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REDIRECTS &
BROKEN LINKS
D06 | B06 | HOW TO MAKE A WEBSITE LIKE A PRO
Paul Davenport | 2 min read
REDIRECTS AND BROKEN LINKS CHECK
What is a redirect?
When you are designing a new webpage chances are the URL is going to have to change. For example:
OLD PAGE URL
https://www.your-website.com/collections/your-service
to:
NEW PAGE URL
https://www.your-website.com/your-service
Let's imagine that the Old Page is already ranking on Google (sometimes you might hear people say that the page has been 'indexed' by Google). When you updated the URL to the new page, that's great, but it is not going to update Google, or any other website where the page link might appear. When somebody clicks the Old Page link it is not going to find the New Page, and they will be sent to your 404 page.
What's a 404 page?
A 404 page is where users are sent when they click on a link to a page that no longer exists. Have a look at MOBLE's 404 pages for MOBLE and DirtyFeet:
https://www.moble.com/404
https://www.dirtyfeet.com.au/404
While you can have fun with a 404, it is never the desired outcome. You should ensure that your users don't have the unfortunate experience of landing on a 404 by setting up your redirects.
How to setup redirects for Old URLs?
At the time of writing MOBLE's Redirects tool and Broken Links tool are in Beta. We will be turning on them on shortly in a tab via the main menu called 'Optimise'.
To add and edit redirects:
- Type this into your browser:
https://your-site-name.moble.site/redirects (See example in the screenshot below) - Click the '+ Add Redirect' button in the top right
- Add the old URL path (no need to add the domain name, just the path
E.g. /blog not https://www.dirtyfeet.com.au/blog
The Blog for DirtyFeet was not used. The optimised for a New Feed for short, sharp blasts to complement their social media. /blog was therefore redirected to /news.
How to find Old URL's or dead links?
Sometimes pages that are old or links that no longer existing might not be so obvious as changing the name from /blog to/news. If you're redesigning a website you'll need to make sure that all the old links from the old website map to the corresponding pages on the new website.
The problem here is that you might not know where to find those links that exist on external websites, or indeed those that are currently indexed on search engines like Google.
Thankfully there are a plethora of helpful free and paid websites to help you find those links. We'll also be taking a deep dive into SEO best practice in coming forthcoming a Series. Here are some helpful websites to help you on your way.
- https://ahrefs.com/dashboard/metrics
- https://moz.com/link-explorer
- https://screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider
MOBLE will soon be releasing tools to dumbed down tools to offer a simple solution that removes the jargon and complexity of managing your website for SEO. So please stay tuned for updates. Please also contact us if you require a helping hand with optimising your website, we will be more than happy to help. Let's Talk
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