Are your URLs answering directly, over HTTPS?
Redirects are invisible in the browser but real to a crawler: every hop costs time and dilutes the signal you meant to send. And a site that still answers on plain HTTP serves two versions of every page.
Checks whether HTTP redirects to HTTPS and whether a sample of your own URLs redirect. Nothing is stored.
How this check works
Shipwork requests your site over plain HTTP to see whether it redirects to HTTPS, and requests a sample of your own URLs without following redirects, so it can see each hop. URLs that redirect should be listed at their final address instead.
Questions
- Why does HTTPS matter for SEO?
- HTTPS is a confirmed ranking signal and a trust factor, and serving both HTTP and HTTPS creates two versions of every page.
- Do redirects hurt ranking?
- A single permanent redirect passes signals, but chains and loops waste crawl budget and can lose equity along the way.
- Should sitemap URLs ever redirect?
- No. A sitemap should list final URLs. Redirecting entries waste the crawl budget the sitemap exists to save.