Free tool

Free GitHub Pages Custom Domain Check

Moved a GitHub Pages blog to your own domain? Enter the domain, the old github.io address and one post path, and copy six curl commands that show what a crawler sees: HTTPS, the www or apex redirect, the 301 from github.io keeping the path, the canonical tag and the sitemap. It runs in your browser: nothing is uploaded.

DOMAIN="www.example.com"
OLD="https://username.github.io/repo"
POST="/blog/my-post/"

# 1. The real URL answers 200 over HTTPS
curl -sI "https://$DOMAIN$POST" | head -1

# 2. http redirects to https (needs Enforce HTTPS)
curl -sI "http://$DOMAIN$POST" | grep -iE '^(HTTP|location)'

# 3. The other hostname redirects to the chosen one
curl -sI "https://example.com$POST" | grep -iE '^(HTTP|location)'

# 4. The old github.io address redirects, keeping the path
curl -sI "$OLD$POST" | grep -iE '^(HTTP|location)'

# 5. The canonical tag uses the new host
curl -s "https://$DOMAIN$POST" | grep -o '<link rel="canonical"[^>]*>'

# 6. The sitemap lists the new host only
curl -s "https://$DOMAIN/sitemap.xml" | grep -c 'github.io'

What each check proves

Settings screens tell you what GitHub intends; these checks tell you what search engines get. Checks 2 to 4 cover the three redirects GitHub makes for you (http to https with Enforce HTTPS, apex to www or the reverse, and github.io to your domain). Checks 5 and 6 catch the most common mistake: a generator base URL still on github.io, which keeps pointing canonical tags and the sitemap at the old address. The full walkthrough, with DNS records and domain verification, is in the GitHub Pages custom domain SEO guide. For the rest of a stack's settings, see the Jekyll blog SEO checklist or the Hugo blog SEO checklist.

FAQ