Setting up 301 Redirects for your KBase Articles

Setting up 301 Redirects for your KBase Articles

You can change the URLs of articles real quick, and there is no special trick to it. For example, you may want to remove the usage of dates to make the content timeless or update the URL to be in sync with a new title. Or maybe you just didn’t give enough thought to URL structure in the first place. For these reasons, and a couple of others you can edit the URL of an existing article.

But when you edit the URL, you must set up 301 redirections from the old permalink to the new permalink. Failing to do so will result in one or all of the following:
  • Any internal links to the updated articles won’t be updated and will break.
  • Any external links to the updated article will cause your visitors to see a 404 not found error.
  • Search engines crawling those old URLs will report back 404 errors and hurt your search engine rankings.

Setting up 301 Redirections
Zoho Desk allows you to set up 301 redirections when you have altered the URL structure of articles so that you don't end up with dissatisfied visitors or lose the SEO credentials. It also keeps track of redirected permalinks when you modify them in an article.

Notes:
  • The 301 redirect feature is available only on Professional and Enterprise.
  • You can redirect a maximum of 3 previous URLs of an article.

To add 301 redirection to an article, do the following:
  1. In the article editor page, click the URL icon (  ) displayed alongside the title.
    The permalink of the article will be displayed.
  2. Click the Edit icon (  ) to make changes to the URL.
  3. Make the required changes to the article's URL on the Update Permalink page.



  4. Click Save & Add 301 Redirection.



That's it! Now you should be able to view the old permalink for which 301 redirection got applied. Click on it to verify that it is redirecting to the new location.

Adding new 301 Redirection
It is not uncommon for you to have articles no longer applicable in your knowledge base. For example, a process document that is relevant to the old interface. In such situations, you must indicate that the article has moved to a new location and redirect your customers to its latest updated URL. Adding a new 301 redirection for individual knowledge base articles is the easiest way to do it. 301 also passes all ranking power from the old URL to the new URL.

To add a new 301 redirection:
  1. Open the article in which you'd like to add 301.
  2. Click the URL icon (  ) displayed alongside the title in the article editor page.
    The     permalink of the article will be displayed.
  3. Click the Edit icon (  ) to open the Update permalink panel.
  4. Click Add New 301 Redirection on the panel.
  5. Enter the original URL you want to redirect.
  6. Click Add to complete the process.

Redirecting more than 3 URLs
You can edit the URL of an article (i.e., click Save) as many times you want. However, please keep in mind that redirections can be applied only to a maximum of three previous URLs. The URLs listed on the Update Permalink page are the ones which redirect to the new location. But what if you find yourselves editing the URLs of articles every now and then. In that case, the option to add 301 redirection may not be available. You must delete an existing redirection to add a new one.

To delete a redirect:
  1. On the Update Permalink page, hover your mouse over the URL you intend to delete.



  2. Click the Delete icon (  ) corresponding to it.
    Note: When you delete, t    he visitors accessing this URL will not be redirected to the new one.
  3. Then click Yes to confirm your action.
Now you should be able to add redirection to the most recent URL of the article.

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