Recipe: Managing Redirects After Site Redesign

When you redesign a website and URL structures change, you must set up redirects so visitors and search engines can find your content at its new location. This recipe covers the complete redirect workflow using SEO Forge PRO’s Redirect Manager.

Step 1: Plan Your URL Migration

Before launching the redesign, create a complete URL mapping.

1. Export a list of all current URLs on your site — you can find these in your sitemap at yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml
2. Create a spreadsheet with two columns:

1. For every old URL, determine its new equivalent
2. Mark any pages that are being removed entirely — these should redirect to the most relevant remaining page
3. Identify URLs that are staying the same — these do not need redirects

Step 2: Set Up 301 Redirects

1. Go to SEO Forge > Redirects in your WordPress dashboard
2. For each row in your URL mapping spreadsheet, click Add Redirect
3. Enter the source URL (old path) — use relative paths like /old-page/, not the full domain
4. Enter the target URL (new path) — again, use relative paths like /new-page/
5. Set the redirect type to 301 (Permanent) — this tells Google the page has permanently moved and to transfer ranking power to the new URL
6. Click Save
7. Repeat for all URL changes

Step 3: Handle Common Patterns

If your URL structure changed in a predictable pattern, use redirect rules instead of individual entries:

1. In the Redirect Manager, look for the Pattern Redirect option
2. For example, if all blog URLs changed from /blog/YYYY/slug/ to /insights/slug/, you can create a pattern redirect rather than hundreds of individual ones
3. Test pattern redirects carefully — preview the effect before saving

Step 4: Enable 404 Monitoring

1. Go to SEO Forge > Settings and enable 404 tracking
2. Launch your redesigned site
3. Over the next 48 hours, actively monitor the 404 log at SEO Forge > 404 Log
4. Any URLs showing up in the 404 log are pages visitors or search engines tried to access that are returning “not found”
5. For each 404 entry, add a redirect to the appropriate new page
6. Pay special attention to 404s with high hit counts — these are your most-visited missing pages

Step 5: Verify Redirects Are Working

1. Test each redirect manually — enter the old URL in your browser and confirm it lands on the correct new page
2. Use the browser’s developer tools (Network tab) to verify the HTTP status code is 301, not 302
3. Clear all caches (browser, page cache, CDN) before testing
4. Test in an incognito/private browser window

Step 6: Update Google Search Console

1. Log into Google Search Console
2. If your domain or URL structure changed significantly, submit the new sitemap
3. Use the URL Inspection tool to test a few key redirects — confirm Google sees the 301 and finds the new page
4. Monitor the Coverage report for any increase in 404 errors over the following weeks
5. If you have SEO Forge PRO connected to Search Console, check the 404 data directly in your WordPress dashboard

Step 7: Ongoing Maintenance

1. Keep the 404 tracking enabled permanently — new broken links can appear at any time as external sites link to old URLs
2. Review the 404 log weekly for the first month after launch, then monthly thereafter
3. Never remove 301 redirects — they should remain in place indefinitely. External sites and bookmarks may continue using old URLs for years
4. If you set up a redirect that is no longer needed (because both URLs are gone), you can safely remove it

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