Website Migration Redirect & Canonical Audit

Check the redirects you actually intended to deploy. Give the Actor old URLs and their expected destinations to produce a migration acceptance report for an agency, SEO team or website owner.

Who this is for

For SEO consultants and agencies checking a migration release or retesting critical landing pages after deployment. Supply the intended destination to distinguish a working redirect from the correct redirect.

Start with at most 10 result rows: the Actor event charges for that batch are at most $0.1 at the listed rate. Set both maxResults and the run's maximum charge before starting.

Quick start

Open the Input tab, paste your input and run. A small example:

{
  "mappings": [
    {
      "url": "http://www.wikipedia.org/",
      "expectedUrl": "https://www.wikipedia.org/"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://example.com/",
      "expectedUrl": "https://example.com/"
    }
  ],
  "maxResults": 10
}

Checks and output

Each row contains the observed HTTP chain, final URL and status, canonical URL, robots directives, page title, issues and a passed flag. Checks include destination mismatch, missing redirect, temporary redirect, multiple hops, loops, HTTP errors, HTTPS downgrade, noindex, canonical mismatch, meta refresh and a possible soft 404 based on the page title.

passed: true means none of these implemented checks found a problem. It is not a guarantee of search indexing or preserved rankings. A valid 404 or a detected redirect loop is a completed, billable audit result because it answers the migration question. Authentication refusals, robots blocks, rate limits and network failures are reported separately and do not create paid rows.

Preparing your mapping list

Use one object per old URL. Include expectedUrl to verify an exact destination. Omit it to inspect only HTTP and HTML problems. The comparison preserves trailing slashes and query strings; URL fragments are removed. The same input object is processed once per run. Start with a small batch before checking a complete migration.

Scope and limitations

Only HTTP redirects and the returned server HTML are inspected, with at most ten redirects. JavaScript redirects, rendered pages, sitemaps and search-engine indexing are outside the scope. A legitimate 302 will still be flagged for human review. Private addresses, embedded credentials and unusual ports are refused. Robots rules are respected, including on redirect targets.

Pricing and limits

$10 per 1,000 delivered URL mapping audit results ($0.01 each). There is no Actor startup fee. Standard platform usage is included in this Actor's event price. A successfully delivered dataset row triggers one charge; error diagnostics live in RUN_SUMMARY and are not chargeable rows. Repeated runs are new checks and may return the same item again. The Pricing tab is authoritative.

Use the run's maximum charge setting and maxResults to control spending. No proxy subscription or external API key is required. Runs use 256 MB by default. For large batches, raise the run timeout or split the input; a hard timeout may leave an incomplete dataset. The presence of a finished RUN_SUMMARY helps distinguish completed processing from interrupted runs.

Export and integrations

Use the Output tab to inspect results and the summary. Download JSON, CSV or Excel from the dataset, or use Apify's API, Make, Zapier or n8n to pass the output into your existing workflow. Nested evidence is most faithfully preserved in JSON. The default dataset belongs to the run; no external destination receives results automatically.

An API client can start kirozhang/website-migration-redirect-audit with the JSON above, wait for completion and read its default dataset. Set your Apify token in the client's credential store, never inside the input URLs.

Troubleshooting

Read RUN_SUMMARY.errors and limitReasons first. A partial run may contain useful rows; it must not be treated as exhaustive. All-target failure marks the run failed. A valid search with no matches can succeed with zero rows. For support, open an Issue on this Actor with the run ID, expected behavior and a public example target. Remove credentials and private data from your report.

Example output

Illustrative excerpt from a real verification run; values change over time.

{
  "url": "https://example.com/",
  "expectedUrl": "https://example.com/",
  "finalUrl": "https://example.com/",
  "finalStatus": 200,
  "redirectCount": 0,
  "passed": true,
  "issues": []
}

Workflows and questions

Migration launch and weekly regression checks

1. Take the old URL and approved new URL from your migration sheet and create one mappings object per pair.
2. Run a small representative batch before launch acceptance. Filter rows with passed: false; inspect issues and the HTTP chain.
3. After fixing a redirect, run the same mapping again. Save dated datasets as evidence of the change.
4. Keep a smaller task for your highest-value landing pages after each release. A successful check is evidence about the observed HTTP response, not a ranking forecast.

Common questions

Does a 200 response mean the migration passed? No. The final URL can still be wrong, blocked by noindex, or inconsistent with the canonical.

Will it find all old URLs automatically? No. Bring your mapping list. Sitemap crawling and JavaScript redirects are outside this Actor's scope.

Why is a 404 billable? A confirmed 404 is a completed audit answer. Network failures, authentication refusals and robots blocks are reported without paid result rows.

API quick start

Save the Quick start JSON as input.json. Put your Apify token in the APIFY_TOKEN environment variable through your usual secret store, then run:

curl --fail-with-body --max-time 200 \
  --request POST \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data-binary @input.json \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/kirozhang~website-migration-redirect-audit/run-sync-get-dataset-items?timeout=180&memory=256&maxTotalChargeUsd=0.10&format=json&clean=true" \
  --output results.json

This example starts a real run and applies a $0.10 charge ceiling. The smaller maxResults cap still applies. An empty array can be a valid no-match result; inspect the run and RUN_SUMMARY in Console. If the connection times out, check Console before retrying, since the run may already exist. For larger exports, use the asynchronous API shown on this Actor's API tab and read the dataset after the run finishes.

Scheduling and workflow tools

After a successful small run, save a task with your production input. Apify schedules can run that task regularly. In Make, Zapier or n8n, store the token in the connection credentials, run this Actor, wait for completion, and read its dataset. Configure your own destination explicitly; this Actor does not send emails or post messages automatically. Each scheduled run may incur charges, including repeated results.

Related tools for different steps

• Inventory the CMS and framework before a migration with the Website Technology Detector.
• When a domain move also changes mail configuration, review the public records with the Email DNS Audit.