Free Redirect Checker

Apache (.htaccess)

1. Open .htaccess in your site root via SSH or hosting file manager.
2. Add: RewriteEngine On (must be first directive).
3. For single redirects: Redirect 301 /old-page /new-page
4. For pattern redirects: RewriteRule ^old/(.*)$ /new/$1 [R=301,L,QSA]
5. Save and test with curl -I https://yoursite.com/old-page — must show "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently".

Nginx

1. Open your site config in /etc/nginx/sites-available/yoursite.
2. Inside the server block: location /old-page { return 301 /new-page; }
3. For pattern matches: location ~ ^/old/(.*)$ { return 301 /new/$1; }
4. Test config: nginx -t — must report "syntax is ok".
5. Reload: systemctl reload nginx and verify with curl -I.

Cloudflare

1. Log into Cloudflare dashboard and select your domain.
2. Navigate to Rules > Redirect Rules.
3. Click Create Rule and choose Single Redirect or Bulk Redirect.
4. Set source URL pattern, target URL, and status code (always 301 for permanent moves).
5. Deploy the rule, then test with curl -I from a non-Cloudflare network or our checker.

Vercel (next.config.js)

1. Open next.config.js in your Next.js project root.
2. Add: async redirects() { return [{ source: "/old", destination: "/new", permanent: true }]; }
3. permanent: true emits 308 (treated as 301 by Google); permanent: false emits 307.
4. Deploy: vercel --prod (redirects do not hot-reload).
5. Test with curl -I https://yoursite.com/old.

WordPress (Redirection plugin)

1. Install the Redirection plugin from the WP plugin directory.
2. Navigate to Tools > Redirection in admin.
3. Click Add New, enter source URL and target URL.
4. Set HTTP code to 301 (default in this plugin, unlike core WP which uses 302).
5. Save and test the redirect with our checker — verify status is 301 and chain is single-hop.

ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS in browser

Cause: A redirect loop exists between two URLs that point back to each other.

Fix: Identify the cycle in our checker output. Most often this is HTTP-vs-HTTPS or www-vs-non-www rules conflicting. Pick one canonical URL pattern and rewrite all rules to point at it directly.

Status reports 302 when 301 was intended

Cause: Platform default fell through (WordPress, Shopify, and some plugins emit 302 unless explicitly told otherwise).

Fix: Add explicit status code: in Apache use [R=301,L], in Nginx use return 301, in Next.js set permanent: true. Re-test our checker until it reports 301.

Redirect chain 4+ hops deep

Cause: Multiple migrations introduced redirects without flattening previous ones.

Fix: Update each intermediate redirect to point directly at the final destination URL. The chain should resolve in one hop. Re-run the checker to verify.

Final destination returns 404

Cause: Old URL redirected to a page that has since been deleted, leaving the redirect orphaned.

Fix: Either restore the destination, redirect to a new relevant page, or change the original 301 to 410 (Gone) so search engines deindex the old URL cleanly.

Query strings dropped across redirect

Cause: Redirect rule did not include query-string preservation flag.

Fix: Apache: add [QSA] flag. Nginx: use $request_uri. Cloudflare and Vercel: enable preserve query string in the rule editor. Re-test with a URL containing utm_source=test.

Redirect works in browser but not for Googlebot

Cause: Server-side rule excludes user-agent matching Googlebot, or robots.txt blocks the destination.

Fix: Check server logs for actual Googlebot requests. Remove any user-agent exclusions in redirect rules. Verify robots.txt does not Disallow the new URL path.

HTTPS redirect chains with non-www redirect

Cause: Two separate rules apply: HTTP-to-HTTPS first, then non-www-to-www second.

Fix: Combine into a single sitewide rule: any HTTP request 301 directly to https://www.canonicaldomain.com/{path}. Eliminates the intermediate hop.

Redirect cached aggressively in browser

Cause: Browsers cache 301 redirects for up to 1 year and ignore changes.

Fix: Test in incognito or curl with -H "Cache-Control: no-cache". To clear user-side cache faster, switch to a 302 temporarily, deploy the new 301 target, then re-deploy as 301 once propagated.