301 or 302 — which redirect should I use?

Use 301 (or 308) for permanent moves so ranking signals transfer. 302/307 are for temporary redirects.

Why are redirect chains bad?

Every hop adds latency and a small loss of link equity. Googlebot follows up to 10 hops, but best practice is one redirect at most.

Free HTTP Status & Redirect Checker

Follow redirect chains and inspect response headers.

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What does the HTTP Status & Redirect Checker do?

See every hop a URL takes before it resolves, the status code of each step, the response headers that affect SEO (canonical links, X-Robots-Tag, caching) and quick security checks like HTTPS and HSTS. Switch the user agent to see what Googlebot receives.

How to use it

1Enter a URL — with or without https://.
2Pick a user agent (e.g. Googlebot smartphone).
3Check that the chain ends in a single 200 response with at most one redirect.

Frequently asked questions

301 or 302 — which redirect should I use?: Use 301 (or 308) for permanent moves so ranking signals transfer. 302/307 are for temporary redirects.
Why are redirect chains bad?: Every hop adds latency and a small loss of link equity. Googlebot follows up to 10 hops, but best practice is one redirect at most.

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