Setting Up a URL Redirect

This section contains information about setting up one URL redirect at a time.

You can set up redirects for any shopping domain you have entered in NetSuite. First, select the domain. Next, enter the URL parameters you want to redirect from, and then enter the URL that points to the correct page. The combination of domain plus the URL you want to redirect from must be different from the URL you want to redirect to.

Note:

If you use Site Builder, you must enable the Descriptive URLs feature. You cannot redirect from Site Builder URL parameters such as, /s.nl/sc.26/category.321802/.f. You must use a descriptive URL such as /Product-Catalog/office-accessories.

Wildcards in URL Redirects

If you need to redirect from a URL that contains URL parameters, you can use the * wildcard to represent the parameters in the URL. For example, if you have the URL http://mysite.com/womens/blouses?parameter1=a&parameter2=b, you can create a redirect from /womens/blouses* to /womens/newcat/blouses. When you use the wild card in the redirect, all parameters will be passed to the redirect URL so that the final URL is http://mysite.com/womens/newcat/blouses?parameter1=a&parameter2=b.

Warning:

You cannot use a wildcard to redirect from one descriptive URL to another.

To set up a redirect:

Go to Commerce > Hosting > Redirects > New.
Select a domain in the Domain Name field. The domains listed are the ones you set up at Setup > Website > Domains.

Note:
If you have set one of your custom domains as the Primary Web Site URL, then make sure you create a redirect with that domain, as well as other domains. For more information, read Using the Primary Web Site URL in Redirects.
In the Redirect From URL field, enter the URL that points to the page you want to redirect. Do not include the domain and instead use a relative URL.
In the Redirect To URL field, enter the URL that points to the page where you want visitors to go. Here, you can enter any of the following:
- a relative URL that points to a page on your NetSuite site
- an absolute URL that points to a page on your NetSuite site
- a descriptive URL that points to a tab, category, or item detail page
- an absolute URL that points to another site
For more information, read Relative vs. Absolute URLs
Click Save.

Note:
Redirects go into effect immediately when you save them.

After you save the redirect record, you can visit the Redirects list page to see all the redirects set up for your web site.

Using the Primary Web Site URL in Redirects

If use one of your custom domains as the Primary Web Site URL, then you must select that domain when creating a redirect. For example, you have a site with two custom domains where the Primary Web Site URL domain is www.mysite.com, and the secondary domain is mysite.com. To create a successful redirect, you must use the domain, www.mysite.com. Select www.mysite.com as the domain in a redirect that goes from: /tshirt, to: /special-tshirt. If you create the redirect with the secondary domain, and then go to mysite.com/tshirt, you are first redirected on the primary domain www.mysite.com/tshirt, so the redirect on the secondary domain fails.

Relative vs. Absolute URLs

When creating URL redirects, it is important to first determine if the URL should be entered as relative or absolute. A relative URL specifies only the path to the page and does not include the domain, for example /office-furniture. The absolute URL includes both the domain and the path, for example mysite.com/office-furniture.

When to use Relative URLs

When you want to create a redirect from a page on a domain to a different page on the same domain, you can use a relative URL. Because you specify the domain on the Redirect page in NetSuite, you can use relative URLs for the Redirect From and Redirect To URLs. The redirect is created using the domain you selected.

This is the method you should use when you retire a page on your site, restructure your site, or change the name of a page.

When to use Absolute URLs

When migrating from one domain to another it is important to use absolute URLs instead of Relative URLs. Consider the following example:

Your domain has changed from myoldsite.com to mynewsite.com. You want to redirect traffic from myoldsite.com/office-furniture.html to mynewsite.com/office-furniture.html.

When you enter the redirect, you select your old domain as the domain. In this example, the domain is myoldsite.com. For the Redirect From URL, you enter the relative path to the page on the old domain. For the Redirect To URL you enter the absolute path to the page on the new domain.

Consequently, when a visitor or search engine goes to myoldsite.com/office-furniture.html, they are redirected to mynewsite.com/office-furniture.html.