Custom URLs and redirects

Updated 3 min read

A custom URL gives a page a second address; a redirect sends visitors from an old address to a new one. They solve different problems.

Custom URLs

A page's address is built from its slug and its parents' slugs. A custom URL, set on the record, gives it a second address of your choosing, such as /win for a page deep in the tree.

  • Both addresses answer. The page's own address keeps working; neither redirects to the other.
  • The site links to the custom URL. Links the site builds from the page use it.
  • The pages below follow. A child page also answers under the custom URL: /win/terms reaches the child terms of that page.

Use a custom URL for a short address on a flyer or in a campaign, or to give a listing a friendlier address, such as /blog for a blog.

Redirects

A redirect sends a visitor's browser from one address to another, and search engines update their index over time. Redirects are rewrite rules, managed in System » Rewrites. Each rule has a source path, an action (Redirect, or Rewrite to serve another page's content without changing the address) and a target, and a redirect has a type:

  • Permanent (301): the move is final, and search engines pass the old address's standing to the new one. Use it for real, lasting moves.
  • Temporary (302): the old address will come back, so search engines keep it. Use it for maintenance or a short campaign.

Choosing 302 because it feels safer is a common mistake: if the move is permanent, say so.

Moving a page creates no redirect

When you change the slug of a live page, or move it under another parent, its old address and the old addresses of every page beneath it answer "not found" from that moment. Add a Permanent (301) redirect for each in the same sitting. Every link, bookmark, email and search result points at the old address, and nobody reports a broken one: traffic just drops.

Which to use

  • A short or printed address for a page that stays where it is: a custom URL.
  • A page that moved, or whose slug changed: a redirect. A custom URL would leave two addresses serving the same page.
  • An address from an old website that must keep working: a redirect.

Avoid chains

If A redirects to B and later B redirects to C, visitors from A take two hops, and after a few reorganisations chains grow slow and fragile. When you add a redirect, look for rules that point at the address you are moving, and point them straight at the final address.

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