Redirect Mapping

Redirect mapping is one of the most important activities during an ecommerce replatforming project. It involves identifying every valuable existing URL and deciding where users and search engines should be sent once the new website goes live.

Most organisations use permanent 301 redirects to tell browsers and search engines that a page has moved. This helps preserve accumulated authority, backlinks, search rankings and customer bookmarks while preventing visitors from encountering broken pages.

Redirect mapping is far more than a technical exercise. It requires understanding customer journeys, information architecture, SEO performance and commercial priorities before deciding how every important page should behave after launch.

Without effective redirect mapping, years of SEO investment can disappear overnight. Search engines may remove pages from their indexes, customers encounter 404 errors, backlinks lose value and marketing campaigns stop working.

Manufacturers, building products suppliers and industrial distributors often have thousands of indexed product pages, specification sheets, installation guides and downloadable resources. Losing these URLs can significantly reduce enquiries and organic visibility.

Redirect mapping protects the digital equity your organisation has built over many years. It should be treated as a core commercial workstream rather than a final technical checklist before launch.

A KBB manufacturer launches a new ecommerce platform with redesigned product categories and improved navigation. Hundreds of product URLs change. Rather than allowing old URLs to return 404 errors, every important page is redirected to its closest equivalent, preserving search rankings, customer bookmarks and links from merchants, installers and industry publications.