Redirects and the 404 log

When an address on your site changes, for example because you renamed a category, links to the old address from Google, other websites or old emails end on “page not found”. A redirect sends visitors and search engines from the old address to the new one, so you keep both the visitor and the place you had earned in search results.

Yclas creates these redirects for you when you rename something, lets you add your own, and can keep a 404 log of the addresses that people and search engines asked for and didn’t find.

Switch them on

1. In the admin panel, go to Settings › SEO.
2. In Features, switch on Redirects and, if you want it, 404 log.
3. Click Save changes.

Redirects is on for new sites. On a site created earlier, both start off.

With Redirects switched off, the redirects you have are kept but not used. Switch it back on and they work again.

Automatic redirects

While Redirects is on, Yclas adds a permanent redirect every time the address of one of these changes:

• a category or a location (its Seoname);
• a blog post;
• a page.

A category redirect also covers the category’s pages in every location, and a location redirect covers it in every category. Listings don’t need one: a listing opened under its old category address is always sent to its current address.

Add a redirect yourself

Use a manual redirect when you delete a page and want to send people to a similar one, when you move from another website to Yclas, or when you want a short address for a campaign.

1. Go to Settings › SEO and click Open the redirects manager.
2. Under Add a redirect, fill in:
   • From: a path on your site, for example /old-page.html.
   • To: a path on your site, or a full https:// address.
   • Type: Permanent (301) when the move is for good, which tells search engines to move the old address’s ranking to the new one; Temporary (302) when it isn’t.
3. Click Add redirect.

The list shows every redirect with its Type, its Source (Automatic or Manual) and how many Hits it has had. Click Delete to remove one.

Good to know:

• A redirect is only used when its From address would otherwise answer “page not found”. It can’t take over a page that exists.
• From must match exactly, including capitals: /Old-Page and /old-page are two different addresses.
• The rest of the address after a ? is kept when the visitor is redirected.
• Yclas refuses a redirect that would send visitors round in a circle.

The 404 log

With 404 log on, Yclas keeps a list of the addresses on your site that answered “page not found”. Open it from Settings › SEO, Open the 404 log.

Each row shows the Path, how many Hits it had, the Referrer (the page that linked to it, when known) and when it was Last seen, most requested first. Click Make a redirect to send that address somewhere useful, or Delete to clear a row you don’t care about.

Requests for images and files, and obvious hacking scans and scripts, aren’t logged, so the list stays readable. Search engines are logged, so you see the broken links Google finds.

A good habit: once a month, open the 404 log, redirect the top few addresses that should go somewhere, and delete the rest.

The SEO health card on your Analytics page also shows how many broken links have been logged.

Related guides

• SEO for your marketplace — everything else Yclas does for search engines.
• Categories — renaming a category changes its address.
• Get your site into Google — Search Console reports the broken links Google finds too.