How to generate redirect rules
- List your redirects, one per line: the old path, a space, then the new path or full URL. You can paste two columns straight from a spreadsheet. Use
/folder/*with:splatin the target to redirect a whole section. - Choose the redirect type: 301 for permanent moves (the usual choice for SEO) or 302 for temporary ones.
- Choose your server: Apache (.htaccess), Nginx, Netlify or Cloudflare Pages (_redirects), Vercel (vercel.json) or IIS (web.config). Optionally add site-wide rules to force HTTPS, add or remove www, or remove trailing slashes.
- Copy or download the rules and add them to your configuration, then test a few old URLs in a private window.
Redirects and SEO
When you move or rename pages, a permanent 301 redirect sends visitors and search engines to the new address and passes on most of the old page's ranking signals and backlinks. Without it, old links hit a 404 page and that value is lost. Redirect each old URL to its closest equivalent, not everything to the home page, which Google treats as a soft 404.
Avoid redirect chains (A → B → C): they slow pages down and waste crawl budget, so the generator warns when a target is itself redirected. Keep redirects in place for at least a year after a migration, and update internal links to point straight to the new URLs.
Query-string sources such as /shop?id=42 get proper conditions for each server, because plain path rules ignore query strings. The generator runs in your browser and does not contact your server.
What is the difference between 301 and 308?
Both are permanent. With 301, browsers may change a POST request to GET; 308 keeps the method and body, which matters for APIs and forms. For normal pages, 301 is standard.
Where do I put .htaccess rules?
In the .htaccess file in your site's root folder, above any CMS rules such as WordPress's block. The server must have mod_rewrite enabled.
Do I need to reload Nginx?
Yes. Add the rules inside your server block, test with nginx -t, then reload with systemctl reload nginx.