Trace URL Redirects and View All Your Hops with our Redirect Checker

A redirect tells a browser or crawler that a URL has moved. A chain of them is normal when a site adds HTTPS, a www host, or a campaign path before the final page. The same chain can hide loops, extra hops, and a drop from HTTPS back to plain HTTP.

Marketing links run into this often. A vanity URL, an old landing page, or a domain from a rebrand still has to arrive at the current address. Tracing the hops shows whether the path is short, whether the status codes match what you intended, and whether each hop is still encrypted.

Trace Redirects Tool

Enter a full URL, including the http:// or https:// scheme. Trace Redirects follows the chain and lists every hop. Each row shows the status code. Hover the status for a short description of that code. After the URL, a pill reports the SSL result: Insecure (http://), Invalid SSL, or Valid SSL. Hover the pill for the certificate details.

What the SSL Pill Reports

• Insecure (http://): The address is plain HTTP. No TLS certificate is presented. If the previous hop was HTTPS, the tip also notes that the redirect stepped down to an unencrypted connection.
• Valid SSL: The certificate verified. The tip lists who it was issued to, the issuer, the validation type when the certificate includes one (domain validation (DV), organization validation (OV), or extended validation (EV)), the key, the signature, and the dates it is valid, in UTC. A valid certificate is not the same as a page that accepted the request. A 403 or another block can still sit on a certificate that checks out.
• Invalid SSL: HTTPS was offered, but the certificate failed verification. Common causes are an expired certificate, a hostname that does not match, a self-signed certificate, or an issuer the client does not trust. The tip leads with that reason, then lists the same certificate fields. If the server still answers, the hop keeps its status so you can see where the chain goes.

Why Marketers Trace Redirects

• Preserve SEO Value: A 301 keeps the old URL contributing to search equity when a page moves.
• Keep Campaign Links Current: Custom and vanity URLs should land on the live offer, not an intermediate host you didn’t mean to expose.
• Carry Traffic Through a Rebrand: Domain and host changes need a direct path so visitors and crawlers are not left on the old name.
• Catch a Dead End: A hop that ends on a missing page is a broken link, even when the earlier statuses looked fine.

Common Redirect Problems

• Redirect Loops: Two or more URLs send the browser back and forth until it stops and shows an error. The trace repeats the URL and reports the loop.
• Long Chains: Each extra hop adds a round trip. Point the first redirect at the final URL when you can.
• Broken Targets: The last hop returns an error, or the chain stops because the host could not be reached. Update the rule to point to a page that exists.
• A Step Down to HTTP: An HTTPS URL that redirects to http:// is flagged as insecure. The rest of the path isn’t encrypted.
• A Bad Certificate on a Live Hop: Invalid SSL can appear on a hop that still returns 200. The page answered, but clients that verify certificates will not treat that connection as safe.

Trace Redirects reads the chain the way a visitor meets it: the status code, the URL at each hop, and whether the certificate held.