How to Set Up Redirects During a Site Migration

When moving to Clinic Sites from another platform, it's essential to avoid 404 errors, preserve SEO rankings, and maintain visitor trust. This guide walks you through setting up 301 redirects so anyone trying to access your old URLs will be seamlessly guided to your new site.

 

Why a URL Structure Matters

Different web platforms, such as WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and Clinic Sites, use different URL structures built into their platforms.

For example, your old URL might have something like:

If your site was hosted on another platform before moving to Clinic Sites, your URL structure could change to any of the following structures, depending on how you organise your pages on our platform. After moving to Clinic Sites, your URL might look like:

When you move your website to Clinic Sites from another platform, that change in URL structure can lead to potential problems.

Let's imagine your old website is like your former house in a neighbourhood. People know how to get to your house. They’ve saved the address, told friends about it, and even shared it on community boards. But now you’ve moved to a new house in a different neighbourhood… and you didn’t leave a forwarding address.

So What Happens When You Don't Set Up a Redirect?

• Visitors Get Lost
  • People trying to visit pages on your old site may end up on a blank page that says, “This page doesn’t exist.” That’s not a great first impression.
• Google Gets Confused
  • Search engines, like Google, have also saved those old addresses. If the pages disappear without any clues about where they went, you could lose the visibility and traffic you had before.
• Your Reputation Takes A Hit
  • If someone shares a link to your old site on social media, in an email, or another website references it in a blog post, it can go nowhere. They might think your business is unreliable or closed.
• Tracking Your Visitors Becomes Messy
  • If you’re keeping track of how many people visit your site, those numbers might suddenly drop.

Setting up 301 Redirects is the best way to make sure people and search engines can still find you after your website moves. It's like putting up a big friendly sign at your old storefront that says: “We’ve moved! Come visit us here instead.”

How to Set Up 301 Redirects During Your Site Migration

In this step-by-step, you’ll learn how to use Clinic Sites' built-in redirect tool to guide patients from old links to new pages without losing traffic.
 

1. Before starting your site migration process, gather a list of URLs from your old website. Focus on high-traffic pages like your homepage, about page, team, services, blog posts, and any custom landing pages. If possible, review your old site’s Google Analytics or Search Console data to prioritize the most visited pages.
2. Match each old URL to its corresponding page on your new Clinic Sites website. For example, your old URL could be yourclinic.com/our-team, whereas your new URL is yourclinic.com/staff. 
3. Next, you'll log in to your Clinic Sites dashboard.
4. Click Admin in the top right corner, then select Settings from the dropdown menu.
5. In the left-hand panel, click Redirects.
6. Click the Add Redirect button.
7. In the When the user goes to field, enter the part of the old URL after the .com, .ca, or other equivalent for your domain (e.g., /our-team)
8. In the Re-direct them to field, enter the full updated path that the old URL should lead to (e.g., /staff)
9. Click the Save Re-direct button.
10. Repeat this process for each old URL you want to redirect.
    
    

You did it! Your redirects are now active, which means anyone visiting your old links will automatically be taken to the correct new pages on your Clinic Sites website. Not only does this protect your SEO, it also ensures a smooth experience for visitors, with no 404 errors or lost traffic.

Next steps

Now that you've handled your redirects, here are a few other ways to make changes to your Clinic Sites website: 

• Best Practices for Using Images on Your Website‍ 
• Clinic Sites Support FAQ‍ 
• How to add a block‍