DRIFT — how it works

DRIFT is a free tool for URLs that drifted — www↔apex twins, leftover http locs, path moves via 301/308, and long or looping redirect chains.

You paste URLs (and optionally a preferred host). DRIFT follows each redirect hop by hop, scores it, and hands you a sitemap action: keep, replace loc with final, or drop. No Search Console login. Public HTTP only.

• Hop-by-hop redirects, followed manually (status each hop, final URL, hop count).
• Host class: www vs apex, http vs https.
• Cross-host drift, scheme upgrade, path change.
• Long chains (≥3 hops) and redirect loops.
• Broken endings (404 / 410 / 5xx).
• Input loc vs final — sitemap keep / replace / drop.

PASS means CLEAN — live 200 on itself (or a clean self-final) with no host, scheme, path or chain problem against your preferred host.

FAIL is labelled with one verdict:

• WWW (P0) — www↔apex or wrong host vs preferred; one preferred host, 301 the other, sitemap = preferred.
• CHAIN (P0) — three or more hops; collapse to a single 301→final.
• LOOP (P0) — redirect loop; fix server rules.
• BROKEN (P0) — 404/5xx at end; drop from sitemap or restore target.
• PATH (P1) — path moved (301/308); update sitemap loc to final; fix internal links.
• SCHEME (P1) — http→https only; 301 http→https and update sitemap to https.
• FETCH_ERROR (P0) — couldn't prove; re-run.

Same URL, same rules, same result. The sitemap action column is the ticket body.

1. 01Sign in with your email — one-tap link, no password.
2. 02Paste up to 50 URLs (sitemap locs, GSC examples, www/http variants) or load the nikkos.io example.
3. 03Optionally set a preferred host (e.g. https://nikkos.io); leave blank to infer from majority apex.
4. 04Hit Run. Filter by verdict, then export.

Group by verdict so each ticket has one job.

• WWW / SCHEME fails → host or scheme redirect ticket + sitemap host fix.
• PATH / CHAIN fails → collapse redirects and replace sitemap locs with finals.
• BROKEN / LOOP fails → drop or restore; fix server rules.
• Export CSV or selected URLs with the Do-this and sitemap action columns as the ticket body.

Live chain proof in, sitemap fix tickets out.

• Public HTTP only — no crawl login, no Search Console OAuth.
• Capped at 50 URLs per run.
• Free forever. Email sign-in only.
• Sibling tools: LOCRA for sitemaps, VEXA for robots traps, RAUM for Pages reasons, KNOT for canonicals, GATE before you request indexing, THINN for thin hubs.