the wrong place as “passed”. That is why the tool also writes the final address reached on every line. The full migration service: site rebuild and migration.
Limits
At most 20 addresses are read at a time; for each address at most four redirects are followed, with a six-second wait at each step. Local addresses, IP numbers and this site are not read. To prevent abuse, four addresses count as one reading and requests are limited to twelve readings per minute per IP. Addresses and results are not stored.