Hi Webflow Forum,
I am new to the platform and just getting my head around how to redirect an existing old site that was set up by someone else (outside of Webflow) to my new site created here in webflow.
The old site is due to end hosting next month and I need to set a redirect to new site so I retain the google history etc. What steps do i need to take in order to make this happen.
Do i need two create a coming soon page as well?
Activate hostning with Webflow.
Change the DNS settings to point to your Webflow site.
Information on how to Do it is found on the hostning page/setting
Thanks for the reply Janne.
Sorry for asking, when you say change the DNS settings, are these the old DNS. Does Webflow create new settings for me to send to the old provider then?
Having watched the video and 301 redirect I wasn’t sure but it looked like it did.
Your domain (used today) do have DNS settings pointing to your site. You need to change the DNS settingss for your domain. Depending on wich provider you have there are for sure some instructions at your domain provider on how to do that,
Got it, and do you do the 301 redirects from old site to new site after the DNS settings have been updated?
Thanks for yous assistance.
No. 301 is used to point old urls to the new site if there is a different structure and if you have many urls at google pointing to the old site.
Yes so there will be a different structure… The old site is currently hosted by someone else outside of Webflow. I don’t have anything to do with the old site.
I have set up a new site and I need to divert traffic to it. In this case I need to set up a 301 for the old pages… BUT because im now going to be the host (via Webflow) do i need to update the old DNS settings or do they just become invalid?
Apologies, im just getting my head round it all… The homepage url (eg www.mysite.com) will be the same but all other pages will have updated urls (eg www.mysite.com/aboutme changing to www.mysite.com/aboutus etc). Because these other pages have different ending to the current site I will have to 301 them.
Do I do that before I then update DMS settings, the old site is hosted outside of Webflow by someone else and the new site will be hosted by me in Webflow.
Thanks
If the domain records are pointed to Webflow hosting then all URL/URI’s for that domain will be served by Webflow. If an old URI www.example.com/somepage(.extention) needs to point to a new URI then you should set up a 301 redirect in your Webflow project settings. This is done once you set up a paid plan. As soon as all your redirects are in place you can then set up your custom domain on Webflow and change your DNS settings to point to Webflow as defined in the help docs.
Brilliant… thanks guys!
Just one last thing if you can help…
The client is ending their old hosting before I complete their website, if I set up a coming soon page, can I 301 the whole of the old website to this page until I complete their new site… Normally I would have the site ready to go but they cancelled their old hosting before speaking to me so I am playing catch up.
Yes you can but you run the risk of losing any page ranking with Search Engines the old structure has. I would recommend maintaining hosting until the site can be cut over. Hosting can’t be that much of an expense plus it make all the site information unavailable to visitors which is a bad experience usually.
Thats what I thought, thanks for confirmation.