E -commerce redirection: when and how to use them

If you have moved home in the past, you may be familiar with how the local post office handles your email. You give them your new address, they will automatically forward all your letters, bills and (ulks) spam to the new address.

When you want to move some things in your online store, this does not seem so simple. There is no need to notify the post office, no need to paste the label to guide traffic to the new position on the page. This is much more complicated … right?

In fact, it is easy to move things in your online store -if you know how to do it. If you want to learn to focus the traffic from one page on your website to another, this article is suitable for you . We will discuss how to use the URL to redirect the traffic from one page to another. Just take a little time and energy, you don’t even have to cause the email office.

Let’s explore the working principle of e -commerce redirection, when to use them, and how to set them on your website.

Reduction

• ] URL redirect as it sounds: When you enter URL or click the link in the browser, it will guide you from the initial position to different destinations

.

• The way to redirect the actual work should be more complicated. You may be familiar with \”404 Not Found\” errors, right? Well, there are similar codes, such as 404, tell your browser to redirect the state of the URL -whether it has disappeared forever or just temporarily lost -and what to do next.

The current use/recommended redirection code is:

301

-The permanent redirection (the first URL did not return)

303 -Chat other (you are moving to the new URL, please wait a little) 307 -The temporarily redirect )

There are some other redirect options, including 302 (temporary redirect) and 308 (permanent redirection), but the former has been eliminated and the latter has not yet adapted.

99%, your store needs 301 or permanent URL redirection.

Therefore, this is what we will focus on this guide: when you may need a permanent URL redirection, and how to set it.

Assuming you have a popular product. Over time, its pages have accumulated a large number of links from other websites. But a few years later, you need to replace this product with a new version.

You don’t want to lose these links or potential customers. But you really need to create a new page for the new version of the product, so it is impossible to use the same URL.

This is the exact type of creating 301 redirect!

The redirect will bring your shopkeeper to the right place without any trouble. (Image source: Martin P. Szymczak) Corustment through 301 or permanent URL,

You can automatically send people who access the old product page to the new product page

. Any potential customers who click the link will log in to your new page immediately without seeing any 404 errors or waiting for more than one or two seconds.

• In other cases, you may also need to redirect, including:

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• When the product has been deleted and you want to guide the traffic to similar projects
• When you delete a special landing page (use it with When sales, competitions, etc.), and only want to turn the traffic to your homepage

When you merge multiple product pages into one (for example, there are variants) and leave it When multiple outdated URL

When you completely change the URL structure of the store

Basically, if you delete a URL and it will never never, it will never be no longer. Come back, then it is time to make a redirect. After all, traffic must be available

Somewhere

. When need to be redirected, when can you not need

At this time, you may want What should I do if I change it right away? \” Just the initial URL has been widely visited, added bookmarks, links or outsideReferences (for example, in marketing or other promotional activities), redemption is important . Although 404 is definitely not a good experience for visitors at your store, sometimes one or two potential dead links are better than spending a few minutes to set up a redirect.

Therefore, if you enter an error in the URL in the product page and fix it immediately, please don’t worry about heavy heavy weight Direction. But if you find it for a few weeks before you discover it, you may create 301.

Last point:

Some platforms, including WordPress, will try to automatically redirect the URL of any change to any change. This may not be suitable for any major changes (for example, the structure of the permanent link in WordPress after the release of dozens of pages), but next time you make a smaller URL change, it is worth studying.

How to re -enable your e -commerce website Now you know what redirection is, and when you may need to redirect. You have prepared to take the next step: study and implement.

There are many ways to make redo -e -commerce websites, which vary from platform and hosting environment. We will introduce some of the most common content here, first of all, how to set up the redirection when running WoOOCOMMERCE.

Use woocommerce or wordpress You automatically handle the basic URL redirection -for example, if you change the title of the product page in Woocommerce and change the permanent link. However, does not deal with the main redirect

, so you need to handle the category change or the permanent link structure change.

If you are not opposed to adding another extended program to your WOOCOMERCE store, you can set up a 301 redirection by installing one. The redirection is one of the most popular (also free) plugins for creating a URL redirection in WordPress.

The redirect allows you to create a URL redirection for the plug -in to the WordPress website.

Just enter the source (old) URL, target (current) URL, and then click \”Add Direct\”. that isSo -you finished.

Reset the 404 (\”not found\”) error of the next time you will follow, this can be reminded You may need to create a potential redirection. It also has built -in statistical information, so you can see how many times your redirect is used.

Use the .htaccess file to redirect the self -custody platform

Don’t want to add another plug -in, or do you not use WoOOCOMMERCE? no problem.

If your store is self -hosted and you can access the server, you can set the URL redirection by editing the .htaccess file. This is a simple file that applies the global configuration to your server. You can also manually set the URL redirection here.

You can check this file through FTP or file manager access the server’s Public_HTML directory. If you don’t see the .htaccess file, You can use the text editor you choose to create a . Name it .htaccess (without extension) and upload it to Public_html.

Although this is the case, you should always

Make sure you have no .htaccess file Essence If you are using WordPress, then you should already have one. When you open the file manager, find the option that allows you to \”display hidden files\” or \”display point files\” in the following:

If your .htaccess file is lost, please make sure first You enabled hidden files. No matter what ways, once you create or open your .htaccess file, you can add your first 301 redirection. The easiest way is to edit it through the file manager of the server (using the built -in code editing option, if available), or you can always use the local text editor you choose to open it.

Warning: Before the editor is performed, please

Be sure to backup your .htaccess, especially when you are not familiar with this document.

When adding a new redirection, their formats should be shown below:

# Place your comments here

Redirect 301 /OLDURL.HTML http: / /www.site.com/newurl.html


Each new redirection should be on a new line . You can add comments and mark it with a well (#).

Any 301 redirect in the .htaccess file. This example comes from a website that uses WordPress -pay attention to the location.

Save the file, upload it if necessary, and then test the redirection in the browser. If the redirection is effective, it is great! If some places look inappropriate, check the example above and try again.Please note that if you implement this process for the WordPress website or the Woocommerce store, your redirection should be placed above the wordpress code

as shown above. (Thank you Damien to point out the importance in the comments!)

Other options [ 123] Some owners will have no right to access .htaccess, including: Those who use

to host e -commerce platform

No one in the linux custody environment , That is,

Use Windows server

• The client of some hosts The ability to prevent access, edit or create this file
• If if You are in one of the cases, then you are not lucky. However, you may need

to consult your platform and/or your host to find out the best way to achieve 301 redirection

• . In many cases, the custody platform has a built -in URL redirection option, although it may be a bit difficult to find. For Windows users, try this resource from Microsoft -it will guide you to use IIS to create redirect.

The danger of not implementing the correct redirection

If you often stop the product, then this redirection may sound likeWork more (and do so). So you might think, \”Can’t I let those links 404? Will my visitors visit my homepage directly?\”

]

Reset of two very, very large problems for the deleted URL settings:

It will bring a bad experience to your visitors

123] Over time, the situation may … …

Optimized for your store’s search engine (SEO) is absolutely bad

!