How To Track The Redirect Path Of A URL In DevTools – SEOSLY

Updated: September 29, 2024.

In this quick guide, I’ll explain how to track the redirect path of a URL using Chrome DevTools. This method is quick and requires no additional tools or plugins beyond Chrome itself.

If you’re more of a visual learner, I also invite you to watch my video where I demonstrate these steps in real time. You’ll be able to follow along as I explain how to inspect redirects in Chrome DevTools.

Steps to Track Redirects Using Chrome DevTools

Here is the video version:

Here is the written version:

1. Open Chrome DevTools. To get started, open Chrome DevTools. There are two ways to do this:
   • Right-click anywhere on the page and select “Inspect” from the dropdown.Alternatively, press Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows (or Cmd+Option+I on Mac).

   This will open the DevTools panel, which contains all the tools you need to analyze the network requests for the page.

2. Navigate to the Network Tab. Once DevTools is open, find the Network tab at the top. This tab allows you to see all the network activity, including HTTP requests, responses, and redirects. If you don’t see any data, make sure the network activity recording button is toggled on (red dot).
3. Reload the Page. After opening the Network tab, you need to reload the page to capture all the requests. Press F5 or Ctrl+R (on Mac, press Cmd+R) to refresh the page. This will cause the browser to send a fresh set of network requests, including any redirects that may occur.
4. Locate Redirects in the Network Log. In the list of network requests that appear, look for multiple entries that correspond to the same resource. The first request will typically show the initial URL, and if there’s a redirect, subsequent requests will follow. Redirects will be displayed as separate rows, showing how the browser followed the chain.
5. Inspect the Headers for Redirect Details. To see where the redirect is sending the browser, click on one of the requests. Then, go to the Headers tab on the right. Scroll down to the Response Headers section. Look for the Location header—this is where you will see the destination URL for the redirect. You can click through each step of the chain to inspect all the URLs involved in the redirection process.
6. Check the Final Status Code. Once you reach the last request, check the status code. A 200 OK status indicates that the final page has been loaded successfully. However, if the page ends with a 404 or another error status, there may be issues with the redirect chain that need further investigation.

Other Tools You Can Use to Track Redirects

While Chrome DevTools is a great tool for tracking redirects, there are also other methods and tools that might suit your needs, especially if you need to track redirects in bulk:

• Link Redirect Trace (Chrome Extension) is a lightweight tool for checking redirect chains directly in your browser.
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider can crawl your entire site and help you find any problematic redirects. It’s especially useful for large websites with many URLs.