301 URL REDIRECTS when moving to ShinePages from another platform

By following some best practices and continuing to optimize your site's SEO, you can reduce the effect of the migration and potentially help your site's performance in search results in the long run.

The primary reason switching platforms might affect your SEO ranking is if your domain name/URL structure changes. Search engines referenced your previous site’s site map to identify your content. If other sites are linked to you, they’re probably using your old URLs. If these URLs change suddenly, your rank might be affected. With some preparation, you can minimize any damage.

Also see this related article: Keeping Your SEO Strong When You Switch Platforms

FOLLOW THE STEPS BELOW:

Before you leave your old platform entirely

While your old site is still online, we recommend cataloging your site’s URL structure by writing down a list of all page URLs, including blog post URLs and product page URLS.

ie:

/about

/contact

/name-of-blog-post-1

/name-of-blog-post-2

/name-of-product-1

etc.

After you’ve moved your content to your new ShinePages site, you’ll see which URLs are different and create 301 redirects to help search engines keep track of your content. See below for further information on 301 redirects. 

Try to keep your domain name

When possible, keep your current domain name. No matter where you purchased your domain name originally, (GoDaddy, NameCheap, Google Domains, Domains.com, Squarespace, etc.) you will be able to connect it to your ShinePages site by just making two simple changes to your domain name's records. The instructions on how to connect your domain name are in the below article. 

Try to match URL slugs

Matching URLs will help preserve inbound links to your content. For example, if your old site's about page was at yourdomain.com/about, use this same URL on ShinePages. Otherwise, if your new About page was at yourdomain.com/about-us, anyone visiting the /about URL would get a "404 Page Not Found" error, unless you have done a 301 redirect.

You can update your Page URLs in Page Settings. 

Use 301 redirects

Even if you're using the same domain, some URLs might not match due to differences in how ShinePages structures URLs and your old site structured URLs.

For example, if blog posts on your old site using the URL structure: www.yourdomain.com/title-of-your-post,

your new ShinePages site will use the format:

www.yourdomain.com/blog/title.

You can make sure anyone using the old format, or links using it, is redirected to the right content by setting up 301 Redirects.

For example:

Old page: /about-me

New page: /about

Old page: /name-of-blog-post

New page: /blog/name-of-post

Old page: /product-name

New page: /store/product-name

You can create 301 redirects easily by visiting your "Website Settings" area (the cog/gear icon wheel on the left side navigation in your ShinePages Builder) and then visiting "URL Redirects" (see below) 

Here's an example of an "old" URL mapping to a "new" URL:

See below Related Articles.