What is a Redirect?
A redirect is a behind-the-scenes instruction that a website provides to a visitor's browser letting the browser know the original URL location requested is actually named something else or located somewhere else, and it sends the browser to that new location.
Redirect Gotchas
- The path you're reading FROM should not have an existing page on the site, even unpublished or archived.
- The redirect system does NOT work with files of any type UNLESS the original file no longer exists on the site.
Why would you use a Redirect?
- A page has changed location within a site
- /blog/article1 is now located at /news/article1
- The site's domain name (oldsitename.com) has changed (newsitename.com)
- oldsitename.com changes to newsitename.com
- A page has changed its name
- /research/facultyperson-hall changes to /research/mrak-hall
- A page no longer exists, the link is broken, or visitors commonly enter a URL that is close to the actual URL but is incorrect so it fails
- proactively create a redirect to send the visitor to a useful location in your site
- A vanity URL needs to be changed when changing domains
- https://oldsitename.ucdavis.edu/conference to https://conference.newsite.ucdavis.edu
Types of Redirects
- Internal Redirect
- a page changes its name inside the same domain
- a page changes its location inside the same domain
- Documentation
- Domain Redirects
- the domain has changed and specific pages need to be directed to a new spot
- a vanity URL needs to be updated
- Documentation
- Fix 404 pages
- broken pages need to be fixed
- URLs from a previous site, but using the same domain, need to be redirected to their new location
- Documentation
- Blog: Telling the Digital World You've Moved
- Create a Custom 404 Page for your site
- A passive, useful means of helping visitors who land on your page to have a better chance of locating the information they are looking for.
- Documentation