SEO Migration Redirect Checker
Paste your old URLs, with the new URL each should reach, and check the live redirects in bulk. See every hop, spot chains, loops, temporary redirects, wrong destinations, 404 targets and noindex pages, then export the report.
- Up to 500 URLs per run
- Every hop and final status
- Finds chains, loops and soft 404s
Need the redirect code first? Build it with the Redirect Rule Generator, or match old and new URLs with the Redirect Mapping Tool.
Everything that can go wrong with a migration redirect
For every old URL the tool follows the redirects like a crawler and judges the whole journey, not just the first response.
Status code of each hop
301 and 308 are permanent. 302, 307 and 303 are temporary and are flagged, because they keep the old URL in the index.
The final destination
If you give the expected new URL, the tool compares it with where the redirect actually ends, and says exactly how they differ.
Chains and loops
More than one hop is a chain. The same URL twice is a loop. Both waste crawl budget and break visits.
Health of the target page
A redirect to a 404, 410 or 5xx page is a broken migration. These are marked as failures.
Indexability
A noindex tag or X-Robots-Tag on the destination, or a canonical that points somewhere else, stops the new page from ranking.
Soft 404 patterns
Redirects to the home page or to a page titled like an error are treated by Google as soft 404s.
The issues the checker flags and how to fix them
Each finding comes with a plain-language message. These are the ones you will see most often.
| Finding | Why it matters | How to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong destination | Visitors and Google land on a different page than you planned, so rankings may not transfer. | Correct the rule for that old URL in your server config or redirect map. |
| Not redirected | The old URL still answers 200 or 404 instead of sending visitors on. | Add the missing redirect. Check rule order and caching. |
| Temporary redirect (302, 307) | Search engines may keep the old URL indexed and not pass full signals. | Change it to 301 or 308 for a permanent move. |
| Redirect chain | Each extra hop slows the page and uses crawl budget. Google stops after 10. | Point the old URL straight at the final address. |
| Redirect loop | The URL never resolves. Browsers show an error. | Find the two rules that send it back and forth and remove one. |
| Noindex or canonical elsewhere | The destination won't be indexed as itself. | Remove the noindex (often left on from staging) or fix the canonical tag. |
| Redirects to home | Unrelated redirects are treated as soft 404s. | Redirect to the closest equivalent page, or return 410. |
How to verify your migration redirects
Run the check as soon as the redirects are live, and again after every fix.
Collect your old URLs
Use your redirect map, a crawl of the old site or Search Console's top pages. Add the expected new URL after each one if you have it.
Paste and run
Paste the list or upload a CSV. Add the new domain if you only listed old URLs. The tool checks them in batches.
Read the results
Start with the failures, then the warnings. Open any row to see the full path, the findings and the page's canonical and robots settings.
Fix and re-check
Correct the redirects on your server, then use Re-check failed URLs. Download the report as a record of the migration.
What to check after a site migration
Redirects are the biggest part of a migration, but not the only one. This is the short list I work through.
Top URLs first
Check the pages with the most traffic, links and rankings before anything else. They carry the risk.
Sitemap and robots.txt
The new sitemap should list only final URLs, and robots.txt must not block the new site. Check both with the sitemap and robots tools.
Internal links and canonicals
Update internal links, canonical tags and hreflang to the new URLs so crawlers don't rely on redirects.
Search Console
Add the new property, watch crawl errors, coverage and the performance report for drops in the following weeks.
Keep redirects for a year
Leave redirects in place for at least a year, and longer if old URLs still have backlinks.
Re-check regularly
Re-run the checker after releases and CMS updates, which sometimes remove or reorder redirect rules.
What a migration redirect checker verifies after a site move
After a redesign, replatform or domain change, the redirects are only a plan until someone requests the old URLs and reads what comes back. A migration redirect checker does that in bulk. It visits each old URL, follows the redirects the way a crawler would, and compares the final page with the one you intended.
Checking in bulk matters because redirect faults repeat. One bad rule or one missing pattern can break hundreds of URLs, and opening ten of them in a browser rarely shows the pattern. Google's own site move advice is to test redirects with the URL Inspection tool for single URLs and with scripts or command-line tools for large numbers.
The check goes past the status code. A redirect can return a clean 301 and still end somewhere wrong: a different page, an error, a page marked noindex, or a page whose canonical points back at the old address. The tool reads the destination too, which is where a move most often fails quietly. It checks the redirects that exist on the live site, so it is the last step after the map is planned and the rules are deployed.
When to run a migration redirect check
Run it on launch day, again after fixes, and again whenever a release could touch the redirect layer.
On launch day
As soon as the new site is live, run the full old URL list. Wrong destinations and missing redirects cost the most in the first hours.
To test the top URLs first
Start with the pages that carry traffic, rankings and links. If time is short, a clean result on these is worth more than a sample of the rest.
To find leftover noindex tags
A noindex tag copied from staging to production stops the new page from being indexed. The checker reads the destination's robots settings and canonical.
After a CMS or plugin update
Updates can remove or reorder redirect rules. Re-run the list after a release to confirm that older redirects still work.
For a client or developer sign-off
Download the report as a record that each old URL reaches its planned page, with the exceptions listed and a fix noted for each.
Weeks after the move
Run it again a few weeks later. Redirects dropped during cleanup, or a CDN rule changed, show up as old URLs that no longer redirect.
Migration redirect mistakes and how to fix them
The common failures are quiet ones: a redirect that exists but lands in the wrong place.
Checking a sample of ten URLs
What goes wrong: A handful of home and category URLs can look perfect while a whole pattern of product or blog URLs is broken.
The fix: Test the complete list, or at least the full list of pages with traffic, links or rankings. Group failures by pattern, since one rule often explains many rows.
Stopping at the status code
What goes wrong: A 301 shows a redirect exists, not that it goes to the right place. Wrong destinations and redirects to unrelated pages pass a status-only check.
The fix: Give the tool the expected new URL for each row so it can compare the final address and report how it differs.
Redirecting to a page that is not indexable
What goes wrong: The new page returns 200 but carries a noindex tag, a canonical pointing to the old URL, or a robots rule left over from staging.
The fix: Remove staging directives from production and set a self-referencing canonical on each new page. Re-check the destination afterwards.
Leaving temporary redirects in place
What goes wrong: A migration done with 302 or 307 sends a weak signal. Google treats a temporary redirect as a weaker hint that the target should replace the old URL.
The fix: Switch to 301 or 308 for permanent moves. Server-side permanent redirects are the method Google recommends.
Chains created by the new site
What goes wrong: The old URL redirects to an intermediate address, which then redirects again because of HTTPS, host or trailing-slash rules. Visitors and crawlers pay for every hop.
The fix: Point each old URL straight at the final URL. Google advises redirecting to the final destination directly, and ideally keeping any unavoidable chain short.
Reading blocked checks as failures
What goes wrong: A firewall or bot protection can answer the checker with 403 or 429 even though visitors see a normal page, so the row looks broken when it is not.
The fix: Allow the check temporarily, or confirm those URLs in a browser or crawler. Do not rewrite working redirects on a blocked result.
Migration redirect terms explained
- Site migration
- A change to a site's domain, structure, platform or URLs. Search engines must learn the new addresses, and redirects carry visitors and signals across.
- Expected destination
- The new URL you intend an old URL to reach. Supplying it lets the checker flag a redirect that works but ends on a different page.
- Wrong destination
- A redirect that completes normally but lands somewhere other than planned, so the page that replaces the old one is not the page you chose.
- Redirect chain
- More than one redirect between an old URL and its final page. It slows visits, and Google recommends redirecting straight to the final destination.
- Noindex
- A robots meta tag or
X-Robots-Tagheader that asks search engines not to index a page. On a redirect target it keeps the new page out of results. - Soft 404
- A page that reads as missing but returns a success code, or a redirect to an unrelated page. Google can report these under that label.
- Self-referencing canonical
- A canonical tag on a page that names the page's own URL. After a move, each new page should use its new address, not the old one.
- Re-check
- Running only the failed rows again after a fix. It confirms the correction without waiting for the whole list to be tested again.
Related tools, guides and services
The redirect check is one part of the post-launch routine. These cover the rest.
Redirect Checker
Trace one URL hop by hop with headers and timing when a row needs a closer look.
ToolCanonical URL Checker
Confirm that new pages declare their own address as canonical, not the old one.
ToolXML Sitemap Validator
Check the new sitemap lists only live final URLs and no redirected ones.
GuideRedesign SEO migration checklist
Follow the whole sequence: inventory, redirect map, QA, launch and monitoring.
GuidePages not indexed: causes and fixes
Use the Search Console statuses to trace why a new page is still missing.
ServiceSEO migration service
Have a specialist plan and verify the redirects for your site move.
Built by
Madhav Kushwaha
SEO, AEO, GEO & Digital Marketing Consultant in Kathmandu, Nepal, and trainer at ODcrU Academy and TechAxis Institute. I built this checker because the day after a launch is when redirect mistakes cost the most, and spot-checking ten URLs in a browser misses the pattern. The checks mirror what I run on client migrations: status code, hops, destination, indexability and canonical of the page the redirect lands on.
SEO Migration Redirect Checker: Frequently Asked Questions
More free SEO tools
A migration check covers redirects, the sitemap, robots.txt and the pages themselves. These tools cover each part.