How to do a 301 redirect in Squarespace
If you delete a page from your site or change a page’s URL - make sure to create a 301 redirect. 301 redirects are a way to point from an old, deleted or non-relevant page, to a new and relevant one. In practise, they ensure that anyone visiting your website who might stumble on a link to an old page gets seamlessly redirected to the new one, rather than getting a ‘404 page not found’ error.
To ensure a good user experience, the redirect page should point to the most relevant or similar live page to the one that is no longer needed. 301 redirects are important from an SEO perspective for a couple of reasons:
If you delete or rename a page on your site and don’t set up a 301 redirect, Google will get a 404 error code (page not found), which may lead them to drop that page from their search index. Conversely, if you’ve redirected the old page to the new one, the latter will eventually replace the former in the index.
If one of your site visitors clicks on an old link and gets a 404 page, they may decide to leave the site. Less time on site, less engagement and higher bounce rates will all negatively impact how Google sees your site and over time can erode your ability to rank highly.
How to set up a 301 redirect in Squarespace
Setting up 301 redirects in Squarespace is easy.
Click on Settings - Advanced - URL Mappings
Enter the details for the old and new page in this format: /old-page -> /new-page 301
That’s it. You’re done!
Moving your website to Squarespace from another platform?
A lot of my clients have moved from Wordpress, Wix and other platforms to Squarespace. But did you know that migrating from one CMS to another can cause you to drop in search engine ranking and lose website traffic? If you are considering a move - read this step by step post on moving your website from WordPress to Squarespace without impacting SEO.
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