URL redirects and changing page paths without losing rankings

Renaming a page, restructuring your site, or merging two pages into one is normal maintenance — but if you just change the URL and leave the old one dead, you lose everything search engines had learned about that page: its rankings, its accumulated trust, and anyone who bookmarked or linked to the old address. A 301 redirect fixes this by permanently pointing the old URL to the new one, and it's a built-in setting, not a code change.

#What a 301 redirect actually does

A 301 (the number refers to the HTTP status code) tells both browsers and search engines "this page has permanently moved — here's where to find it now." Search engines that follow a 301 will, over time, transfer most of the ranking value from the old URL to the new one and update their index accordingly. This is different from a 302 (temporary redirect), which tells search engines to keep the old URL as the authoritative one — don't use a 302 for a permanent change, it won't pass ranking value the same way.

#Where to set one up

Settings > Domains & URL Redirects, then the URL Redirects tab.

Screenshot coming soon

The URL Redirects tab with the Add Redirect button highlighted

#Step-by-step

1. Click + Add Redirect in the top right.
2. Under Redirect From, choose the domain you're redirecting from. The domain has to already be added to your account — you can't redirect from a domain that isn't connected.
3. Choose the scope:
   • Specific Path — redirect just one URL, e.g. /old-services-page
   • Entire Domain — redirect every request on that domain (typically used when retiring an entire old domain in favor of a new one)
4. Choose the destination:
   • Custom URL — any external or internal URL you type in
   • Funnel — pick a funnel and the specific step to send traffic to
   • Website — pick a website page to send traffic to
5. Save.

Warning: Avoid special characters in the path you're redirecting from — question marks, percent signs, ampersands, equals signs, and hash symbols can all break matching. Stick to clean paths: lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and forward slashes.

#Best practices

• Redirect straight to the final destination. If page A used to redirect to B, and now B is also being retired in favor of C, update A to point directly to C — don't leave a chain of A→B→C. Redirect chains slow page load and some search engines stop following them after a couple of hops, which can strand the original page's ranking value.
• Match content as closely as possible. A redirect works best, for both users and search engines, when the destination page covers roughly the same topic as the page it replaced. Redirecting a retired service page to your generic homepage is a last resort, not a default.
• Check your redirects periodically. Domain changes, page restructuring, or a deleted destination page can quietly break a redirect that used to work. A broken redirect chain is a common, hard-to-notice source of lost traffic.
• Watch for extra paths or parameters causing ad platform issues. If you're running paid traffic to a redirected URL, some ad platforms (Google Ads among them) will reject or flag ads pointing at URLs with unexpected redirect behavior or stray query parameters — keep destination URLs clean when redirects are involved in a paid campaign's path.

#After you set up a redirect

A redirect being live doesn't mean search engines have instantly updated their index. Give it time and verify:

1. Test the redirect yourself by visiting the old URL directly and confirming it lands on the right new page.
2. If the old URL was indexed, use Google Search Console's URL Inspection Tool on the new URL to confirm Google recognizes it.
3. Update your sitemap to list the new URL, not the old one — see Sitemaps, robots, canonical URLs, and indexing.
4. Update any internal links on your own site that still point to the old URL. A redirect handles external traffic and old bookmarks fine, but internal links pointing through a redirect add an unnecessary hop and a small drag on page speed.

#Common mistakes that lose ranking value

• Deleting a page without redirecting it. The URL returns a 404 (not found), search engines eventually drop it from the index, and any accumulated ranking value is simply gone.
• Redirecting everything to the homepage. This is better than a 404, but it wastes most of the ranking value — search engines can tell the content doesn't actually match, and won't fully credit the homepage for the old page's specific rankings.
• Using a 302 for a permanent move. If your platform or a tool defaults to a temporary redirect, double-check it's actually set as permanent (301) when the move is meant to be permanent.
• Leaving old internal links unupdated. Not fatal, but sloppy — it signals to search engines (and to users clicking around your own site) that the redirect is a patch rather than a clean move.

#What done looks like

• The old URL 301-redirects directly to its closest-matching new destination — no chains.
• The redirect has been tested manually and loads the correct page.
• Your sitemap and internal links reference the new URL, not the old one.
• If the old page had meaningful traffic or backlinks, you've checked Search Console a few weeks later to confirm the new URL picked up the indexing and rankings.

#Related articles

• Sitemaps, robots, canonical URLs, and indexing
• Page titles, meta descriptions, and Open Graph
• SEO and AEO on the platform: an overview

#Frequently asked questions

#How long does it take for rankings to transfer after a redirect?

It varies, but expect anywhere from a few days to several weeks depending on how often search engines crawl your site and how established the old page was. High-traffic pages tend to get recrawled and updated faster than rarely-visited ones.

#Can I redirect a whole domain instead of individual pages?

Yes — choose Entire Domain as the scope when adding the redirect. This is the right approach when you're retiring an old domain entirely in favor of a new one, rather than restructuring paths within the same domain.

#What if I need to redirect dozens of pages at once, like during a full site rebuild?

Set up each redirect individually through Settings > Domains & URL Redirects, mapping old paths to their closest new equivalent. There's no bulk-import shortcut described here — for a large migration, build a spreadsheet mapping every old URL to its new destination first, then work through the list methodically so nothing gets missed.

#Will a redirect hurt my page speed?

A single, direct redirect adds a negligible delay. The problem is chains — each additional hop adds real load time. Keep every redirect pointing straight to its final destination and this isn't a meaningful concern.