Setting Up Redirects in Squarespace
Redirects: They’re often forgotten about in the world of website design, with topics like design and copy taking precedence, but they’re actually very important to maintaining a professional, easy-to-navigate online presence.
As a Squarespace and Showit website designer and SEO expert, I tell my clients to be mindful of any external links to their website that might need a redirect once their new website is complete to avoid any issues or confusion once it launches.
If you’re totally lost, allow me to take a step back and explain.
What is a redirect?
A redirect is a way to make certain web content (such as a page of your website) available through more than one URL (link.)
For example, a link to an old services page mentioned in an article might be set up to redirect to your new services page with updated information.
Not only would this page be accessible through its regular URL, but it would then also be accessible through another, older URL.
Another example of a necessary redirect might be when there is a page linked on your home page that doesn’t exist anymore.
You can make this link/URL redirect to a different page that actually exists so visitors don’t get the dreaded 404: Error message!
Make sense?
Why they’re important
SEO
Redirects are important to SEO because broken links really hurt your website’s credibility with Google. This is important to remember because redirects not only help please human visitors, but search engines, as well!
Keeping people on your website
If you’ve ever stumbled across a broken link on a website, you know how frustrating it is—and, chances are, you’ve probably navigated away from a site altogether for that reason before.
This can increase your bounce rate, so you’ll want to avoid this.
Obviously, you never want this to be YOUR website—so ensuring your website always does the hard work for your visitors is extremely important.
This is why adding a search bar to your custom 404 page can be such an impactful element since it gives people the chance to find what they were originally looking for.
Helping users get the info they originally wanted
If someone clicks a link on your website, they aren’t clicking for fun! They are clicking because they are interested in the page that is linked, usually because it contains information they are looking for about your services, your background, or something else.
Ensuring redirects are in place also ensures that visitors can easily find this information without having to hunt it down.
Avoiding the 404 page
Again, 404 pages are no fun (though you can improve yours by creating a custom 404 page!) They can be frustrating for users, and can cause your website to lose visitors quickly.
However, if you curate a great 404 page, you can recover some of the traffic that would normally be lost without one.
A redirect a day keeps the 404 page away—and keeps visitors happy!
How to set them up in Squarespace
Here’s how you can set up a redirect in Squarespace to keep your website professional and easy to navigate!
Before you begin, it’s important to note that any old pages your redirectly from need to either be deleted or disabled in the backend.
If you have a lot of redirects, I would recommend that you compile all the links in a Google Sheet. Column A contains the old URLs and Column B contains the new ones.
Once you changed a URL, you might not recall what it used to be. That’s why it’s a good idea to document each one before you begin the process.
You also need to know the difference between 301 and 302 redirects. In simple terms, 301 redirects are permanent and 302 are temporary.
To set up a redirect, navigate to settings - advanced - URL mappings.
Below the white box, you will see a guide from Squarespace that includes:
Format: <original url> -> <new url> <redirect type>
Example: /journal/[name] -> /blog/[name] 301
Following this format, gather your old URL with your new one. Be sure to add a “-” and “>” to create the arrow between the two. Then you identify 301 or 302.
It’s really that simple, and not as scary as it sounds!
You can see an example here of one of my blog posts:
For additional information about redirects, check out the Squarespace help page.
Hopefully this information helps you implement redirects on your website to improve your business’s online presence!
If you’re looking for a website redesign, I encourage you to check out my services below. I’m always happy to help!
Looking for more Squarespace SEO tips? Check out these blog posts: