Redirects
Preserving every existing URL so links, bookmarks, and search rankings keep working
When a site's structure changes, its URLs change with it. If nothing is done, any old link whose URL changed breaks and lands on a "page not found": bookmarks, links in past email appeals, printed materials, and especially the pages Google already has indexed. Redirects prevent that by quietly forwarding each old URL to its new home.
This matters a lot for MOWP because the new navigation intentionally reorganizes the site (for example, "Who we are" becomes "About," and the donation pages are restructured). Every URL that moves needs a redirect from its old path to its new one.
This is one of the highest-risk parts of any migration
Broken redirects are invisible until they cost you: a donor clicks a link in an email and hits a dead end, or a page that ranked well in search quietly drops off. Getting redirects right is what makes a migration feel seamless instead of disruptive.
What already exists on the current site
The current site already has redirects in place that must be preserved:
- A meaningful set of URL mappings built up over previous site changes: old paths that already forward to current ones. The exact count comes from the export.
- An old-domain redirect:
mealsonwheelspeople.orgforwards towww.mowp.org. This needs to keep working so the older domain doesn't go dark. - Additional rules stored in the current CMS (not in the codebase) that need to be exported before the rebuild so none are missed.
Because some redirect rules live in the current site's database rather than its code, the full list has to be exported from the live site directly. This is on the migration checklist so it isn't overlooked.
Here's the shape of what redirects do once the new structure is live. A few illustrative examples (the full list comes from the export):
/who-we-are301/about/who-we-are/financials301/about/financials/ways-to-give301/donate/ways-to-givemealsonwheelspeople.org301www.mowp.orgEvery permanent move uses a 301 (permanent) redirect: the kind that tells search engines to transfer a page's ranking to its new address, not just forward the visitor. That single detail is most of what "preserving search rankings" actually means in practice.
The plan
Export the current redirects
Pull the complete redirect list from the current site, both the rules in the code and the ones stored in the CMS. Joey owns this export; it happens well before anything on the current site is touched.
Map old URLs to new ones
For every page whose URL changes in the new structure, define a redirect from the old path to the new one. Pay special attention to the sections that are being reorganized.
Preserve the existing redirects
Carry over the redirects that already exist today, including the old-domain forward, so we don't undo work that's already protecting links.
Set them up before launch
All redirects go live with the new site, not after. Test the most important paths (donation pages, dining centers, anything linked from active campaigns) before and right after launch.
Watch for what the mapping missed
After launch, we monitor the site's not-found errors for a few weeks. Any old URL that slipped through the mapping shows up there and gets a redirect added promptly.
The new site supports this directly
The new platform includes a redirect manager, so old-to-new URL forwards are configured as part of the build and are easy to add or adjust later. If a URL ever needs to change again down the road, setting up a redirect is straightforward.