Free redirect chain checker
Trace any URL through every 301, 302, 307, meta refresh, and JS redirect. See per-hop timing and the exact SEO impact on backlinks pointing through the chain.
No signup. No credit card. 10 free checks per hour per IP.
Summary
Redirect chain
What this tool checks
- Redirect chain integrity — every 301, 302, 303, 307, 308, meta-refresh, and JavaScript-based hop.
- HTTP status code per hop — including network errors and the final destination response.
- Response timing — TTFB and total time per hop so you can spot slow servers in the chain.
- SEO impact on backlinks — does each hop preserve, degrade, or lose link equity from inbound backlinks?
- Loop detection — catches infinite redirect cycles that crawlers silently abandon.
- Meta refresh & JS redirects — invisible to most simple checkers, flagged here.
How to use
- Paste your URL. Any URL — old page that should redirect, a backlink target, a tracking link.
- Click "Trace redirects". We follow every hop server-side, with a 30-second total budget and 10-hop max.
- Read the SEO impact verdict. The status panel tells you immediately whether backlinks survive this chain.
Why redirect chains matter for backlinks
Most "redirect checker" tools tell you the final URL and stop there. But if you're managing paid backlinks or running an outreach program, what you actually need to know is whether your backlinks still pass value through the chain you're seeing.
Google's 2016 update made 301 (permanent) redirects effectively lossless for link equity. But long chains, 302s, meta refresh tags, and JavaScript redirects all still create problems — and most tools won't tell you which.
The five most common ways redirect chains break backlinks
- A clean 301 silently flips to a 302 after a CMS or middleware update. Equity transfer slows or stops.
- The chain grows beyond 5 hops. Googlebot abandons long chains — backlinks pointing at the original URL essentially die.
- One hop changes the canonical tag to point at an unrelated URL, hijacking the link equity you've paid for.
- The final page returns 200 but ships a JavaScript redirect. Most crawlers stop here — they see the HTML body but never the destination.
- A redirect loop is introduced. Pages depend on cookies or session state, creating chains that work in a browser but loop infinitely for crawlers.
We built this tool because no free utility we could find answered the actual SEO question: does my backlink still work? It's the same question our paid product answers automatically for every link in your portfolio, every day.
Frequently asked questions
How many redirects is too many?
Googlebot generally follows up to 5 hops reliably. Beyond that, the crawler may stop and treat the chain as a soft 404, meaning backlinks pointing through long chains lose value. Best practice: collapse intermediate hops into a single 301.
Does a 301 redirect pass link juice?
Yes. Since 2016 Google has stated that 301 (permanent) redirects pass essentially 100% of link equity to the destination URL — the older ~15% penalty is gone.
Is 302 bad for SEO?
302 is treated as temporary, which can slow how quickly link equity transfers. Google now treats long-lived 302s as if they were 301s, but using 301 from day one is best practice when the change is permanent.
What's a redirect loop?
A chain where URL A redirects to URL B, which eventually redirects back to URL A (sometimes via several hops). Browsers usually stop after a few iterations, but crawlers treat looped chains as broken — backlinks pointing into them have no useful destination.
What's the difference between 301 and 308?
Both are permanent redirects. 301 may be converted from POST to GET by some clients; 308 enforces the original method strictly. For SEO purposes Google treats them identically.
Can Google follow JavaScript redirects?
Googlebot can sometimes follow JS redirects after rendering, but most other crawlers and link-monitoring tools cannot. Server-side 301 is always safer for SEO.
Why do my backlinks keep getting marked as lost in other tools?
Most monitoring tools use simple HTTP fetchers and miss JavaScript-rendered content. LinkGuard's paid product uses real-browser fallback (Browserbase) to eliminate these false positives.
How can I monitor redirect chains on hundreds of backlinks at once?
That's exactly what our paid product does — checks every link in your portfolio every day, flags chain changes the moment a clean 301 turns into something dodgy. Start free with 1000 tokens.
Last updated: 2026-05-19