Site Migration Redirect Map Validator & Audit

Validate an entire old URL → expected new URL migration map before or after launch. This Actor follows every redirect manually, checks the actual final destination and turns raw HTTP behavior into a deployment gate your SEO, engineering and QA teams can act on.

Why use this instead of a generic status checker?

A status checker tells you that an old URL eventually returned 200. It does not tell you whether it reached the correct page from your migration spreadsheet. This Actor treats the mapping as a contract and validates both sides.

For each pair it checks:

• direct permanent 301 or 308 from the old URL;
• temporary redirects (302, 303, 307);
• every redirect hop, loops, missing Location and excessive chains;
• actual final URL versus the expected mapped target;
• final 2xx status and HTTPS downgrade;
• self-referencing canonical from HTML or the HTTP Link header;
• noindex from meta robots, Googlebot meta and X-Robots-Tag;
• many old URLs mapped to the same destination;
• deterministic PASS, WARN or FAIL, issue codes and repair guidance.

Outputs include a dataset (JSON/CSV/Excel), JSON summary, Markdown summary and a self-contained HTML report with a batch-level deploymentGate.

Quick start

Paste two columns copied from Excel or Google Sheets:

sourceUrl,expectedTargetUrl,rowId
https://old.example.com/pricing,https://new.example.com/pricing,pricing
https://old.example.com/docs,https://new.example.com/help,docs

You can also call the Actor with structured JSON:

{
  "mappings": [
    {
      "sourceUrl": "https://old.example.com/pricing",
      "expectedTargetUrl": "https://new.example.com/pricing",
      "rowId": "pricing"
    }
  ],
  "ignoreTrailingSlash": true,
  "ignoreQueryString": false,
  "checkCanonical": true,
  "checkIndexability": true
}

Result fields

Each dataset row contains:

• sourceUrl, expectedTargetUrl, finalUrl, optional rowId;
• sourceStatusCode, finalStatusCode, redirectCount, redirectChain;
• isDirectPermanentRedirect, hasTemporaryRedirect, matchesExpectedTarget;
• canonicalUrl, canonicalMatchesTarget, robotsDirectives, isNoindex;
• resolved, confidence, verdict, issueCodes, issues;
• response time and audit timestamp.

Common issue codes: SOURCE_NOT_REDIRECT, TEMPORARY_REDIRECT, REDIRECT_CHAIN, WRONG_DESTINATION, TARGET_NOT_OK, HTTPS_DOWNGRADE, MISSING_CANONICAL, CANONICAL_MISMATCH, TARGET_NOINDEX, MANY_TO_ONE_TARGET, REDIRECT_LOOP.

How verdicts work

• PASS — direct permanent redirect, expected destination, healthy target and no enabled canonical/indexability defect.
• WARN — deploy may be possible, but the audit found quality risks such as a redirect chain, missing canonical or intentional many-to-one consolidation.
• FAIL — wrong destination, temporary/no redirect, broken/noindex target, canonical mismatch, loop, HTTPS downgrade or an unresolved network/safety failure.

deploymentGate is FAIL when any mapping fails. JavaScript-only redirects or tags are not rendered; a non-HTML/blocked target is marked low-confidence and should be checked in a browser.

Security and responsible use

• Audit only public URLs you own or are authorized to test.
• The Actor blocks localhost, private/link-local/reserved IP ranges, cloud metadata hosts, URL credentials and non-standard ports. Every redirect hop is checked again.
• Responses are capped, requests time out and concurrency is bounded.
• No personal data, login credentials, proxy or external API is required.
• This is technical QA, not a guarantee of rankings or legal/SEO advice.

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.005 per source URL that returns a resolved final HTTP response (that is $5.00 per 1,000 checked mappings), plus a near-zero $0.00005 Actor start event.

• A mapping is charged whenever the source URL resolves to a final HTTP response, no matter whether its verdict is PASS, WARN or FAIL — a detected 404 or a wrong target is a result you are paying for.
• Invalid expected targets, blocked URLs, DNS failures and connection failures are never charged, even though they are still delivered to the dataset.
• Platform usage is covered by the Actor creator, so the event price is what you pay.
• Set maxTotalChargeUsd on the run to cap your spend. The Actor trims the input before doing any work, so your limit is never exceeded and skippedByChargeLimit reports what was left out.

Recommended workflow

1. Export the final migration map from your spreadsheet.
2. Run this Actor on staging or immediately after redirect deployment.
3. Fix every FAIL, review WARN, then rerun until deploymentGate is PASS.
4. Export CSV/Excel for the implementation team and archive the HTML report.
5. Schedule a short follow-up audit after launch if redirect rules may change.

Sources

• Google: Site moves with URL changes
• Google: Redirects and Search
• Google: Canonical URLs
• Google: Robots meta and X-Robots-Tag
• HTTP Semantics — RFC 9110

Support boundaries

This Actor deliberately uses deterministic HTTP and server-rendered HTML. It does not log in, bypass bot protection, render JavaScript or crawl a website automatically. Those limits keep audits reproducible, inexpensive and low-maintenance.