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Redirect Checker for http, https, www and Non-www

Your site has four front doors: http and https, with and without www. We open each one, follow the redirects one hop at a time and show the status code, Location header and time of every hop, then tell you whether they all end at the same address.

Test a live site

What a clean setup looks like

Pick one version of the site (https with or without www, either works) and send the other three straight to it with one permanent redirect each. For example, with https://example.com/ as the main address:

  • http://example.com/ → 301 → https://example.com/
  • http://www.example.com/ → 301 → https://example.com/
  • https://www.example.com/ → 301 → https://example.com/
  • https://example.com/ → 200

What each flag means

  • Temporary redirect: a 302, 303 or 307. Google's documentation treats 301 and 308 as permanent, which its indexing uses as a signal that the target should be canonical; 302, 303 and 307 are followed but not used that way. For moving between http/https and www/non-www you want 301 or 308.
  • More than one hop: for example http://www → https://www → https://. Each hop is another round trip for visitors. Google's crawlers follow up to 10 hops by default, so short chains still work, but one hop is cleaner.
  • Different final addresses: two versions end at different URLs, so the site is effectively served on two hosts.
  • Ends on http: a version is served without HTTPS.
  • Loop or too many redirects: the browser gives up with ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS. We stop after 10 hops.

Where redirects usually come from

  • The CDN: Cloudflare's HTTPS enforcement and redirect rules, or similar settings on other CDNs.
  • The web server: a return 301 line in nginx, or RewriteRule lines in Apache's .htaccess.
  • The application: WordPress redirects to the address in Settings > General (WordPress Address and Site Address), and many site builders have a primary domain setting.
  • The hosting panel: a "force HTTPS" or "redirect to www" switch.

When two layers redirect at once

Most chains and loops come from two layers that each redirect. A typical one: Cloudflare's SSL/TLS mode is Flexible (Cloudflare talks to your server over plain http) and the server redirects every http request to https. Cloudflare's documentation says this loops, and the fix is to remove the server's https redirect or switch the encryption mode to Full or higher, which needs a certificate on the server.

Choose one layer for the redirect, usually the one closest to the visitor, and turn the others off.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

301 or 308?

Both are permanent and Google treats them the same way. 308 also tells the client to keep the request method (a POST stays a POST), which matters for forms and APIs, not for page redirects.

Does it matter whether I use www or not?

Not for the choice itself. What matters is picking one and redirecting the others to it, so links, crawlers and analytics all see a single address.

My browser shows a different redirect than the checker. Why?

Browsers cache permanent redirects, and a site with HSTS makes the browser upgrade http to https on its own before any request (DevTools shows it as a 307 Internal Redirect). The checker always starts fresh.

Does a 302 hurt my site?

It doesn't break anything, but Google doesn't use a temporary redirect as a signal for which URL is canonical. Use 301 or 308 for permanent moves like http to https.

Guides

Guides that use this tool

Where this check comes up, and how to fix what it finds.

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