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URL Redirect Checker

Track redirect chains, analyze HTTP responses, reference HTTP status codes, parse URL structure, and follow redirects from HTTP to HTTPS, www to non-www, and more. Complete HTTP/URL analysis toolkit in one place. Perfect for SEO analysis, website debugging, and redirect optimization. Free, instant, and secure. No registration required.

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Privacy Guaranteed: Redirect checks are processed securely through our server to track redirect chains. Your URLs are sent to our server only for redirect analysis purposes and are not stored or logged.

info Enter any URL (with or without http://) to track its redirect chain

HTTP Status Code Reference

Complete reference guide to HTTP status codes. Look up any status code to understand its meaning, common causes, and recommended actions.

info Enter any URL to parse and analyze its structure and components

info Enter any URL to analyze its full HTTP response, headers, and security configuration

HTTP Header Reference Guide

Comprehensive guide to HTTP headers, security headers, cache control directives, and their use cases for performance and security tuning.

Common HTTP Headers

Content-Type
Specifies the media type of the resource. Examples: text/html, application/json, image/png
Example: Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Length
Indicates the size of the message body in bytes. Helps browsers allocate memory and show download progress.
Example: Content-Length: 1234
Location
Used in redirect responses (3xx) to indicate the URL to redirect to. Can be absolute or relative.
Example: Location: https://example.com/new-page
Server
Identifies the server software. Often hidden for security reasons to avoid revealing server version information.
Example: Server: nginx/1.18.0
User-Agent
Identifies the client (browser, bot, etc.) making the request. Used for analytics and content adaptation.
Example: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36
Accept
Specifies which content types the client can understand. Used for content negotiation.
Example: Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Referer
Indicates the URL of the page that linked to the current request. Used for analytics and security.
Example: Referer: https://example.com/previous-page
Accept-Language
Indicates the client's preferred languages. Used for content localization.
Example: Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.9,es;q=0.8

Security Headers

Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS)
Forces browsers to use HTTPS for future requests. Prevents man-in-the-middle attacks and protocol downgrade attacks.
Example: Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload
Directives: max-age (seconds), includeSubDomains, preload
Content-Security-Policy (CSP)
Controls which resources can be loaded and executed. Prevents XSS attacks, clickjacking, and data injection.
Example: Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'
Common directives: default-src, script-src, style-src, img-src, connect-src
X-Frame-Options
Prevents the page from being displayed in a frame/iframe. Protects against clickjacking attacks.
Example: X-Frame-Options: DENY or X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Values: DENY (no framing), SAMEORIGIN (same origin only), ALLOW-FROM uri
X-Content-Type-Options
Prevents browsers from MIME-sniffing. Forces browsers to respect the Content-Type header.
Example: X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-XSS-Protection
Enables browser's built-in XSS filter. Legacy header, CSP is preferred for modern protection.
Example: X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
Referrer-Policy
Controls how much referrer information is sent with requests. Protects user privacy.
Example: Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
Values: no-referrer, same-origin, strict-origin, strict-origin-when-cross-origin
Permissions-Policy
Controls browser features and APIs that can be used. Replaces Feature-Policy header.
Example: Permissions-Policy: geolocation=(), microphone=(), camera=()
X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies
Controls Adobe Flash and PDF cross-domain access. Legacy header for older applications.
Example: X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies: none

Cache Control Directives

Cache-Control
Controls caching behavior for both browsers and CDNs. Most important header for performance optimization.
Example: Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600, must-revalidate
Common directives:
• public - Can be cached by any cache
• private - Only browser can cache
• no-cache - Must revalidate before using cached copy
• no-store - Don't cache at all
• max-age=seconds - How long to cache (e.g., max-age=3600 = 1 hour)
• must-revalidate - Must check with server after expiration
• immutable - Content never changes, cache forever
• s-maxage=seconds - Cache duration for shared caches (CDNs)
ETag
Entity tag for cache validation. Allows conditional requests to check if content has changed.
Example: ETag: "33a64df551425fcc55e4d42a148795d9f25f89d4"
Last-Modified
Date when the resource was last modified. Used with If-Modified-Since for conditional requests.
Example: Last-Modified: Wed, 15 Jan 2025 10:30:00 GMT
Expires
Legacy header specifying when the cached resource expires. Cache-Control max-age is preferred.
Example: Expires: Thu, 16 Jan 2025 10:30:00 GMT
Vary
Specifies which request headers affect the response. Used for content negotiation and caching.
Example: Vary: Accept-Encoding, User-Agent

Performance Headers

Accept-Encoding
Client indicates which compression algorithms it supports. Server responds with Content-Encoding.
Example: Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br
Content-Encoding
Indicates the compression algorithm used on the response body. Reduces bandwidth usage.
Example: Content-Encoding: gzip or Content-Encoding: br (Brotli)
Connection
Controls whether the network connection stays open after the current transaction.
Example: Connection: keep-alive or Connection: close
Keep-Alive
Specifies parameters for keep-alive connections. Reduces connection overhead.
Example: Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=1000

CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) Headers

Access-Control-Allow-Origin
Specifies which origins can access the resource. Required for cross-origin requests.
Example: Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * or Access-Control-Allow-Origin: https://example.com
Access-Control-Allow-Methods
Specifies which HTTP methods are allowed for cross-origin requests.
Example: Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE
Access-Control-Allow-Headers
Specifies which headers can be used in cross-origin requests.
Example: Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials
Indicates whether credentials (cookies, auth headers) can be included in cross-origin requests.
Example: Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Access-Control-Max-Age
Specifies how long the preflight request results can be cached.
Example: Access-Control-Max-Age: 86400 (24 hours)

Security Header Best Practices

  • Always use HTTPS: Set HSTS header to force secure connections
  • Implement CSP: Content-Security-Policy is the most effective XSS protection
  • Hide server information: Remove or minimize Server header to avoid revealing software versions
  • Use secure cookies: Set Secure and HttpOnly flags on cookies
  • Set proper cache headers: Balance between performance and freshness
  • Enable compression: Use gzip or Brotli compression to reduce bandwidth
  • Limit CORS: Don't use Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * unless necessary
  • Regular audits: Use security header scanners to check your configuration

Cache Strategy Guidelines

  • Static assets (CSS, JS, images): Cache-Control: public, max-age=31536000, immutable (1 year)
  • HTML pages: Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600, must-revalidate (1 hour, revalidate)
  • API responses: Cache-Control: private, max-age=300 (5 minutes, browser only)
  • User-specific content: Cache-Control: private, no-cache (no caching)
  • Sensitive data: Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate (never cache)
  • CDN caching: Use s-maxage for shared cache duration separate from browser cache

About URL Redirect Checker & HTTP Analysis Toolkit

Our URL Redirect Checker is a comprehensive, free online toolkit designed to help website owners, developers, and SEO professionals analyze HTTP responses, track redirect chains, understand status codes, parse URL structures, and optimize website performance. This all-in-one tool combines five powerful features in a single interface, making it the most complete HTTP/URL analysis solution available.

What This Tool Does

This toolkit provides everything you need to analyze and optimize your website's HTTP responses, redirects, and URL structure. Whether you're debugging redirect issues, optimizing SEO, analyzing security headers, or understanding HTTP status codes, this tool has you covered.

Five Powerful Tools in One

1. Redirect Chain Tracker

The Redirect Chain Tracker automatically follows and displays the complete redirect chain for any URL. It shows each step in the chain, HTTP status codes, response headers, and identifies potential issues like redirect loops or overly long chains.

Key Features:

  • Automatically follows redirect chains up to 20 steps
  • Displays HTTP status codes (301, 302, 307, 308, 200)
  • Shows response headers for each step
  • Detects and alerts about redirect loops
  • Calculates total redirect chain length
  • Identifies final destination URL
  • Exports redirect chain data for documentation

Use Cases:

  • SEO Optimization: Identify and optimize redirect chains that can hurt SEO performance. Long chains waste crawl budget and dilute link equity.
  • Website Migration: Verify redirect chains after website migrations or domain changes. Ensure all old URLs properly redirect to new locations.
  • Performance Optimization: Identify long redirect chains that slow down page loading. Each redirect adds latency to the user experience.
  • Link Building: Check redirect chains of backlinks to ensure they reach the intended destination and pass SEO value.
  • Security Audits: Identify suspicious redirects or redirect chains that may indicate security issues or compromised websites.
  • HTTPS Migration: Verify HTTP to HTTPS redirects are working correctly and not creating unnecessary chains.

Example Scenario:

You're migrating from oldsite.com to newsite.com. You set up a redirect, but users report slow loading times. Using the Redirect Chain Tracker, you discover:

  • oldsite.com/page → 301 → www.oldsite.com/page
  • www.oldsite.com/page → 301 → https://www.oldsite.com/page
  • https://www.oldsite.com/page → 301 → https://www.newsite.com/page

This 3-step chain is causing performance issues. You optimize it to a single redirect: oldsite.com/page → 301 → https://www.newsite.com/page, improving load time by 200-300ms.

2. HTTP Status Code Reference

The HTTP Status Code Reference is a comprehensive guide to all HTTP status codes, organized by category. Each status code includes a description, common causes, and recommended actions.

Key Features:

  • Complete reference for 30+ HTTP status codes
  • Organized by category (Informational, Success, Redirection, Client Error, Server Error)
  • Search functionality to quickly find specific codes
  • Detailed explanations for each status code
  • Common causes and troubleshooting tips
  • Recommended actions for each code
  • Color-coded by status type for easy identification

Use Cases:

  • Error Troubleshooting: Quickly understand what HTTP status codes mean when debugging website errors. Know whether it's a client error (4xx) or server error (5xx).
  • API Development: Reference correct status codes when building REST APIs. Use 201 for created resources, 204 for successful deletions, 400 for bad requests.
  • SEO Analysis: Understand redirect status codes (301 vs 302) and their impact on SEO. Know when to use permanent vs temporary redirects.
  • Server Configuration: Configure proper error pages for different status codes. Create custom 404, 403, 500 error pages.
  • Performance Monitoring: Identify status codes that indicate performance issues. 503 Service Unavailable may indicate server overload.
  • Security Audits: Understand security-related status codes. 401 Unauthorized vs 403 Forbidden have different meanings.

Example Scenario:

Your website analytics show a spike in 502 Bad Gateway errors. Using the Status Code Reference, you learn that:

  • 502 Bad Gateway: The server, while acting as a gateway or proxy, received an invalid response from an upstream server.
  • Common Causes: Upstream server error, proxy error, network issue
  • Recommended Actions: Retry request, check upstream server, contact administrator

This helps you identify that the issue is with your CDN or reverse proxy, not your main server, allowing you to focus troubleshooting efforts.

3. URL Structure Analyzer

The URL Structure Analyzer parses any URL into its components, providing a visual breakdown of protocol, domain, subdomain, path, query parameters, and fragments. It also provides analysis metrics to help optimize URLs.

Key Features:

  • Parses URL into all components (protocol, domain, subdomain, path, query, fragment)
  • Visual breakdown with color-coded components
  • Query parameter parsing and display
  • Analysis metrics (URL length, path depth, special characters)
  • Security analysis (HTTP vs HTTPS)
  • Export parsed components as JSON
  • Copy analysis results to clipboard

Use Cases:

  • URL Optimization: Analyze URL structure to identify optimization opportunities. Long URLs with many parameters may need restructuring.
  • SEO Analysis: Understand URL components for SEO optimization. Ensure clean, descriptive paths without unnecessary parameters.
  • API Development: Parse and validate API endpoint URLs. Ensure proper structure for RESTful APIs.
  • Debugging: Debug URL-related issues by understanding each component. Identify problems with query parameters or fragments.
  • Migration Planning: Analyze old URLs to plan migration to new URL structure. Understand current structure before making changes.
  • Security Analysis: Identify suspicious URL components. Check for unusual query parameters or fragments that may indicate attacks.

Example Scenario:

You're optimizing your e-commerce site's URLs for SEO. You analyze a product URL:

https://www.example.com/shop/products/item?id=12345&category=electronics&ref=homepage#reviews

The URL Analyzer shows:

  • Protocol: https (Secure ✓)
  • Subdomain: www
  • Domain: example.com
  • Path: /shop/products/item
  • Query Parameters: id=12345, category=electronics, ref=homepage
  • Fragment: #reviews
  • URL Length: 89 characters (recommended: under 75)
  • Path Depth: 3 levels

You optimize it to: https://example.com/products/electronics/item-12345#reviews, reducing length to 48 characters and improving SEO.

4. HTTP Response Analyzer

The HTTP Response Analyzer provides comprehensive analysis of HTTP responses, including response time, size, headers, security configuration, and performance metrics. It helps identify optimization opportunities and security issues.

Key Features:

  • Full HTTP response analysis (status code, response time, size)
  • Security headers check with score (0-100%)
  • Performance metrics (DNS lookup, connect time, compression)
  • Cache headers analysis
  • All headers display with organized sections
  • Security recommendations
  • Performance optimization suggestions
  • Export analysis results

Use Cases:

  • Security Audits: Check security headers (HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options) and identify missing security configurations. Get a security score to track improvements.
  • Performance Optimization: Analyze response times, compression, and cache headers. Identify opportunities to improve page load speed.
  • SEO Analysis: Check HTTP status codes, response headers, and redirect chains. Ensure proper SEO configuration.
  • API Testing: Analyze API responses to verify headers, status codes, and performance. Ensure APIs meet performance requirements.
  • Compliance Checking: Verify security headers meet compliance requirements (PCI DSS, GDPR). Ensure proper security configuration.
  • CDN Configuration: Analyze CDN response headers and cache configuration. Optimize CDN settings for better performance.

Example Scenario:

You're preparing your website for a security audit. Using the HTTP Response Analyzer, you check your homepage and discover:

  • Security Score: 42% (Missing critical headers)
  • Missing Headers: Strict-Transport-Security, Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options
  • Response Time: 850ms (Target: under 500ms)
  • Compression: None (Should use gzip or Brotli)
  • Cache Headers: Missing (Should set Cache-Control)

You implement the missing security headers, enable compression, and add cache headers. Your security score improves to 85% and response time drops to 420ms.

5. HTTP Header Reference

The HTTP Header Reference is a comprehensive guide to HTTP headers, organized by category. It includes common headers, security headers, cache control directives, performance headers, and CORS headers, with examples and best practices.

Key Features:

  • Complete reference for 40+ HTTP headers
  • Organized by category (Common, Security, Cache, Performance, CORS)
  • Detailed explanations for each header
  • Example values for each header
  • Best practices and recommendations
  • Security header guidelines
  • Cache strategy recommendations

Use Cases:

  • Header Configuration: Reference correct header syntax and values when configuring web servers. Ensure proper header implementation.
  • Security Hardening: Understand security headers and implement them correctly. Protect against XSS, clickjacking, and other attacks.
  • Performance Tuning: Learn about cache headers and compression. Optimize headers for better performance.
  • API Development: Understand CORS headers and content negotiation. Properly configure APIs for cross-origin requests.
  • Troubleshooting: Reference headers when debugging issues. Understand what each header does and how it affects behavior.
  • Compliance: Ensure headers meet compliance requirements. Understand security and privacy headers.

Example Scenario:

You're configuring security headers for your website. Using the HTTP Header Reference, you learn about Content-Security-Policy:

  • Purpose: Controls which resources can be loaded and executed. Prevents XSS attacks, clickjacking, and data injection.
  • Example: Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'
  • Best Practice: Start with restrictive policy and gradually relax. Use 'self' for same-origin resources.

You implement a CSP header that blocks inline scripts and external resources, significantly improving your website's security posture.

Why Use This Tool?

This comprehensive toolkit saves you time and effort by combining five essential HTTP/URL analysis tools in one place. Instead of using multiple tools or command-line utilities, you can analyze redirects, understand status codes, parse URLs, check security headers, and reference HTTP headers all from a single interface.

Perfect For:

  • SEO Professionals: Optimize redirect chains, understand status codes, and analyze URL structure for better SEO performance
  • Web Developers: Debug redirect issues, analyze HTTP responses, and understand header configuration
  • Website Owners: Check if URLs redirect correctly, identify redirect problems, and optimize website performance
  • Security Auditors: Analyze security headers, identify missing security configurations, and verify security posture
  • Performance Engineers: Analyze response times, check compression, and optimize cache headers
  • API Developers: Test API responses, verify headers, and ensure proper status codes

Related Tools:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a redirect chain?

A redirect chain is a series of HTTP redirects where one URL redirects to another, which redirects to another, and so on. For example: example.com → www.example.com → https://www.example.com. Long redirect chains can slow down page loading and hurt SEO. Each redirect adds latency (typically 50-200ms per redirect) and wastes crawl budget.

Is this redirect checker tool free?

Yes, this URL redirect checker and HTTP analysis toolkit is completely free to use with no registration, limits, or hidden fees. All tools are available immediately without creating an account. The redirect and response analysis are processed securely through our server to bypass CORS restrictions, but your URLs are not stored or logged.

What HTTP status codes indicate redirects?

Common redirect status codes are: 301 (Moved Permanently), 302 (Found/Temporary Redirect), 307 (Temporary Redirect), and 308 (Permanent Redirect). Status codes in the 3xx range indicate redirects, while 200 means the final destination was reached. Use our Status Code Reference tab to look up any HTTP status code.

Why are redirect chains bad for SEO?

Long redirect chains slow down page loading, waste crawl budget, and can dilute link equity. Search engines prefer direct redirects because they're faster and preserve more SEO value. Each redirect in a chain can lose 5-15% of link equity. Ideally, redirects should go directly to the final destination in one step rather than multiple hops. Chains with 3+ redirects should be optimized.

Can this tool detect redirect loops?

Yes, the Redirect Chain Tracker automatically detects redirect loops where a URL redirects back to itself or creates a circular chain. It will stop following redirects when a loop is detected (after checking the same URL twice) and alert you to the issue. The tool also prevents infinite loops by limiting redirect chains to 20 steps.

What is the difference between 301 and 302 redirects?

301 redirects are permanent and tell search engines to update their index to the new URL. They pass full SEO value (link equity) to the destination. 302 redirects are temporary and indicate the redirect may change. They may not pass full SEO value. For SEO, use 301 redirects for permanent moves (domain migrations, URL structure changes) and 302 for temporary situations (A/B testing, maintenance pages).

How many redirects should a URL have?

Ideally, a URL should have zero redirects or at most one redirect directly to the final destination. Redirect chains with 3 or more hops should be optimized to reduce the number of redirects for better SEO and performance. Each additional redirect adds 50-200ms of latency and can reduce SEO value by 5-15%.

Can I check multiple URLs at once?

Currently, the tool checks one URL at a time. You can check multiple URLs sequentially by entering them one after another. For bulk redirect checking (hundreds or thousands of URLs), you may want to use command-line tools like curl or API services. The tool is optimized for detailed analysis of individual URLs.

How does the URL Structure Analyzer work?

The URL Structure Analyzer parses any URL into its components using JavaScript's URL API. It breaks down the URL into protocol, domain, subdomain, path, query parameters, and fragments. It also provides analysis metrics like URL length, path depth, and special character detection. All parsing happens client-side in your browser for privacy and speed.

What does the HTTP Response Analyzer check?

The HTTP Response Analyzer performs a comprehensive analysis of HTTP responses, including: response time and size, HTTP status code, all response headers, security headers (HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options, etc.) with a security score, performance metrics (DNS lookup, connect time, compression), cache headers analysis, and server identification. It provides recommendations for security and performance improvements.

What is a good security score?

A good security score is 80% or higher. The security score is calculated based on the presence of critical security headers: Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS), Content-Security-Policy (CSP), X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, X-XSS-Protection, Referrer-Policy, and Permissions-Policy. Each header present increases your score. Aim for 100% by implementing all recommended security headers.

How accurate is the redirect chain tracking?

The redirect chain tracking is highly accurate. It uses server-side cURL to follow redirects, which mimics how browsers and search engines follow redirects. It handles both absolute and relative redirect URLs, detects redirect loops, and stops at the final destination (200 status code) or after 20 steps to prevent infinite loops. The tool shows the exact same redirect chain that search engines and browsers would see.

Can I use this tool for API testing?

Yes! The HTTP Response Analyzer is perfect for API testing. It shows response status codes, headers, response time, and response size. You can verify that APIs return correct status codes (200 for success, 201 for created, 400 for bad requests, etc.), check CORS headers, analyze response times, and ensure proper content-type headers. The Status Code Reference helps you understand what each status code means.

Does the tool store or log my URLs?

No, we do not store or log your URLs. Redirect checks and HTTP response analysis are processed securely through our server to bypass CORS restrictions, but URLs are only used for the analysis and are immediately discarded. We don't track, store, or share your URLs with third parties. Your privacy is our priority.

Why do I need server-side processing for redirect checking?

Browser security (CORS - Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) prevents JavaScript from following redirects on different domains. To accurately track redirect chains across domains, we use server-side processing with cURL, which can follow redirects just like browsers and search engines do. This ensures you see the complete, accurate redirect chain.

What browsers are supported?

The tool works in all modern browsers that support JavaScript and the URL API, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera. The URL Structure Analyzer works entirely client-side, while the Redirect Chain Tracker and HTTP Response Analyzer use server-side processing for accurate results. No browser extensions or plugins are required.

How do I optimize redirect chains?

To optimize redirect chains: 1) Identify long chains using the Redirect Chain Tracker, 2) Update your server configuration (Apache .htaccess, Nginx config, or application code) to redirect directly to the final destination, 3) Update internal links to point directly to final URLs, 4) Use 301 redirects for permanent moves, 5) Test the optimized chain to ensure it works correctly. Our tool helps you identify which chains need optimization.

Can I export the analysis results?

Yes! All tools support export functionality. You can copy analysis results to your clipboard or download them as text files. The Redirect Chain Tracker exports the complete chain with status codes and headers. The URL Structure Analyzer exports parsed components as JSON. The HTTP Response Analyzer exports the full analysis including security score and recommendations.

What's the difference between this tool and browser developer tools?

While browser developer tools show redirects for the current page, this tool can analyze any URL, shows the complete redirect chain in one view, provides detailed analysis of each step, includes security scoring, offers performance metrics, and provides reference documentation. It's specifically designed for comprehensive HTTP/URL analysis, not just debugging the current page.

🔒 Privacy Note: Redirect checks and HTTP response analysis are processed securely through our server to track redirect chains and analyze responses. Your URLs are sent to our server only for analysis purposes and are not stored or logged. This tool is free to use and requires no registration.