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October 13, 2025

# Redirect Checker vs. Doing It by Hand: Is It Worth Switching?

Most teams don't switch to a tool for 301 redirect chains until the manual version has already cost them something — an hour lost, an error shipped, a page that quietly slipped through unchecked.

Doing it by hand isn't wrong, exactly. It's slow, and slow is where mistakes hide. Creating a redirect loop (A → B → A) — some browsers catch this gracefully, others just show an error page. And once a site grows past a handful of pages, checking by hand stops being a one-time task and becomes a recurring one nobody has time for.

What actually changes with a tool in the loop isn't the underlying work — it's how often you're willing to do it. Point old URLs directly at the final destination — if A redirects to B which redirects to C, fix A to go straight to C. That's the real ROI: not the first check, but the tenth one, which by hand simply wouldn't happen.

Where manual still wins: a single one-off check on a small site, or a case specific enough that no generic tool would catch the nuance anyway. Use 301 (permanent) for URLs that have moved for good, and 302 (temporary) only for genuinely short-term changes like A/B tests. Past that scale, the time saved compounds fast.

The same logic applies to keyword Density Checker work — anything repetitive enough to get skipped is exactly what's worth automating first.

If you're weighing this for your own site, trying Redirect Checker takes about the same time as reading this page.

Try Redirect Checker yourself

Everything in this guide runs directly in your browser — no signup, no install.

Open Redirect Checker →
More on 301 redirect chains
The 301 Redirect Chains Checklist: What to Verify Before You Publish
A short, practical checklist for 301 redirect chains — the things worth checking every time, not just the first time.
301 Redirect Chains FAQ: Questions People Actually Ask
Straight answers to the questions that come up most often about 301 redirect chains.
Does 301 Redirect Chains Still Matter in 2026?
A quick, honest look at whether 301 redirect chains is still worth the effort, or a holdover from an older era of SEO.
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