Trace the exact starting URL

Test what users, backlinks or crawlers actually request. HTTP versus HTTPS, www versus apex and a trailing slash can each trigger a different rule.

Reveal every hop

Follow the chain and see the status, URL and Location value at each step.

Open Redirect Checker

Know what the status communicates

301 and 308 communicate a permanent move. 302 and 307 are temporary. The 307 and 308 variants preserve the request method, which matters for non-GET requests.

Prefer one intentional hop

If an old URL must move, point it directly to the final canonical destination. Avoid sequences such as HTTP → HTTPS → www → new path when one rule can reach the same result.

Look for ownership across layers

A chain can be split between registrar forwarding, CDN rules, reverse proxy configuration, the CMS and application middleware. Change the layer that owns the redirect instead of adding another rule on top.

Never simplify blindly.

Confirm that campaign URLs, locale routes, authentication callbacks and POST requests still behave correctly before removing a redirect.