The page disappears before you notice
A 404 or a 410 is acted on quickly. Every other check on that URL becomes irrelevant the moment the page stops answering.
Status code & redirect monitoring
Danger
A 200 that quietly became a 404 leaves search fast
The status code is the most basic answer your server gives Google. A CMS deletion, a redirect rule deployed by mistake, an SSL renewal that left a hop on the wrong protocol — each pulls the page out of search faster than almost any other regression.
Danger severity: you get the alert within the hour, not in tomorrow's digest.
What it may cost you
This is the floor of any monitoring, which is why the status code check cannot be switched off.
Redirects break their promise silently
A target that changes, a 301 that degrades to 302, a hop inserted by a new rule — link equity leaks and campaign URLs land somewhere else.
Long chains never reach the destination
Google follows a limited number of hops. A chain that grows past that limit ends the journey before your page is reached.
How an alert reaches you
Three steps, running every day, on something nobody looks at twice a year.
1
Every run
Baseline stored
The first crawl saves the status code of each monitored URL as it should be. That value is what every later run is compared against.
2
Next morning
Change detected
The response code is recorded, and for anything that redirects, every hop in the chain is followed and stored.
3
Within the hour
Alert in your inbox
Danger-level findings go out right after the crawl batch. Milder ones wait for the daily digest, so the urgent one stands out.
You decide what counts as broken
The stored value is your desired state, not a guess. When a later run differs you get both versions side by side — and if the change was intentional, one click adopts it as the new baseline.
Severity matches the damage
This one reaches you within the hour, because the damage starts before the next digest would arrive. Every test's severity can be overridden per site, so your inbox stays useful.
Set it once, then leave it
Pick the frequency and the user agent Wygard should send, switch on JS rendering if your pages need it, and the rest needs no attention.
What we check
The status code check is mandatory on every URL. The redirect chain check attaches itself automatically to anything answering 3XX.
| Test | What it catches | Scope | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status code | The code changed, a redirect target moved, or a new redirect appeared in front of a URL that used to answer directly. | URL · Basic | Danger |
| Redirect chain | The final destination changed, a hop returns the wrong type of redirect, or the chain loops. | URL · Basic | Danger |
Questions about status code & redirect monitoring
What the checks do, and what they don’t.
Can I turn the status code check off
No. It is the one mandatory test — every URL you add gets it, and it cannot be deactivated or deleted.
How do I see the whole redirect chain
The alert history stores every hop of every run, so you can compare the chain before and after the change.
What if a redirect is intentional
Adopt the new chain as the baseline from the alert card. Wygard then reports only later deviations from it.
“This app has completely transformed how we manage our SEO. The real-time alerts ensure we never miss an issue. It's a game-changer for protecting our rankings!”
Why Wygard?
Trust, but verify. You build the site — Wygard makes sure your key SEO elements work as intended.
Your SEO protected
How quickly would you notice if your canonical tags changed? We catch it for you.
Time saved
Don't waste time on massive crawls and endless data. With 15 years of hands-on SEO experience, we know how to focus on what really matters.
Easy to Use
You don't have to be an SEO expert — your site still deserves expert monitoring. That's exactly what our tool delivers.
Single site or the whole portfolio? We can handle all today
Every online business deserves protection. No matter the size.