Allow Redirecting Paths on all Pages

In addition to the existing page slug, allow additional paths, which do a permanent redirect (301) to the main page URL.

Here I'll refer to those secondary paths as Redirects since that's their function. 

Often, a given page needs to be referable by several different slug/paths;

  1. When you first build a site that replaces a pre-existing site, all of the paths and page names frequently change and need to be redirected to the new pages.
  2. When you are doing print marketing, and need a shorter path for a particular page, e.g. a CMS product that you need to be at /shortpath.  Or e.g. /mike to access my team profile page from a business card.
  3. When you change a page slug, relocating it- automatically keeping the old slug available as a redirect would really help keep sites accessible.

KEY IMPLEMENTATION SUGGESTIONS

The redirect slug is full-path.  e.g. /foo/bar/page.  This allows redirects to function regardless of how the site hierarchy changes. It also supports "shortcuts" for print & TV marketing, e.g. /mowers  ->  /category/mowers

Whenever a slug is changed on a Page, Folder, CMS collection, or CMS item, automatically create a redirect for the old slug, to the new path.

For Folders and CMS collections that are moved via a slug change, this could be a wildcard redirect such as /oldslug/* -> /newslug/*  Or, you can simply create the redirect one each of the child pages (for a folder) or existing CMS items (for a collection)

Redirects show beneath the Slug, and can be added, edited, or deleted at any time. 

If you attempt to create an new Page, Folder, CMS collection or CMS item, whose path conflicts with an existing redirect path, alert the user to confirm. Notify them that the redirect exists, and will be deleted if they approve. This maximizes the flexibility of the site, and minimizes 404's, without impeding change and new content creation. 

WHY THE CURRENT "HOSTING PLAN" REDIRECTS FAIL

  1. Currently, redirects attached to the hosting plan are unintelligent- they don't know anything about the site, pages, or structures. That means if you ever move anything or change a slug, your own redirects don't intelligently update. 
  2. Current hosting redirects are also not saved to the site backup (restoring kills them) and are tied to the hosting plan of if you change hosting, you LOSE ALL OF YOUR REDIRECTS, EVERY SINGLE ONE.
  3. There's currently no way to back up and restore redirects at all. 
  4. Webflow's designer currently doesn't offer the ability to create a redirect, when you need to move an important page. You have to move the page to the new location, then go to a completely different area (hosting options) to create the needed redirect so that your expensive Google SEO & Adwords don't all break. 
  • Michael Wells
  • Jan 28 2019
  • Reviewed