# Oh Dear now lets you verify redirect URLs during uptime checks

We’ve just rolled out a helpful new setting to give you tighter control over how uptime is measured: Redirect URL Validation.

### Why URL validation matters

By default, our uptime checks follow redirects and consider the site to be "up" as long as a 200 OK response is reached, regardless of what the final URL is.

But for some workflows, infrastructure setups or security models, ensuring the final destination matches a specific URL is critical. For example:

* You expect all traffic from https://example.com to land on https://www.example.com
* You're routing through CDNs, reverse proxies or edge workers and want to verify the correct endpoint is reached
* You're enforcing domain-level canonicalization

### Introducing the `expected_final_redirect_url` setting

Oh Dear has been able to verify the maximum number of redirects allowed before marking the site as "down".

But with the new `expected_final_redirect_url` setting we will now inspect the full redirect chain during each uptime check. If the final URL doesn’t exactly match what you’ve configured, the site will be marked as down.

```json
"expected_final_redirect_url": "https://www.example.com"
```
If the final resolved URL is anything other than https://www.example.com the check fails.

### How it works

You can configure this setting in the dashboard under your site's uptime check settings or via the API.

```
PUT /api/sites/{site_id}

{
  "uptime_check_redirect_url": "https://www.example.com"
}
```

What Happens If It Doesn't Match?

If the resolved URL doesn't match the configured redirect_url exactly:

* The site will be marked 'down'
* The status page (if used) will reflect the downtime
* Your configured notifications will be triggered just like with any other failure

### What's next?
👉 Have questions or ideas for other advanced uptime rules? Reach out to us via support as we’d love to hear them.

Happy monitoring!