Check redirects from an Ahrefs Site Audit

Ahrefs Site Audit flags redirect issues but only shows the source URL, final destination, and a single Ahrefsbot perspective. This guide pairs that export with hop-by-hop chain data, per-hop TLS and timing, and user-agent comparison.

What Ahrefs gives you

Ahrefs Site Audit reports which URLs redirect, the final destination, and the status code. It flags redirect chains and loops. But it crawls as Ahrefsbot, so you only see one perspective.

What Checkredirects.io adds

• The full redirect chain hop by hop (not just source and destination)
• Per-hop timing breakdown: DNS, TCP, TLS handshake, time to first byte
• TLS certificate details at every hop (subject, issuer, SANs, expiry, chain validation)
• Security header audit (HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options) on redirect responses
• User-agent comparison: see if Googlebot, Chrome, and social crawlers get different redirects
• IP geolocation per hop (useful for CDN and geo-redirect debugging)

The workflow

1. Export from Ahrefs. In Site Audit, go to the Redirects report. Export the source URLs as CSV.
2. Batch check. Paste the URLs into the Checkredirects.io batch checker, or upload the CSV. All URLs are checked concurrently.
3. Filter and sort. Sort by hop count to find the longest chains. Filter by status code to find errors. Use the url_contains filter to focus on specific path patterns.
4. Compare agents. For URLs where you suspect cloaking, run a user-agent comparison. Ahrefs only crawls as Ahrefsbot. Checkredirects.io shows you what Googlebot, Chrome, and social crawlers see.
5. Export. Export to Google Sheets or CSV. Merge with your Ahrefs data for a complete picture.

Common findings

• Redirect chains that Ahrefs flags but does not show the intermediate hops for
• Mixed HTTP/HTTPS hops in otherwise HTTPS chains
• Different redirect behavior for Googlebot vs Ahrefsbot (means Ahrefs data may not match what Google sees)
• Expiring TLS certificates on intermediate redirect servers
• Missing HSTS on redirect responses (only on the final page)

Related guides

• Check redirects from SEMrush Site Audit
• Use Checkredirects.io with Screaming Frog
• How to bulk test 301 redirects
• Site migration redirect checklist

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