biozork / redirect-analyzer

A simple tool to analyze redirects, and see all jumps in chained redirects.

Redirect Analyzer. What it is ?

Simple Node.JS api that will let you see info about every jump in a chained redirect. This API will show response status on each jump in a redirect chain, and return the entire chain as an array of objects for your own manipulation.

If a jump resolves to 404, you can even try to "Fix dead" redirects, by adding the "fixDead":true parameter. That will look at the last jump that resolves to 404, and move backwards on the urlstructure until it finds a path that is no longer 404.

Why I made the tool ?

Personally I have used this API to check redirects in order to resolve chained redirects, and to find, and potentially fix dead redirects for SEO purposes. But I guess you can use this for whatever you would like.

If you want to know more about redirect chains, and why it is bad for SEO, take a look at this article from ContentKing (please note that I'm not affiliated):

https://www.contentkingapp.com/academy/redirects/faq/redirect-chains/

Install

npm install

You can also deploy directly to Heroku:

Call the API

Running localhost - First start the server: npm app Then you can do POST requests to the API via localhost:5000/api

Running heroku - if you clicked the onebutton-install above, it should be running automtically. Remember to add the /api to the heroku url you get after the install.

With the API running, you can test it with Postman

Max amount of jumps / Redirect loops

At this moment maximum amount of jumps are hardcoded to 5.

This effectively kills redirect loops, and keeps the API relatively fast when hitting heavy chained redirects. If your chained redirect have more than 5 jumps consider increasing the maxJumps variable in routes/api.js

Request format

API only accepts POST requests in JSON with the following paramters

Param	Description	Required
url	Absolute path to check for redirects.	Yes
fixDead	If hitting a dead (404) jump, try to resolve it	No

Exaple POST Request to the API:

{
    "url": "http://ing.dk/247528"
}

Response parameters

Key	Description
statusCode	resolved http response statuscode on end-point
resolvedUrl	the resolved url from end of redirect chain
jumpCount	number of jumps the redirect made to resolve
jumps	array of objects, containing jump object info

Example response:

{
    "statusCode": 200,
    "resolvedUrl": "https://www.google.dk/",
    "jumpCount": 1,
    "jumps": [...]
}

The jumps array have the following response keys:

Key	Description
statusCode	http response statuscode on the specific redirect jump
jumpFrom	the absolute url the redirect came from
jumpTo	the absolute url the redirect points to

Example response:

    [
    	{
            "statusCode": 301,
            "jumpFrom": "http://ing.dk/247528",
            "jumpTo": "https://ing.dk/247528"
        },
        {
            "statusCode": 301,
            "jumpFrom": "https://ing.dk/247528",
            "jumpTo": "https://ing.dk/artikel/skader-underernaering-gives-videre-boern-247528"
        }
    ]

Example: A single redirct

POST Request to the API:

{
    "url": "https://google.dk"
}

Response:

{
    "statusCode": 200,
    "resolvedUrl": "https://www.google.dk/",
    "jumpCount": 1,
    "jumps": [
        {
            "statusCode": 301,
            "jumpFrom": "https://google.dk",
            "jumpTo": "https://www.google.dk/"
        }
    ]
}

Example: Chained redirect

POST Request to the API:

{
    "url": "http://ing.dk/247528"
}

Response:

{
    "statusCode": 200,
    "resolvedUrl": "https://ing.dk/artikel/skader-underernaering-gives-videre-boern-247528",
    "jumpCount": 2,
    "jumps": [
        {
            "statusCode": 301,
            "jumpFrom": "http://ing.dk/247528",
            "jumpTo": "https://ing.dk/247528"
        },
        {
            "statusCode": 301,
            "jumpFrom": "https://ing.dk/247528",
            "jumpTo": "https://ing.dk/artikel/skader-underernaering-gives-videre-boern-247528"
        }
    ]
}

Example: Redirect that dies with 404

POST Request to the API:

{
    "url": "http://ing.dk/2475128"
}

Response:

{
    "statusCode": 404,
    "resolvedUrl": "https://ing.dk/2475128",
    "jumpCount": 1,
    "jumps": [
        {
            "statusCode": 301,
            "jumpFrom": "http://ing.dk/2475128",
            "jumpTo": "https://ing.dk/2475128"
        }
    ]
}

Example: Redirect that dies with 404, however fixed with fixDead parameter

POST Request to the API:

{
    "url": "http://ing.dk/2475128",
    "fixDead": true
}

Response:

{
    "statusCode": 200,
    "resolvedUrl": "https://ing.dk",
    "jumpCount": 2,
    "jumps": [
        {
            "statusCode": 301,
            "jumpFrom": "http://ing.dk/2475128",
            "jumpTo": "https://ing.dk/2475128"
        },
        {
            "statusCode": 404,
            "jumpFrom": "https://ing.dk/2475128",
            "jumpTo": "https://ing.dk"
        }
    ]
}