{"id":14364,"date":"2010-07-30T21:24:42","date_gmt":"2010-07-30T15:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/?p=14364"},"modified":"2026-10-13T13:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T08:08:43","slug":"verify-301-redirects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Verify 301 Redirects (and Fix Chains and 302s) in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ask any SEO and they will tell you 301 redirects are essential when URLs change. But redirects are often set up by a developer or a plugin, and it is common to find a temporary 302, a chain of several hops, or a loop instead of a clean 301. It only takes a minute to verify 301 redirects, and doing so protects the rankings and links of your old pages. Here is how to <strong>verify 301 redirects<\/strong> in 2026, updated from Nick LeRoy&#8217;s original guest post.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-64154\" src=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/verify-301-redirects-1024x538.webp\" alt=\"How to verify 301 redirects\" width=\"1024\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/verify-301-redirects-1024x538.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/verify-301-redirects-300x158.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/verify-301-redirects-150x79.webp 150w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/verify-301-redirects-768x403.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/verify-301-redirects.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick answer:<\/strong> Run <code>curl -I -L https:\/\/old-url<\/code> in a terminal, or open DevTools (F12) &gt; Network with &#8220;Preserve log&#8221; ticked and load the old URL. The first response should show status <strong>301<\/strong> (or 308) and a <code>Location<\/code> header pointing straight to the final URL, which returns 200. Online redirect checkers, the Redirect Path extension and crawlers like Screaming Frog do the same in bulk.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_88 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ad2760447f2f\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"ez-toc-cssicon\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ad2760447f2f\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#301_vs_302_vs_307_vs_308\" >301 vs 302 vs 307 vs 308<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#5_ways_to_verify_301_redirects\" >5 ways to verify 301 redirects<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#1_Browser_DevTools\" >1. Browser DevTools<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#2_curl_in_a_terminal\" >2. curl in a terminal<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#3_An_online_redirect_checker\" >3. An online redirect checker<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#4_A_browser_extension\" >4. A browser extension<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#5_Crawl_the_whole_site\" >5. Crawl the whole site<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#Common_redirect_problems_to_fix\" >Common redirect problems to fix<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#Dont_miss_free_link_equity\" >Don&#8217;t miss free link equity<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#FAQ\" >FAQ<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#How_long_should_I_keep_301_redirects\" >How long should I keep 301 redirects?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#Do_301_redirects_hurt_SEO\" >Do 301 redirects hurt SEO?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-13\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/verify-301-redirects\/#How_do_I_add_a_301_redirect_in_WordPress\" >How do I add a 301 redirect in WordPress?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"301_vs_302_vs_307_vs_308\"><\/span>301 vs 302 vs 307 vs 308<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>301 Moved Permanently:<\/strong> the standard permanent redirect. Search engines replace the old URL with the new one and pass its signals.<\/li>\n<li><strong>308 Permanent Redirect:<\/strong> like 301 but keeps the request method; fine for SEO too.<\/li>\n<li><strong>302 Found and 307 Temporary:<\/strong> temporary moves. Google may keep the old URL indexed; if a &#8220;temporary&#8221; redirect stays for months, Google may treat it as permanent, but don&#8217;t rely on that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Google has said 301s no longer lose PageRank, so the old worry about losing a percentage of value is gone. What still hurts is the wrong code, long chains, loops and redirects to irrelevant pages.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"5_ways_to_verify_301_redirects\"><\/span>5 ways to verify 301 redirects<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Browser_DevTools\"><\/span>1. Browser DevTools<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Press F12, open <strong>Network<\/strong> and tick <strong>Preserve log<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Load the old URL. The first row shows the status (301) and, in Headers, the <code>Location<\/code> it points to.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_curl_in_a_terminal\"><\/span>2. curl in a terminal<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<pre><code>curl -I -L https:\/\/example.com\/old-page\/<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>This prints the headers for every hop, so you can count them. Windows 10 and 11 include curl.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_An_online_redirect_checker\"><\/span>3. An online redirect checker<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/httpstatus.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">httpstatus.io<\/a><\/strong> checks many URLs at once and shows each hop and status code.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"4_A_browser_extension\"><\/span>4. A browser extension<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Extensions such as Ayima&#8217;s Redirect Path show redirect codes in the toolbar as you browse. (The original post used the Fiddler debugging proxy, which still works but is more than most people need.)<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"5_Crawl_the_whole_site\"><\/span>5. Crawl the whole site<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.screamingfrog.co.uk\/seo-spider\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Screaming Frog SEO Spider<\/a><\/strong> (free up to 500 URLs) lists every redirect, chain and loop. Google Search Console&#8217;s Pages report also shows &#8220;Page with redirect&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Common_redirect_problems_to_fix\"><\/span>Common redirect problems to fix<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>302 instead of 301:<\/strong> change permanent moves to 301 in your plugin, <code>.htaccess<\/code> or server config.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Redirect chains:<\/strong> http &gt; https &gt; www &gt; new URL. Point every old URL straight to the final one.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Loops:<\/strong> A redirects to B and B back to A; the page never loads.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Internal links to redirected URLs:<\/strong> update them to the final URL. Here&#8217;s how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2020\/04\/find-remove-internal-broken-links\/\">find and fix broken internal links<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Everything to the homepage:<\/strong> Google treats irrelevant redirects as soft 404s. Redirect to the closest matching page, or return <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2014\/11\/http-410-error-pages-htaccess\/\">410 Gone<\/a> if nothing matches.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Dont_miss_free_link_equity\"><\/span>Don&#8217;t miss free link equity<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Check Search Console or your SEO tool for external links pointing to pages that now return 404. A 301 to the closest live page recovers that value, a tactic we also used to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2020\/03\/link-juice-from-deleted-subdomains\/\">recover link juice from deleted subdomains<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"FAQ\"><\/span>FAQ<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_long_should_I_keep_301_redirects\"><\/span>How long should I keep 301 redirects?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>At least a year, and ideally permanently for URLs that have backlinks.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Do_301_redirects_hurt_SEO\"><\/span>Do 301 redirects hurt SEO?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>No, when they point to a relevant page in one hop. Chains and irrelevant targets are the problem.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_do_I_add_a_301_redirect_in_WordPress\"><\/span>How do I add a 301 redirect in WordPress?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Use Rank Math&#8217;s Redirections module or the Redirection plugin, or add rules to <code>.htaccess<\/code>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Originally written by guest author Nick LeRoy, then a search marketing specialist at Minnesota web design firm DKS Systems. Updated for 2026 by QuickOnlineTips.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ask any SEO and they will tell you 301 redirects are essential when URLs change. But redirects are often set&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":64154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,41],"tags":[44,49],"class_list":["post-14364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-google","category-search-engine-optimization","tag-guest-posts","tag-tutorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14364"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65346,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14364\/revisions\/65346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}