In Squarespace 5, there are three built-in ways to redirect a page on your site:
- 301 redirect - A permanent redirect that tells browsers to go to a different URL when someone clicks a link to a nonexistent page.
- 302 redirect - A temporary redirect that tells browsers to go to a different URL when someone clicks a link to an old page.
- URL rewrite - A new URL that points to a page on your site, while leaving the page's original URL accessible. This is a good option for shortening long URLs.
Note: If you redirect your built-in domain, you won't be able to log into your site anymore.
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Open the URL Shortcuts area
- In the Website Management bar, click URL Shortcuts under Structure.
- Create either a 301 or 302 redirect or a URL rewrite.
- Click Update Information.
URL rewrites
A URL rewrite creates a new URL that points to an existing page on your site. To create a URL rewrite, open the URL Shortcuts area and fill out the fields:
- Shortcut URL - Add the slug you want at the end of your URL, followed by a forward slash (/)
- Target URL - Add the page from your site that you want to display at this URL (eg, a page with a long URL).
- Navigation Method - Choose URL Rewrite.
Then click Update Information.
Example - Shorten a long URL
Use a URL rewrite to create a shorter URL for a page. For example, if you have a blog post with this URL:
www.yoursitename.com/blog/here-is-a-blog-post-with-a-very-long-url
Open the URL Shortcuts area and set up a URL rewrite as shown below. Once you click Update Information, you can send visitors to www.yoursitename.com/short-url to see that post.
Tip: You can also modify or shorten file URLs in file storage.
301 and 302 redirects
To create a 301 or 302 redirect, open the URL Shortcuts area and fill out the fields:
- Shortcut URL - Add the page from your site you want to redirect (ie, the old page). See our formatting tips.
- Target URL - Add the page you want to redirect to (ie, the new page). This can be a page on your site or an external page. See our formatting tips.
- Navigation Method - Choose either 301 Redirect or 302 Redirect. If you're not sure which to choose, visit About URL redirects.
Then click Update Information.
Example 1 - Redirect an old or missing page
Use a 301 or 302 redirect to reroute visitors to a new link. For example, if the URL for your blog used to be:
www.yoursitename.com/my-old-blog
But now it's
www.yoursitename.com/my-new-blog
Set up a 301 or 302 redirect as shown below. Once you click Update Information, when visitors go to yoursitename.com/my-old-blog, they'll automatically be rerouted to yoursitename.com/my-new-blog
Shortcut URL and target URL formatting
For pages on your site, the shortcut URL and target URL should contain the site-relative URL. For most pages, this would just be the page slug. For subpages, like blog posts, include the post slug as well.
If you add the full URL, like www.yoursitename.com/blog, it will automatically be shortened to blog/
Keep these tips in mind:
- We recommend ending each shortcut URL and target URL with a forward slash (/). This ensures that the URL will load whether or not the visitor includes a / at the end.
- URL Shortcuts don't support wildcard redirects. This means you can't use a wildcard like blog/* to redirect a URL and any subsets of that URL.
- URLs are case sensitive.
- URL rewrite shortcuts must be unique. For example, you can't use a shortcut that's the same as the slug for another page on your site, and you can't create two redirects using the same shortcut.
- If the URL includes a question mark or semi-colon, delete the question mark or semi-colon and everything that comes after it, like this: yoursitedomain.com/blog/blog-post;jsessionid=64931.v5-web03
- To redirect to an external site, add the full url, such as https://www.squarespace.com/
Redirect to an external URL
To redirect to a page that isn't on your site, use a 301 or 302 redirect and include the full URL for the external site in the Target URL field.
For example, if you change your podcast host from Squarespace 5 to a podcasting service, you can use a 301 redirect to redirect to the new feed. This prevents subscribers from having to re-subscribe to the podcast.
Tip: URL rewrites can't point to external sites.
