Redirect old URLs

What moves and what stays

When your domain points at yaya, a visitor opening an old address gets yaya, not your old site. If that exact path does not exist on your new site, they will not land on the right page.

Add a redirect for each old address that matters. A redirect sends visitors and search engines to the new page. A site holds up to 100 of them.

Add redirects for your old addresses

1. List every old page address before you switch DNS. Include the ones that bring in visitors.
2. Check your search results and your analytics for the pages people actually reach. Start with the top ten.
3. Make the new page for each one. Keep the same wording in the title and the first heading.
4. Open Website > Domain and find Redirects.
5. Type the old path in From and the new page in To.
6. Pick 301 permanent and click Add redirect.
7. Open each old address after the switch and check where it lands.

See Set up redirects for the rules and the error messages.

Update links you control

Change links in your Google Business Profile, social profiles, email signatures, ads and printed material. Ask the owners of sites that link to you to change the link. Start with the biggest ones.

Forward the bare domain

If your DNS provider has no ALIAS record, connect www.yourdomain.com and forward the bare domain to it at your registrar. That is a redirect at your registrar. The redirects in yaya work on page paths. See Switch DNS with no downtime.

Search engines

Your site serves a sitemap, so crawlers can find the new pages. See Search and AI discovery.

Questions

Can I keep the old site running for redirects? Not on the same domain. A domain points at one place at a time. Keep the old site only if it is on a different hostname.

Does a redirect work if a page already exists at the old address? No. The page shows. A redirect answers only when there is no page at that address.