Smart Redirect

Redirects
Sometimes a page on your website moves, gets renamed, or is retired — but people still have the old link bookmarked, shared on social media, or saved in a Google search. A redirect
 automatically sends visitors from that old URL to wherever the content lives now, so nobody lands on a broken page.
Redirects are also handy any time you want a short, memorable link on your site to forward to a longer or more complicated page.
Getting Started
You'll find Redirects under Website > Redirects
 in your admin sidebar.
Every redirect you create shows up in this list along with its status (published or draft). Redirects follow the same publishing rules as your other content — a redirect only takes effect once it's published
, and you can schedule it to go live or expire on a specific date using the same publishing controls you're used to elsewhere in the admin.
> Note:
 A redirect only fires when the URL a visitor requests doesn't match a real page on your site. If you still have an actual page living at that address, the page always wins — the redirect will simply be ignored.
How to Create a Simple Redirect
The most common use case is forwarding one old URL to one new URL — for example, someone moved /about
 to /our-church
.
On the Redirects page, click New Redirect
.
In the window that appears, enter the old address in Target Url
 — this is the URL people are currently using (e.g. /about
).
Click Create
. You'll be taken to the redirect's edit screen.
Enter the Destination URL
 — where you want visitors to end up. This can be a path on your own site (e.g. /our-church
) or a full web address to another site (e.g. https://example.org
).
Choose a Redirect Type
:
- Temporary Redirect
 — use this if the move might not be permanent. It tells search engines to keep the original URL in their index for now.
- Permanent Redirect
 — use this once you're sure the old page is gone for good. Search engines will update their listings to point to the new address.
Make sure the redirect is set to published
 in the publishing settings, then click Save
.
Your redirect is now live — anyone who visits the old URL will be sent straight to the new one.
> Note:
 Editing a redirect applies your changes to your live website immediately, so double check the destination before saving.
Redirecting a Whole Section of Your Site
If you've reorganized a whole section of your website — for example, renaming your "Sermons" section to "Episodes" — you don't need to create a separate redirect for every single sermon. Instead, you can redirect the entire section at once using a wildcard.
To do this, end your Target Url
 with /*
. This tells the redirect to catch anything underneath that path, no matter how deep.
For example:
Target Url: /sermons/*
 -> Destination Url /sermons/2024/easter
Target Url: /episodes/* -> Destination Url 
/episodes/2024/easter`
The admin will show you a short reminder of this syntax right underneath the Target Url field, so you don't need to memorize it.
> Note:
 The *
 wildcard can only be used at the very end of a Target Url, as a final /*
 segment. If you try to use it anywhere else (like /sermons/*/notes
), you'll see a validation message explaining the problem when you try to save — the form checks your entry as soon as you click Save
, so you can fix it right away.
Redirecting Matching Segments with Named Placeholders
For more control than a wildcard offers, you can use a named placeholder like [slug]
. This works like the wildcard, but it only matches exactly one
 part of the URL (called a "segment") — and you can reuse the matched value by name in your destination, even in a different position or a query string.
Wrap the placeholder name in square brackets, and use the same name in both the Target Url and the Destination URL:
Target Url: /podcast/[slug]
 -> Destination Url /episode/[slug]
 = /podcast/easter-message
 forwards to /episode/easter-message
Target Url: /give/[campaign]
 -> Destination Url/giving?fund=[campaign]
 = /give/building-fund
 forwards to /giving?fund=building-fund
, moving the matched value into a query string
A few things worth knowing about named placeholders:
[slug]
 matches exactly one segment of the URL — it won't match anything with extra slashes in it. For example, /podcast/[slug]
 will match /podcast/easter-message
 but not /podcast/easter-message/notes
.
You can use more than one named placeholder in a single redirect, and you don't have to use them in the same order (or use all of them) in your destination.
If you need to catch everything
 after a certain point and give it a name (rather than an anonymous *
), use [...rest]
 instead. Like *
, it must be the last part of the Target Url — for example /archive/[...rest]
.
Things to Know
Matching is not case-sensitive.
/Sermons/Easter
 and /sermons/easter
 are treated the same. When a matched segment gets inserted into your destination, it's always inserted in lowercase.
An exact match always wins.
 If you have both an exact redirect (e.g. /sermons/easter
) and a broader pattern (e.g. /sermons/*
), the exact one takes priority.
Among overlapping patterns, the most recently published one wins
 — so if two patterns could both match the same URL, whichever you published most recently takes effect.
Redirects can't point to themselves.
 If a redirect's destination is the same as the URL someone requested, it's ignored — this keeps you from accidentally creating a page that redirects to itself in a loop.
The form checks your work.
 If your Target Url or Destination URL isn't set up correctly — for example, a placeholder in your destination that doesn't exist in your target — you'll see a clear error message when you try to save, so you can fix it before it goes live.
Pattern targets must start with a slash
 (/
), just like any other Target Url on your site.
Tips & FAQs
Can I redirect to an external website?
Yes. Just enter the full web address (including https://
) in the Destination URL field.
Do I need to use a pattern for every redirect?
No — most redirects are simple, one-to-one address changes. Wildcards and named placeholders (/*
, [slug]
, [...rest]
) are only needed when you want one redirect rule to cover many URLs at once.
What's the difference between Temporary and Permanent redirects?
Temporary redirects are meant for changes that might be reversed later, while Permanent redirects tell search engines the move is final. If you're not sure, Temporary is the safer choice — you can always switch it to Permanent later.
I deleted a redirect by mistake — can I get it back?
Deleted redirects go to your trash along with your other content, and can be restored from there just like a page or blog post.