What is the difference between a 301 and 302 redirect?

A 301 tells browsers and search engines the page has permanently moved (RFC 9110 Section 15.4.2). Caches can store this response indefinitely, and search engines transfer link equity to the new URL. A 302 means the move is temporary (RFC 9110 Section 15.4.3), so the original URL stays in the index and keeps its link equity. Use 301 for site migrations, domain consolidation, and URL restructuring. Use 302 only when the move is genuinely temporary, like A/B testing or a maintenance page. Getting this wrong has real SEO consequences. If you use a 302 for a permanent move, search engines keep the old URL indexed and never transfer link equity to the new one. That splits your ranking signals between two URLs instead of consolidating them.

What are 307 and 308 redirects and when should I use them?

307 and 308 are the method-preserving versions of 302 and 301. The older 301 and 302 codes allow browsers to change a POST request into a GET during the redirect. That made sense in the early web, but it breaks things when form data or API payloads need to survive the redirect. 307 (Temporary) and 308 (Permanent) guarantee the original HTTP method and request body stay intact (RFC 9110 Sections 15.4.8 and 15.4.9). Use them when method preservation matters: API endpoints that moved, form submission handlers, or payment processing URLs. For regular page-to-page browser redirects that only involve GET requests, 301 and 302 work fine and have broader compatibility with older clients. Like 301, a 308 is cacheable by default. Like 302, a 307 is not.

How do redirect chains affect SEO and crawl budget?

Every hop in a redirect chain costs crawl budget and adds latency. Google follows chains but may stop after 5 hops, and each hop dilutes the link equity passed to the final page. The performance impact is also significant. Each redirect requires a full HTTP round-trip: DNS resolution, TCP handshake, and TLS negotiation. A 3-hop chain with 200ms per hop adds 600ms before any page content loads, directly hurting TTFB and LCP scores. The fix is straightforward: collapse all chains into a single hop pointing to the final URL. Then update your internal links, sitemaps, and canonical tags to point there directly so crawlers and browsers never hit the redirect at all.

What is a redirect loop and how do I fix it?

A redirect loop happens when URL A redirects to URL B, which eventually redirects back to URL A. The browser goes in circles until it gives up, usually after 20 attempts, and shows ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS in Chrome. The most common cause is conflicting rules at different layers of your stack. For example, your CDN forces HTTPS while your origin server redirects HTTPS back to HTTP. Or your CMS has a www-to-non-www rule that contradicts a non-www-to-www rule in your .htaccess file. To fix it, audit each layer separately: CDN (Cloudflare, Fastly), load balancer, web server (Nginx, Apache), and application code. Make sure every URL resolves to exactly one target with no contradictions between layers. This tool catches loops automatically and shows you exactly which hop creates the cycle.

What does the Location header do in a redirect response?

The Location header tells the browser where to go next. On any 3xx redirect response, this header contains the URI for the next hop (RFC 9110 Section 10.2.2). For a 301, it points to the new permanent home. For a 302, it points to a temporary location while the original URL stays canonical. The value can be an absolute URL like https://example.com/new-page or a relative path like /new-page. Most modern browsers handle relative paths fine, but absolute URLs work more reliably with older clients, proxies, and search engine crawlers. If a 3xx response is missing the Location header entirely, the redirect is broken. Browsers have nowhere to go and typically show an error page. This tool flags missing or malformed Location headers so you can catch these issues before they affect users.

What is HSTS and how does it eliminate redirect hops?

HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security, RFC 6797) tells browsers to always use HTTPS for your domain. Once the browser sees a Strict-Transport-Security header, it performs an internal redirect from HTTP to HTTPS without making any network request at all. That is faster and more secure than a server-side 301 redirect. Set max-age to at least one year (31536000 seconds) and include the includeSubDomains directive to cover all subdomains. For the strongest protection, submit your domain to the HSTS preload list at hstspreload.org. This embeds your HTTPS policy directly into the browser's source code, so even first-time visitors never make an insecure request. This tool checks for HSTS at every hop in the chain and flags any domain that is missing it.

How does the Cache-Control header affect redirect caching?

301 and 308 redirects are cacheable by default (RFC 9110 Sections 15.4.2 and 15.4.9). Browsers and CDNs store the redirect and skip the network round-trip on repeat visits. Temporary redirects (302, 303, 307) are not cached unless you explicitly add Cache-Control or Expires headers. This default behavior is usually what you want, but it creates a common gotcha: if you change where a cached 301 points, browsers that stored the old destination keep following it until their cache expires. You cannot "recall" a cached redirect. To avoid this, add a reasonable max-age when you first set up the 301. If you need to change a redirect destination frequently, use a 302 instead. When debugging, test in incognito mode or clear your cache so you see the actual current redirect, not a stale cached version.

Why should I test redirects with different user-agents like Googlebot?

Servers sometimes redirect different user-agents to different URLs. A mobile user-agent might get sent to m.example.com, while Googlebot might see a completely different chain than Chrome does. If Google's crawler encounters a different redirect path than real users, it causes indexing problems: wrong pages in the index, soft 404 classifications, or even cloaking penalties. Testing with the Googlebot user-agent string shows you exactly what Google sees. This tool lets you compare chains across Googlebot Desktop, Googlebot Mobile, Bingbot, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. If the chains differ between user-agents, that usually means you have misconfigured server rules or an overly aggressive bot detection system that is treating crawlers differently from browsers. Fix any discrepancies so search engines see the same redirect path as your users.

What is the 303 See Other redirect and when is it used?

303 (See Other) tells the browser to follow up with a GET request, regardless of what HTTP method was used originally (RFC 9110 Section 15.4.4). The classic use case is the Post/Redirect/Get pattern: after a user submits a form via POST, the server sends a 303 to a confirmation page. Because the browser switches to GET, pressing the back button or refreshing the page does not resubmit the form. This is different from 302, which historically had ambiguous behavior about whether the method should change. 303 makes it explicit: always GET. You see this pattern in e-commerce checkout flows, contact forms, and any workflow where a POST creates or modifies data. After processing the POST, the server issues a 303 to an order confirmation or thank-you page that the user can safely refresh.

What HTTP headers should I check on the final destination?

Once you reach the final page in the chain, several response headers determine how search engines treat it. X-Robots-Tag can contain noindex or nofollow directives. If the final page has noindex, your entire redirect chain leads to content that will not appear in search results. Check for Strict-Transport-Security to confirm HSTS is active, Cache-Control for caching behavior, and Content-Security-Policy for XSS protection. Referrer-Policy controls what referrer data gets sent to third parties, and X-Frame-Options prevents clickjacking. This tool shows all response headers for every hop and flags common issues in the 17-point SEO analysis: noindex on the final page, missing HSTS, protocol downgrades from HTTPS to HTTP. Headers on intermediate hops matter too. HSTS on any hop means the browser skips that redirect entirely on future visits.

How do I read the raw HTTP transaction view?

The raw view is the equivalent of running curl -v -L in your terminal. It shows the complete protocol-level conversation for every hop. Lines starting with ">" are the outgoing request: the HTTP method, path, Host header, and User-Agent string your browser sent. Lines starting with "<" are the server response: the status line, response headers, and any relevant metadata. Lines starting with "*" show connection details like the resolved IP address, port, and TLS version. The Location header is highlighted in yellow so you can quickly spot where each redirect points. You can toggle word wrap for long values and copy the entire output to your clipboard for bug reports or team discussions. This view is most useful for developers who need to debug redirect issues at the protocol level rather than the summary level.

What makes this different from other redirect checkers?

Most redirect checkers give you a flat list of URLs. This tool goes deeper with four layers of analysis. A color-coded status banner shows an instant pass/fail verdict. A 17-point SEO engine checks chain length, redirect type consistency, protocol downgrades, query string loss, soft 404 patterns, and missing HSTS headers. A visual chain diagram maps each hop with domain change labels (www normalization, subdomain change, or cross-domain redirect) along with protocol indicators and timing data. And a raw HTTP view gives you the full curl -v output with syntax highlighting. Every issue includes specific fix instructions for Nginx, Apache, and Cloudflare, not just a description of the problem but the exact config directive to add or change.

Visual HTTP Redirect Checker

See exactly where your URLs go. Trace every redirect hop visually with full HTTP headers, SEO analysis, and actionable fix recommendations. Test as Googlebot or any user-agent — catch loops, broken chains, and ranking-killing redirects before search engines do.

“A redirect chain longer than 3 hops is a performance problem disguised as configuration.”

Written by Ishan Karunaratne · Last reviewed: March 11, 2026

How Does the Visual HTTP Redirect Checker Work?

Enter any URL and watch the redirect chain unfold in real time. The checker makes an HTTP GET request from our server and follows every 3xx redirect response until it reaches a final destination (2xx) or encounters an error. Each hop is streamed to your browser as it's discovered — you see the chain build hop-by-hop, not just the final result.

For each hop, the checker captures the full URL, the HTTP status code and reason phrase, all response headers including the Location header, the resolved IP address, and response timing in milliseconds. Results are presented in multiple views: a visual redirect chain diagram with domain change indicators, a full response headers table for each hop, and a raw cURL-style HTTP transaction log with syntax highlighting.

The built-in 17-point SEO analysis engine automatically evaluates the chain for issues that damage your search rankings: excessive hops that waste crawl budget, temporary redirects losing link equity, missing HSTS headers, protocol downgrades, query string stripping, redirect-to-homepage patterns (soft 404s), mixed redirect types, DNS failures, and broken chains. Every issue comes with specific fix instructions for Nginx, Apache, and Cloudflare. Switch user-agents to test how Googlebot, Bingbot, or mobile browsers experience the chain.

What Are the HTTP Redirect Status Codes?

The HTTP/1.1 specification ( RFC 9110 Section 15.4) defines six redirect status codes. Each has different semantics for caching, method preservation, and SEO impact.

301

Moved Permanently

RFC 9110 §15.4.2

The target resource has been assigned a new permanent URI. The response is cacheable by default. Search engines transfer link equity to the new URL and update their index. The client MAY change the request method from POST to GET for the redirected request. Use for site migrations, domain consolidation, and permanent URL restructuring.

302

Found

RFC 9110 §15.4.3

The target resource resides temporarily under a different URI. The client SHOULD continue to use the original URI for future requests. The response is not cacheable unless indicated by Cache-Control or Expires headers. Search engines keep the original URL indexed and do not transfer link equity. Use only when the move is genuinely temporary.

303

See Other

RFC 9110 §15.4.4

The server is redirecting the client to a different resource using GET, regardless of the original request method. This is the correct code for the Post/Redirect/Get (PRG) pattern — after a form submission, redirect the user to a confirmation page with 303. Unlike 302, the method change to GET is explicitly required.

307

Temporary Redirect

RFC 9110 §15.4.8

Like 302, but the client MUST NOT change the request method. If the original request was POST, the redirected request must also be POST. This was introduced to resolve the historical ambiguity of 302 where browsers would change POST to GET. Use 307 for temporary redirects where method preservation matters, such as API endpoints.

308

Permanent Redirect

RFC 9110 §15.4.9

Like 301, but the client MUST NOT change the request method. The response is cacheable by default. Use 308 when you need permanent redirect semantics with method preservation — for example, a permanently moved API endpoint that accepts POST/PUT requests.

What Are the Key Response Headers in Redirect Chains?

Beyond the status code, several HTTP headers carry critical information during redirect chains. This tool captures and highlights all of them.

Header	Purpose	RFC
Location	The URI the client should follow for the next hop in the redirect chain. Required for all 3xx redirects.	RFC 9110 §10.2.2
Strict-Transport-Security	HSTS policy. Tells browsers to always use HTTPS, eliminating HTTP → HTTPS redirect hops on subsequent visits.	RFC 6797 §6.1
Cache-Control	Controls whether the redirect response is cached by browsers and proxies. 301/308 are cacheable by default; 302/307 are not.	RFC 9111 §5.2
X-Robots-Tag	Can contain noindex, nofollow, or none directives. If present on the final destination, search engines won't index the page despite the redirect chain.	Google spec
Retry-After	When present on a 3xx response, indicates how long the client should wait before following the redirect. Often used with 503 but valid on redirects.	RFC 9110 §10.2.3
Referrer-Policy	Controls how much referrer information is sent when following the redirect. Important when redirecting across domains.	W3C spec

What Are Redirect Best Practices?

1. Collapse chains to a single hop

If http://example.com redirects to https://example.com which redirects to https://www.example.com, configure all three origins to redirect directly to the final canonical URL in a single 301. Each hop costs a full HTTP round-trip and dilutes link equity.

2. Use 301 for permanent moves, not 302

A common mistake is using 302 (Found) for permanent URL changes. Per RFC 9110 Section 15.4.2, 301 responses are cacheable by default and signal permanence to search engines. 302 redirects do not pass full link equity and keep the original URL as canonical.

3. Deploy HSTS after confirming HTTPS works

After verifying your HTTPS redirect is correct, add the Strict-Transport-Security header with a long max-age (at least 1 year / 31536000 seconds). This eliminates the HTTP → HTTPS redirect hop entirely for returning visitors — the browser performs an internal 307 redirect without ever making an insecure request.

4. Test with Googlebot's user-agent

Some servers, CDNs, and WAFs redirect differently based on the User-Agent header. Always verify that Googlebot sees the same redirect chain as regular browsers. Cloaking (serving different content to crawlers) violates Google's webmaster guidelines and can result in manual penalties.

5. Update internal links to final URLs

After setting up redirects, update all internal links, sitemaps, and canonical tags to point directly to the final destination URL. This reduces unnecessary redirect hops for both users and crawlers, and avoids wasting crawl budget on redirect chains.

Every check this tool runs is also available via the redirect chain API with examples in cURL, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Ruby, and Java.

API docs

Built and maintained alongside this tool. Free, no signup required.

HTTP header checkerFull timing waterfall, TLS details, request and response headers.Robots.txt validatorCrawl access rules and sitemap directives.SEO auditCatch SEO impact of long redirect chains.HTTP status code referenceEvery code explained with examples.

Visual HTTP Redirect Checker

“A redirect chain longer than 3 hops is a performance problem disguised as configuration.”

How Does the Visual HTTP Redirect Checker Work?

What Are the HTTP Redirect Status Codes?

Moved Permanently

Found

See Other

Temporary Redirect

Permanent Redirect

What Are the Key Response Headers in Redirect Chains?

What Are Redirect Best Practices?

1. Collapse chains to a single hop

2. Use 301 for permanent moves, not 302

3. Deploy HSTS after confirming HTTPS works

4. Test with Googlebot's user-agent

5. Update internal links to final URLs

What Other Tools Help With Redirect Analysis?

HTTP Inspector

HTTP Security Headers

HTTP Status Codes

SPF Record Checker

DNS Inspector

Security Scanner

On-Page SEO Auditor

Frequently Asked Questions

Visual HTTP Redirect Checker

“A redirect chain longer than 3 hops is a performance problem disguised as configuration.”

How Does the Visual HTTP Redirect Checker Work?

What Are the HTTP Redirect Status Codes?

Moved Permanently

Found

See Other

Temporary Redirect

Permanent Redirect

What Are the Key Response Headers in Redirect Chains?

What Are Redirect Best Practices?

1. Collapse chains to a single hop

2. Use 301 for permanent moves, not 302

3. Deploy HSTS after confirming HTTPS works

4. Test with Googlebot's user-agent

5. Update internal links to final URLs

What Other Tools Help With Redirect Analysis?

HTTP Inspector

HTTP Security Headers

HTTP Status Codes

SPF Record Checker

DNS Inspector

Security Scanner

On-Page SEO Auditor

Related tools you might need

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a 301 and 302 redirect?

What are 307 and 308 redirects and when should I use them?

How do redirect chains affect SEO and crawl budget?

What is a redirect loop and how do I fix it?

What does the Location header do in a redirect response?

What is HSTS and how does it eliminate redirect hops?

How does the Cache-Control header affect redirect caching?

Why should I test redirects with different user-agents like Googlebot?

What is the 303 See Other redirect and when is it used?

What HTTP headers should I check on the final destination?

How do I read the raw HTTP transaction view?

What makes this different from other redirect checkers?