02 / Validation
Redirect testing confirms that redirects work exactly as planned before and after they go live. Migrations, URL changes, HTTPS moves, and domain consolidations all depend on hundreds or thousands of redirects, and a small mistake can remove pages from search for weeks.
The Redirects lesson in Technical SEO explains redirect types. This lesson focuses on validation: testing redirect maps, catching chains and loops, and monitoring after launch.
1. Why redirects need testing
Wrong targets
Pages redirect to the homepage or an unrelated page, often treated as soft 404s.
Chains
Old URL to interim URL to final URL, adding latency and losing clarity.
Loops
A redirects to B, which redirects back to A.
Wrong status
302 used where a permanent 301 or 308 is intended.
Missing rules
Old URLs with backlinks or traffic return 404.
Pattern errors
Regex rules that catch the wrong URLs or drop parameters.
2. Building a testable redirect map
A redirect map lists every old URL and its expected final URL. Collect old URLs from a crawl of the current site, the XML sitemap, Search Console, analytics landing pages, and backlink tools, so URLs that are no longer linked internally are not missed.
old_url,expected_target,expected_status
/shoes/trail-runner-2,/running-shoes/trail-runner-2/,301
/blog/2019/crawl-tips,/blog/crawl-tips/,301
/old-sale,/sale/,3013. Testing before launch
- Deploy rules to stagingTest with the same server or CDN configuration as production.
- Crawl the old URL listUse list mode to request every old URL on staging.
- Compare with the mapCheck final URL, status code, and number of hops for each row.
- Check final pagesConfirm targets return 200, are indexable, and are self-canonical.
- Fix and retestRepeat until every row matches.
The pre-launch checklist covers related launch checks.
4. What a passing redirect looks like
| Check | Pass condition |
|---|---|
| Status | 301 or 308 for permanent moves |
| Hops | One hop from old URL to final URL |
| Final status | 200 |
| Final URL | Matches the expected target in the map |
| Indexability | Final page is not noindex and canonicals to itself |
| Protocol and host | Final URL uses the preferred HTTPS hostname |
A failing redirect
301 to /products/trail-runner-2
301 to /running-shoes/trail-runner-2/Two hops.
301 to /running-shoes/trail-runner-2/One hop to the final URL.
Update old rules to point directly at final URLs when adding new redirects.
5. Testing after launch
- Recrawl the old URL list on productionConfirm results match staging.
- Crawl the new siteFind internal links that still point to redirected URLs.
- Update the sitemapList only final URLs that return 200.
- Monitor Search ConsoleWatch Page indexing, 404s, and crawl stats.
- Check logsConfirm Googlebot is requesting and following redirects.
SiteAuditLint flags redirect chains, redirect loops, internal links to redirects, non-200 sitemap URLs, and backlinked redirects.
6. How long to monitor
Keep redirects in place for at least a year, and ideally permanently for URLs with backlinks. Monitor closely for the first weeks after a migration, then include redirect checks in scheduled audits.
7. Practical exercise: Test a redirect map
Redirect testing checklist
0 of 9 tasks completed
Key takeaways
- Redirect testing validates targets, status codes, hops, and final pages.
- Build the redirect map from several data sources to avoid missing URLs.
- Test on staging with list mode before launch.
- A passing redirect is one hop to a 200, indexable, self-canonical page.
- Recrawl production and update internal links and sitemaps after launch.
- Keep redirects long term and monitor them in scheduled audits.
Knowledge check
Next, confirm that search engines process your changes in the Indexing tests lesson.