Redirect Options

1. 301 Redirect Scenario A (Direct page to page)

You have moved a file and you want to avoid broken links by redirecting users to the new location.

Solution: A 301 Redirect (Direct page to page) 

Need to know:

• Using 301 redirects will help update and direct search engines.
• Redirects will be removed after six months, unless a shorter duration is requested.
• You will need to provide a full list of URLs and the new file locations.
• You can request multiple page to page redirects.

Example:

torontomu.ca/vpadmin/holiday-schedule has moved to torontomu.ca/hr/vacation-schedule      

2. 301 Redirect Scenario B (Replace Multiple)

You have moved and renamed a subfolder and this has changed the URL for  your pages; however, you have kept most of the original files together in the new folder structure.  You need users visiting files in the original location to be redirected to the new folder structure without creating individual page to page redirects as in Scenario A.

Solution:  301 Redirect (Replace multiple)

Need to know:

• Using 301 redirects will help update and direct search engines. 
• Redirects will be removed after six months, unless a shorter duration is requested.
• You will need to provide a full list of URLs and the new file locations.
• You can request multiple folder to new folder redirects.

Example:

torontomu.ca/hr/content/*  has changed to torontomu.ca/hr/hrstuff/renamed-content-folder/ 

* - indicates folder contains files

Any page under 'content' gets redirected to 'renamed-content-folder'.

3. 301 Redirect (Wildcard)

You have moved and renamed a subfolder and this has changed the URL for your pages; however, your original filenames have been moved to the new folder and have NOT been renamed.  You need users visiting original file locations to me moved to the same filename in its new location.

In this scenario, all pages within the original location/folder and new location/folder must be the same filename.  

Solutions:  301 Redirect (Wildcard)

Example:  torontomu.ca/hr/contact --> redirects to torontomu.ca/human-resources/contact

• Vanity URLs are customized short URLs, created to redirect users to a page deeper within your site.
• Vanity URLs are generally used for marketing purposes because they are shorter, easier to remember and easier to type.

Related: How to create a vanity URL

Redirects must be listed in a specific order:

In your redirect list, if a main page is listed before its children, it will overwrite the children.  If you provide redirects in the wrong sequence, conflicts are inevitable. Children must be listed BEFORE the main page in your list of redirects.

Sequence matters

Provide the redirect list in a specific order with children before main pages

Example, where (a) and (b) are children of main page (c):

(a) torontomu.ca/campusfacilities/departments/help-desk/* ->  torontomu.ca/facilities-management-development/contact/    

(b) torontomu.ca/campusfacilities/random-filename  ->  torontomu.ca/facilities-management-development/random-filename   

(c) torontomu.ca/campusfacilities/*  ->  torontomu.ca/facilities-management-development/service-requests  

Do not include index.html or .html in source or target URL

In our current system configuration, all of the following are the same file: 

campusfacilities = campusfacilities.html = campusfacilities/index.html 

The request should look like this: 

torontomu.ca/campusfacilities/*  -> torontomu.ca/new-site-name

We cannot redirect the same file to different targets. That is, you cannot include the following in addition to the example above:

torontomu.ca/campusfacilities/index.html  -> torontomu.ca/new-site-name/file-1.html

torontomu.ca/campusfacilities.html  ->  torontomu.ca/new-site-name/child/file-eight.html

Avoid submitting redirects that create an endless loop

The following redirect will create an infinite loop as the destination will match the condition "learn" and continue to redirect in an infinite loop.

torontomu.ca/learn -> torontomu.ca/learning

To break the loop a "/" must be added to the end of the redirect: torontomu.ca/learn/