URL Redirects

URL redirects allows you to redirect URLs on your site to specific pages to ensure site visitors land on the correct page on your site and prevent the loss of existing search ranking. The URL redirect feature allows you to connect to regular site pages, external URLs and or customer pages such as dynamic pages and blog posts. This can be achieved with the use of wildcards and variables that allow you to redirect many pages with only one URL rule.

Note

Replacing your site with a new responsive site temporarily affects your search engine rankings while Google and other search engines adjust to the changes. Use the URL redirect feature to redirect your old page URLs to their new responsive site URLs and keep search engines happy.

Terminology

Wildcards

Wildcards allows you to define the URL rule based on the structure of the URL and not have it one by one. Wildcards are represented with a single or double asterisk symbol *. For example:

• Single asterisk * matches any text between the current slashes. For example, /category/*/home will redirect to /category/xyz/home or /category/abc/home but it will not redirect to /category/b/c/home.

• Double asterisk ** matches any text in multiple slashes. For example, /category/**/home will redirect to /category/b/c/home.

Variables

Variables define a URL rule that is the same for many pages with the same structure but with different content. They can be added between the source URL and the target URL. For example, this is helpful when redirecting all store products from one format to another. Variables are defined within curly brackets {} both in the source URL rule and in the target rule. It is important to use the exact same variable spelling in both the source URL rule and target rule. For example:

• If you have an old store product URL of /product/p-23245-umbrella and the new URL is /product/umbrella, the source rule would be /product/p-*-{productname} and the target rule URL would be /product/{productname}.

Set Up URL Redirect

Before setting up a URL redirect, we recommend deleting the old pages from your site. If the old page or URL still exists, the URL redirect will not work.

To set up a URL redirect:

1. In the side panel, click Settings, then click URL Redirect.

2. Click Add a New Redirect.

3. Enter the source URL you are redirecting from in the Source URL field.

Note

You can use wildcards * and variables such as{product} to redirect many pages with only one URL rule.

4. If you are redirecting to a page within your Website Builder site, select Destination - Destination Page and use the drop down menu to select a page.

5. If you are redirecting to an external URL or relative path within the site, select Destination - Custom URL and enter a URL.

Note

If you used a variable in the Source URL field, use the same variable in this field too. The variable must be spelled the same way in both. You can also redirect to relative URL like blog and dynamic page, for example (/blog/post-1).

6. Use the Redirect type drop down menu to select the type of redirect. Following are the options:

• 301 redirect. Permanently moved.

• 302 redirect. Temporarily moved.

7. Click Add.

Set Up Manual URL Redirect

Before setting up a URL redirect, we recommend deleting the old pages from your site. If the old page or URL still exists, the URL redirect will not work.

To manually create a URL redirect:

1. In the side panel, click Settings, then click URL Redirect.

2. Click Add a New Redirect.

3. Type the original URL to be redirected in the Old page name field. For example, if your site originally had a page yoursite.com/my-page.html, type /my-page.html. Note this only redirects the specific URL and not nested pages.

4. Select the redirect Destination page. You can choose to use a page from your new site or an external URL.

5. To edit or delete your custom URL redirects, click Edit or Delete in the redirect menu.

Import Multiple Redirects From CSV

You can import multiple URL redirects from a CSV file. Each CSV file can contain up to 200 redirect URLs and you can use wildcards and variables. To see the option to upload a CSV to import multiple redirects, you must first add a single redirect.

To import multiple redirects from CSV:

• 1. In the side panel, click Settings, then click URL Redirects.

  2. Click Import Multiple Redirects.

  3. To upload a CSV to import multiple URL redirects, click Upload CSV. To ensure you follow the correct structure, use the template and click Download CSV Template. The uploaded CSV should be in the same structure as our template, where the first column is the old URL and the new column is the new URL.

  4. Click Upload New File, and click Choose Files.

  5. Select your CSV, and click Open.

  6. Click Done.

  7. Select the Redirect Type. Following are the options:

• 301 redirect. Permanently moved.

• 302 redirect. Temporarily moved.

URL Redirects are very useful if you have multiple sites that you want forwarded to your responsive site. Redirects are also important when you are switching domains or moving specific pages to a new domain. While URL redirects are very beneficial in these cases, they can also cause visitors confusion to which site they are visiting. When using redirects, make sure the visitor understands that they will be redirected so they do not mistake it for phishing attacks.

Redirect with URL Parameters

Specific URL redirects do not work on URL parameters. A URL parameter is anything that comes after the ? or # in the URL. Website Builder treats any URL with a URL parameter as the same URL.

That is, this URL: http://www.sitename.com/page1 is the same as this URL: http://www.sitename.com/page1?url_referrer=blank.

If you have a 301 redirect set up on page 1, it will also redirect any /page1 URL with a URL parameter. If you need a specific URL redirect for a URL parameter, please check with your DNS host to see if this is something they can set up for you.