Redirections

What are redirections?

Also known as page redirection or redirects, redirections are re-routing a page from its original URL to a new URL. Redirections are most commonly used when a domain name is changed, you have changed your website provider or temporarily forwarding traffic during server maintenance. 

Why use redirections?

The most common reason is user experience. For example, when changing a domain name, you want all existing and new users to come to the website with the new URL. Some people can have your old website pages bookmarked, so when they want to visit your website you have to make sure they come to the one with the new URL.

Redirect Types

1. Permanent redirects (301)

As the name suggests it is for permanent redirections. For example, you have a new website and your name pages are different compared to your old website. 

There are a couple of options here:

• Unchanged domain name - if your new website domain name remains the same as your old website you don't actually have to include the domain root (yourdomain.com.au) in your redirections. Only include the relative URL which is everything after (and including) the forward slash (see below)

• Identical page names - if the page names on the new website are identical to those on the old website, you don't need to do redirections at all because there was no change in the URL

2. Temporary redirects (302)

A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect and directs users and search engines to the desired page for a limited amount of time until it is removed. Some of the common situations you'd be using temporary redirects for can be:

• Page A/B tests when you are trying to introduce changes into a design or working on a new functionality
• During undertaking user feedback on a new page/feature without it having it impact on site ranking
• If one of your pages is broken and you'd like to maintain a good user experience whilst fixing the page

How to redirect your pages

In the backend of the platform, we provide an option for redirections. 

To add redirections:

1. First, disable the old page - the page you want to redirect

2. Enable the new page - the page you want the user to be directed to

3. Go to "Redirects" in the left-hand side menu

4. In the "Source URL" add the page URL you'd like to redirect

5. In the "Destination URL" add the new URL where you want your users to go

6. "Redirect Type" - "Permanent redirect (301)" is set by default

Redirection tip

If you are redirecting a small number of pages (up to five) it is easy enough to use the "Redirects" option in the backend of the website as explained above. 

Feel free to use our template below.