Creating a URL redirect

What's inside this article:

• Basic information
• Create a new redirect
• Supported formats
• Troubleshooting

Basic information

URL redirection lets you create a redirect from an invalid URL to any valid URL. This is useful if the URL for a webpage is changed, or if a webpage is unpublished. Anyone who tries to visit the invalid URL is redirected automatically to the selected valid URL.

This article explains how to create a URL redirect in CMS.

Create a new redirect

To redirect a URL:

1. Go to Administration > URL Redirection.

   

2. Hit + Add new.

   

3. Under Old URL, enter the old URL. You need to use the relative form of the URL. This means everything after the first slash (for example, a/32472306.html). For detailed information, go to the following section:
   • Supported formats

   

4. Under New URL, enter the target URL for the redirect. To create a redirect to your homepage, just enter a slash (/). For detailed information, go to the following section:
   • Supported formats

   

5. Select Add.

   

The redirect is now created and should work immediately.

Supported formats

If you enter an unsupported URL format under Old URL or New URL, you see an error message and you won't be able to create the redirect.

To learn what might be the issue, review the rules in the sections below:

• Old URL
• New URL

Old URL

The following rules apply for entering the Old URL:

• Enter the relative form of the URL. This means everything after the first slash. For example, enter a/32472306.html rather than https://www.rferl.org/a/32472306.html.
• Ensure the URL includes no spaces. If you see an error, check that the URL does not include a trailing space at the end.
• Ensure the URL does not start or end with a slash (/).

New URL

The following rules apply for entering the New URL:

• To create a redirect to your homepage, just enter a slash (/).
• Ensure the URL includes no spaces. If you see an error, check that the URL does not include a trailing space at the end.
• Ensure the URL does not start or end with a slash (/), unless the redirect is to your homepage.
• To create a redirect to another page from your site, enter the relative form of the URL. This means everything after the first slash. For example, enter a/32472306.html rather than https://www.rferl.org/a/32472306.html.
• To create a redirect to an external site, enter the full URL including the protocol (such as https://). For example, enter https://facebook.com/rferl.

Troubleshooting

You cannot create multiple redirects from the same URL. If a redirect already exists for the entered URL, you see the error 'Old URL already exists'.

If you see the error 'Old URL already exists', we recommend the following:

1. Search for the existing redirect that uses the same Old URL. You can find it more quickly using the search box at the top of the screen.

   

2. Once you find the redirect, optionally edit it by hitting the Old URL.

   

If you can't find the redirect, try enabling the Show deleted slider to include deleted redirects on the list. Even if a redirect was previously deleted, it is not possible to create another redirect from the same URL.

To restore a deleted redirect, hover over the relevant panel and hit the Restore icon.