The redirect map template. Every old URL, accounted for.
A redirect map pairs every URL on your current site with its destination on the new one, so visitors and search engines land in the right place after a migration. Download the CSV, list every old URL, fill in the new URL and status code, and check each redirect before launch.
The columns
- Old URL: the full address on the current site.
- New URL: where that page lives now.
- Status code: 301 for a permanent move; 302 only for a genuinely temporary one.
- Type: page, category, media or document.
- Owner: who confirms the destination is right.
- Notes: why the page moved, merged or retired.
- Checked: yes once the redirect is tested.
Why it matters
Without redirects, old links, bookmarks and search results lead to error pages, and the standing those pages earned in search can be lost. The map is also the record you’ll come back to when someone asks where a page went.
How Cypher handles this
In Cypher’s migration playbook, every redirect kept is part of the definition of done. The redirect map is built from the inventory of every page and checked before you sign off the launch.
Download the redirect map (CSV)
Fill it in
- Put every URL from a site crawl, your analytics and your sitemap in the old URL column.
- Remove duplicates and tracking parameters.
- Find the closest matching new page for each old URL.
- Use 301 for permanent moves, which is almost every row.
- Point retired pages at the most relevant live page, not the homepage.
- Mark each row’s type, so you can check page, category, media and document links as groups.
- Give each row an owner.
Check it
- No redirect points at another redirect: one hop only.
- No loops.
- Every destination loads, rather than returning an error.
- Your top pages by traffic and links checked by hand.
- Old URLs with meaningful parameters handled.
- Links to images and PDFs included.
After launch
- Test a sample of redirects on the live site.
- Watch for 404s and add any redirects you missed.
- Update links inside the site to point straight at the new URLs.
- Keep the redirects in place permanently.
- Keep the file as the record of what moved where.
Questions people ask
Should retired pages redirect to the homepage?
Usually not. Send each one to the most relevant remaining page, and use the homepage only when nothing closer exists.
Do redirects slow the site down?
A single redirect adds a small delay for the visitor following an old link. Chains add more, so keep every redirect to one hop.
What about URLs with parameters?
Strip tracking parameters before mapping, and handle meaningful ones, such as product or search parameters, with rules.