How Do I Set Up 301 Redirects in Webflow After a Site Redesign in 2026?

Why do old links break when you redesign a Webflow site?

When you redesign a site, you often change page URLs, and every old URL that no longer exists turns into a dead end. A visitor or a search engine that follows an old link lands on a 404 error page. A 301 redirect fixes this by pointing that old URL at the right new one, so no one hits a wall. Getting these right is the difference between a calm relaunch and a traffic drop.

I have seen sites lose a chunk of their search traffic overnight because a redesign shipped without redirects. The pages ranked fine, the content was better than before, but every inbound link and every saved bookmark pointed at a URL that no longer existed. Search engines saw a wave of 404s and pulled back. None of that was needed. A short redirect list would have carried the value across.

What is a 301 redirect, and how is it different from a 302?

A 301 redirect is a permanent instruction that says a page has moved to a new address for good. It tells browsers and search engines to send everyone to the new URL and to pass along the ranking value the old page had earned. A 302, by contrast, means the move is temporary, so search engines hold on to the old URL. For a redesign, you almost always want a 301.

The number is an HTTP status code, the short signal a server sends back with every request. A working page returns a 200. A missing page returns a 404. A 301 returns the code for a permanent move plus the new address. You do not have to memorize these, but knowing that 301 means permanent helps you pick the right tool inside Webflow.

Where do I set up redirects in Webflow?

Webflow has a built-in redirect manager inside your site settings, under the publishing section. You do not need custom code or a third-party service for standard redirects. You open site settings, find the redirects area, and add a pair for each move: the old path on the left and the new path on the right. Webflow handles the rest when you publish.

The paths are the part of the URL after your domain. If your old page lived at slash old-services and the new one is at slash services, you enter those two paths. Webflow stores the pair and starts sending old-services traffic to services the next time the site goes live. This lives with your other publishing settings, close to where you manage branches during a redesign, which I covered in how I use Webflow page branching to ship homepage redesigns without breaking SEO.

How do I find every URL that needs a redirect?

Before you can redirect old URLs, you need a full list of them, and the safest source is a crawl of the live site before you launch the new one. A tool like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Semrush can crawl your current site and hand you every page URL. Your old sitemap and Google Search Console also list the pages Google already knows about. Together, those give you the master list.

I export that list and put it in a simple two-column sheet. The left column is every old URL. The right column is where each one should go on the new site. Some map one to one. Some old pages get merged into a single new page. A few have no good match and should point to the closest relevant page rather than the homepage. Doing this before launch means the redirects are ready the moment you publish.

Can I redirect a whole folder at once?

Yes, Webflow supports wildcard redirects, which let you move a whole group of URLs with one rule. Instead of writing a separate line for every blog post under an old path, you can use a pattern that catches them all and sends them to the matching new path. This saves a lot of time when a redesign moves an entire section, like a blog or a product area.

Wildcards are powerful, so I test them carefully. A pattern that is too broad can catch pages you did not mean to move. After I add a wildcard rule, I publish to a staging address and click through a handful of real old URLs to confirm each one lands where I expect. I would rather spend ten minutes testing than discover a bad rule after launch, when it is redirecting the wrong pages.

How do I test redirects before and after launch?

The reliable test is to visit an old URL and confirm it lands on the correct new page with a single hop. I keep my old-to-new sheet open and work down the list, pasting each old URL into the browser and watching where it goes. If it lands on the right page, I mark it done. If it hits a 404 or bounces through several redirects, I fix the rule.

After launch, I watch Google Search Console for a week or two. Its coverage and page reports flag URLs returning 404s, which points me to any redirect I missed. I also run one more crawl of the live site to catch broken internal links, the same habit I described in why I spent a Monday auditing my own Webflow site and found broken links. A redesign is not done the day it launches. It is done when the old paths are all accounted for.

What mistakes should I avoid with Webflow redirects?

The biggest mistake is sending every old URL to the homepage. It feels tidy, but it is bad for both visitors and search engines. Someone who clicked a link about your pricing wants your pricing page, not your homepage. Search engines treat a pile of homepage redirects as a soft signal that the old pages are simply gone, so you lose the value you were trying to keep. Match each old URL to its closest new page.

The second mistake is chaining redirects, where an old URL points to a second URL that points to a third. Each hop slows the page and weakens the signal. When a page moves twice over a couple of redesigns, I update the original rule to point straight at the final address. One clean hop is the goal every time.

What is my checklist for a clean redesign launch?

My checklist is short: crawl the old site, map every URL to a new one, add the redirects in Webflow, test each pair, then watch Search Console after launch. If you do those five things, a redesign rarely costs you traffic. Skip any of them and you are gambling with rankings you already earned. Redirects are dull work, but they protect everything the old site built.

If you are planning a Webflow redesign and the redirect list feels overwhelming, that is normal, and it is exactly the kind of thing worth getting right before you launch. If you want help building and testing your redirect map so nothing slips through, I am happy to walk through it with you. Reach out and let's chat.