Using 301 redirects to redirect from old website pages
If you previously had a website before using the Website Builder, and you have used or are planning to use the same domain when publishing your new website, then you might be required to implement 301 redirects for certain pages.
Setting up Redirects from your existing website pages to your new pages is important to ensure guests and search engines are pointed to your new website 's URLs. If redirects are not implemented, certain pages on your website will show a 404 error which will frustrate guests and negatively impact your SEO ranking (Search Engine Optimisation).
Simply explained, if you had pages on your old website that do not exist on the new website or that have a different URL now, then you need to set up redirects so that guests or search engines opening the "old" URLs are directed towards your new website's corresponding pages.
For example, your old website might have had a page www.mywebsite.com/photos for your photos, but in the new website it is now called www.mywebsite.com/gallery. With a redirect you can ensure that when a guest enters www.mywebsite.com/photos, they will be forwarded to www.mywebsite.com/gallery.
The same could happen for your Contact Us, About Us, or Room pages, depending on their previous URL, so it is vital that all necessary redirects are set up.
Applying a 301 redirect ensures that anyone using an old link will be directed to your new website 's relevant page, without encountering an error.
Please note:
Redirects only work if the domain of your old website and your new website is the same.
If you have published or are planning on publishing your Website Builder's website on a new domain, redirects set up in the Website Builder will not redirect from your old URLs to your new website.
For example, if your previous website was on www.myhotel.com and you have published the Website Builder's website on the same domain under www.myhotel.com, you can set up redirects, such as www.myhotel.com/photos to www.myhotel.com/gallery.
If your old website was under www.bluehotel.com and the new website is now on www.redhotel.com, setting up redirects in the Website Builder will not work to redirect a customer trying to access www.bluehotel.com/photos to www.redhotel.com/gallery.
Setting up Redirects
We advise to set up redirects before you complete the switch from your old website to your new website as this enables you to check the URLs of your existing pages.
However you can add/remove redirects at any time. If you are setting up the redirects after publishing your new website, make sure that you have the correct path (URL) of the old website. Basically, if you know trying to access a previously existing page gives you a 404 Error, note down the URL of that page, and then set up a redirect for it.
If your previous website was translated, the URL of the translated version might differ from the translations in the Website Builder's website. To ensure that guests accessing the website with a previous URL end up on the right website, the Website Builder's Redirects allow you to specify what language you are redirecting to.
For example, your old website's french home page might have been www.mywebsite.com/fr/home. You can forward customers entering this URL to reach the french version of your new website's homepage (provided you have the corresponding language set up).
To add your redirects:
Click Advanced Settings
Click Redirects
Click + Add Redirects
Under Old Page enter the path of the previous webpage. For example, if you wish to redirect from www.yourwebsite.com/photos you only need to enter /photos, to redirect from www.yourwebsite.com/en/home you would enter /en/home
Select the New Page from the dropdown list
If applicable, select the language of the page you are forwarding to from the drop down list
Save
Should you wish to Remove a redirect:
Select Remove next to a redirect
Save