# Bulk URL Status, Redirect & Indexability Checker (`moha-tah/url-status-checker`) Actor

Check thousands of URLs: HTTP status, full redirect chain, loops, response time, and SEO indexability (noindex, X-Robots-Tag, canonical, robots.txt for Googlebot, title, H1). Find broken links and bad redirects after migrations. Pay per URL.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/moha-tah/url-status-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Mohamed T.](https://apify.com/moha-tah) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

**Check thousands of URLs in minutes: HTTP status, the full redirect chain and whether each page can actually be indexed by Google.** It's built for SEO migrations, broken-link audits, backlink checks and QA of marketing links.

### What does Bulk URL Status Checker do?

For every URL it records:

- **Status**: first status code, final status code, response time, content type and size, server, HTTPS and HSTS.
- **Redirects**: every hop (`url → status → location`), redirect count, **loop detection**, cross-domain redirects, a max-hop limit.
- **Indexability** (HTML pages): `<title>` and length, meta description, H1 count, `meta robots` / `googlebot`, `X-Robots-Tag` header, canonical URL and whether it points to itself, hreflang count, **robots.txt verdict for Googlebot**, and an overall `indexable` flag.
- **Errors in plain words**: `HTTP 404`, `DNS resolution failed`, `timeout`, `TLS/SSL error`, `redirect loop`…

Transient failures (429, 5xx, timeouts) are retried with exponential backoff, and requests to each host are spaced out politely.

### Why use it?

- **Site migrations**: verify that every old URL 301-redirects to the right new page in one hop.
- **Broken-link audits**: feed it URLs from a crawl, a sitemap (see our Sitemap URL Extractor) or a CMS export.
- **Indexability QA**: catch stray `noindex`, wrong canonicals or robots.txt blocks before they cost traffic.
- **Backlink and affiliate checks**: confirm that links pointing to you (or that you pay for) still resolve.
- **Monitoring**: schedule it daily on your key URLs and alert on anything that isn't `ok`.

### How to use it

1. Paste URLs into **URLs** (one per line; `example.com/page` works too).
2. Click **Start**. Results appear live. Filter by `ok = false` to see problems.
3. Export to CSV/Excel/JSON, or connect a Slack/email integration for scheduled checks.

### Input example

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://apify.com", "http://apify.com/pricing", "https://apify.com/this-page-does-not-exist"],
  "checkIndexability": true,
  "maxRedirects": 10
}
```

### Output example

```json
{
  "url": "http://apify.com/pricing",
  "ok": true,
  "statusCode": 301,
  "finalUrl": "https://apify.com/pricing",
  "finalStatusCode": 200,
  "redirectCount": 1,
  "redirectChain": [{"url": "http://apify.com/pricing", "statusCode": 301, "location": "https://apify.com/pricing"}],
  "redirectLoop": false,
  "responseTimeMs": 14,
  "contentType": "text/html",
  "hsts": true,
  "httpsFinal": true,
  "title": "Apify pricing - flexible plan + pay as you go · Apify",
  "h1Count": 1,
  "metaRobots": "index,follow",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://apify.com/pricing",
  "canonicalIsSelf": true,
  "noindex": false,
  "robotsTxtAllowsGooglebot": true,
  "indexable": true,
  "error": null
}
```

The Output tab has a **Status** view and an **SEO** view. You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML.

### How much does it cost?

You pay **per URL checked**. Broken URLs are results too, so they count. URLs skipped because robots.txt disallows them aren't charged. See the **Pricing** tab.

### Tips

- Checking your own site? Lower **Delay between requests to the same host** and raise **Max concurrency**.
- `indexable` is `false` when the final status isn't 200, a noindex directive is present, robots.txt blocks Googlebot or the canonical points elsewhere.
- Response times are measured from Apify's servers, not from your visitors' locations.

### FAQ

**Does it render JavaScript?**
No. It checks what servers return over HTTP, which is what matters for status codes, redirects and most indexability signals. Canonicals or robots meta tags injected by JavaScript won't be seen.

**Why is a URL reported as blocked by robots.txt?**
By default the checker respects robots.txt like a well-behaved crawler. For sites you own or are authorized to audit, switch off *Respect robots.txt*.

**Something looks wrong?**
Open an issue on the **Issues** tab with the URL.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Pages to check, one per line. Up to hundreds of thousands per run.

## `checkIndexability` (type: `boolean`):

For HTML pages: title, meta description, H1 count, meta robots, X-Robots-Tag, canonical, hreflang count and an overall 'indexable' verdict.

## `checkGooglebotRobots` (type: `boolean`):

Adds whether robots.txt allows Googlebot to crawl the final URL.

## `maxRedirects` (type: `integer`):

Redirect hops to follow before giving up.

## `respectRobotsTxt` (type: `boolean`):

Do not fetch URLs that robots.txt disallows for crawlers (they are reported, not charged). Turn off only for sites you own or are authorized to audit.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

URLs checked in parallel (across all hosts).

## `perHostDelayMs` (type: `integer`):

Politeness delay per host. Lower it for your own sites.

## `requestTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Per request; retries with backoff are automatic.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://apify.com",
    "http://apify.com/pricing",
    "https://apify.com/this-page-does-not-exist"
  ],
  "checkIndexability": true,
  "checkGooglebotRobots": true,
  "maxRedirects": 10,
  "respectRobotsTxt": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 10,
  "perHostDelayMs": 500,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 20
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://apify.com",
        "http://apify.com/pricing",
        "https://apify.com/this-page-does-not-exist"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("moha-tah/url-status-checker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "urls": [
        "https://apify.com",
        "http://apify.com/pricing",
        "https://apify.com/this-page-does-not-exist",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("moha-tah/url-status-checker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://apify.com",
    "http://apify.com/pricing",
    "https://apify.com/this-page-does-not-exist"
  ]
}' |
apify call moha-tah/url-status-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,moha-tah/url-status-checker"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/F9JN11iYAFakL41dW/builds/483ayN1gXkxs6d5zP/openapi.json