How to Set Up 301 Redirects in Webflow? Quick Guide

Webflow offers seamless design and content management for your websites. Yet, when you redesign or update your website, ensuring your web pages and content are still visible is crucial. That's why proper 301 redirects help you update, redesign, and modify websites without hampering their SEO and search engine rankings.

Nonetheless, the real question is how to do 301 redirects from Webflow. Also, when and precisely why should you redirect your URLs on Webflow? 301 redirects are permanent ones that allow you to direct to a new URL so that search engines and visitors find them when they click on the old URL.

Therefore, it doesn't harm the ranking factors of your website and ensures the backlinks and other SEO techniques remain the same. It also saves you from broken or dead links (404 errors).

You can redirect the Webflow website and its pages from the "Publishing Tab" of your Webflow CMS and workspace. It allows you to turn pages, folders, and collections seamlessly. Today, we will guide you with it so you can redirect from Webflow without assistance.

The Difference Between 301 Redirects and 302 Directs

Before redirecting your webpages, contents, and folders in Webflow, you must know the differences between its versions. The 300 path has two different redirecting options: 301 redirects and 302 redirects.

• 301 redirects are permanent. So, when you are sure you won't roll back to previous pages, only implement 301 redirects. 
• If you wish to roll back to previous pages after specific updates or redesigns of your page, choose 302 redirects. It's temporary, and Google still recognizes it.

Nonetheless, for the best SEO practices, we recommend you always use 301 redirects unless your redirection purpose and time are brief. So, how do you redirect from Webflow? Let's check the step-by-step guidelines now.

How to Do 301 Redirects from Webflow (Easy Step)

Redirecting in Webflow is easier than you anticipate. You don't need tech-savvy to apply 301 redirects for your Webflow website, pages, folders, and collections.

Step 1: Choose your website

If you have multiple websites in the Webflow platform, choose the one you will work with for redirecting its pages. For this, log in to your Webflow dashboard first and click on the website you want to redirect. If you have a single website, click on it to go to the next section.

Step 2: Go to the publishing option

Now, choose the Publishing tab from your website's settings section. Once you select the project for redirecting it, you can click on its settings to open the publishing option. It will be similar to the image we showed you below.

Step 3: Go to 301 redirect option

You will find multiple options once you enter the publishing tab of your selected website. So, scroll down to find the 301 redirect options.

When you go to the 301 redirect options under the publishing tab, you will see two options there:

• Old Path 
• New path (Redirect to Path)

These are two boxes side-by-side that you see in the images below. You can work with the paths of the web pages, folders, collections, etc., to redirect to the new path or URL.

Step 4:  Change your old path to the new one

Once you see the two boxes of old and new paths, it's time to work with them. In the "Old Path," type or paste the old URL you wish to redirect. Then, on the left side,  enter the new URL address using the "Redirect to path" option.

After entering the new URL, click and confirm on the "Add Redirect Path" once it turns green. It will guarantee that your targeted web pages are redirected to the new URL address.

Redirect folders:

Instead of redirecting multiple web pages individually, you can redirect entire folders for Webflow. You can use the "Capture Groups" section to turn multiple or single pages of a specific folder. Once you go to the "301 redirect" function from the publishing tab, use the capture group to enter the new URL. The capture group us (.), which you must add to the old URL to redirect to the new path. Also, you must enter the "%1" within the "Add Redirect Path" field for the new URL.

For example:

1. In the old URL path, enter "/oldfolder/(.)”
2. In the new URL path, enter "/entirely/new-url/structure/%1”

In many cases, your URL will have wildcards. For them, you will need to escape different characters and replace them with the "%" character. The list follows:

• %
• _
• (
• )
• &
• =
• _
• +
• *
• ?

For instance, if the old URL path is /old-folder/(.), you must write it as /old%folder/(.). Here, the % is crucial to enter so that new path redirection works properly.

Step 5: Redirect static pages

You sometimes need to redirect static pages for website redesigning and domain changes. For this, go to the "Designer Tab" and choose the "Page Settings" option from there.

• After converting the slug section of your static page, check carefully. You will see a dialogue box in the settings options. It is "red marked," as shown in the image below. 
• You need to check and confirm the dialog box so that it redirects successfully. You can uncheck the box to redirect the static page only temporarily, not permanently.

Step 6: Use Webflow CMS for 301 redirections

You can work with the Webflow CMS to redirect blogs to your website automatically. For this, turn the slug for the blog post of the webpage. You can do it from the settings option under the "Designer Tab" option of your Webflow CMS platform. Also, you need to be in developer or admin mode to apply these changes. You can't change it from the "Editor "mode. You must have admin or developer access if you need to change the URL from the CMS. Or else you will see the following message on the screen that will prevent you from making the changes.

When to Apply a 301 Redirect?

From URL changes to merging websites and regular maintenance, you need to redirect the pages for different reasons. So, you must understand when and why you should use 301 redirects to your Webflow website.

• URL Changes: You can use 301 redirects to update or change the URL structure of your Webflow website. It will link the old URLs to the new ones without affecting the SEO. 
• Site or Domain Migration: You may need to transfer your website to a new domain. In such cases, 301 redirects will easily guide visitors and search engines to a new domain for the old site. 
• Merging Websites and Webpages: People sometimes combine two websites or pages. Also, they may merge multiple pages or folders into one. Then, 301 redirects link the web pages or folders and redirect them to the new path safely. 
• Deleting Pages:  Do you want to remove content from your existing webpage? If so, the old content will no longer be accessible. So, you should redirect its URL to a relevant page. It is crucial to improve user experience and retain traffic.‍
• Securing Your Site: Websites must be confirmed with HTTPS. So, when moving from http to https, use 301 redirects. The move and redirecting will ensure that visitors and search engines access the secure version of the Webflow website.

Conclusion

301 redirects are essential for the maintenance, updates, redesign, and safety of your Webflow website. As you follow our instructions for doing 301 redirects from Webflow, you can quickly implement it. It will help you retain traffic, improve user experience, and consolidate link and backlink fluidity for websites.

Also, proper 301 redirects will prevent your webpage from breaking links. Hence, if you need to rebrand your website or update it, confidently follow our steps to redirect the links and enjoy the convenience.