When migrating from an old platform, it is recommended to use URL redirects to prevent loss of page ranking of old URLs within Search Engines, following a migration process. The objective should still be to get the search engines to index the new site and for the new URLs to gain page ranking.
It is worth instructing the key Search Engines to remove the old URLs once the new URLs have been indexed and are driving traffic effectively to the site. It should be apparent in your analytics platform which URLs are driving traffic and from which search engines, so you will be able to judge if you can remove the re-directs without impacting customer experience.
Steps to set URL redirect:
- Go to Storefront > Redirects
- Click on New Redirect
- Update the required details below:
URL Mapping Details Source URL URL of the web-page which needs to be redirected. Destination URL URL of the web-page where you want them to land onto Redirect Type 301 Permanent Redirects These are extremely useful when migrating sites to ensure your customers can use content list within search engines to still arrive at the right place on your site. 302 Temporary Redirects These are for a Temporary change e.g. when you plan to bring the redirected page back after a defined period. This is useful if you have categories within your catalog that change due to seasonality, say for instance you may only have enough styles to justify having a separate category for shorts for spring and summer. - Click Submit.
- All existing redirect can be edited from the redirect list screen as well.
URL Redirects can also be used to redirect the customer from a discontinued/disabled product to a similar live product.