Keep old links working with redirects

Send visitors from old addresses to the right page, and change how your site’s addresses are built with a routes file.

Who can do this: Administrators and the site owner.

When a post moves, or you move your whole site to Blogaly from somewhere with a different address style, old links from search engines, social posts and other sites would otherwise end on a “page not found”. A redirect sends visitors (and search engines) from the old address to the new one automatically.

Where redirects live

Go to Settings → Advanced → Labs and select Open. The Redirects row has three controls:

Edit: change your redirects in the browser.
Upload redirects file: replace them with a redirects.yaml (or .json) file from your computer.
Download current redirects: save the rules you have now. Do this before any change, so you can put them back.

The Redirects row in Labs with Upload redirects file and Edit buttons and a Download current redirects link.

Add redirects

Select Edit next to Redirects.
Under 301: add one line per permanent redirect: the old address, a colon and a space, then the new address. Indent each line with two spaces.
Use 302: instead for temporary redirects you’ll remove later.
Select Save. Your redirects work straight away.
Open one of the old addresses in a private browser window to check it lands in the right place.

The Redirects editor with four example rules under 301, including a pattern that moves everything under /archive/, and one rule under 302. — Example rules. Each line is old address: new address.

The rules in the picture, explained:

Rule	What it does
`/2019/05/my-first-post/: /my-first-post/`	One old dated address to its new home.
`/category/news/: /tag/news/`	An old category page to the matching tag.
`^/archive/(.*)$: /$1`	Everything under `/archive/` to the same address without it: `/archive/harbour-seals/` goes to `/harbour-seals/`.
`/summer-sale/: /about/` (under `302`)	A temporary redirect you plan to remove.

How addresses are matched

Start with a slash, and leave out your domain: /old-post/, not https://example.com/old-post/. The new address can be a path on your site or a full address on another site.
Trailing slashes are optional. /old-post/ matches both /old-post and /old-post/.
Matching is case-sensitive. To ignore case, wrap the old address like this: /\/Old-Post\//i.
Old addresses are patterns. Characters such as ., (, * and ? have special meanings. Start a pattern with ^ so it only matches from the beginning of the address, and use (.*) with $1 to carry part of the old address across, as in the archive example.
Query strings come along. /old-post/?ref=newsletter arrives at the new address with ?ref=newsletter still attached.
Redirects win. If a post or page exists at the old address, the redirect still happens, so don’t redirect an address you still use.

Common moves

Coming from	Old address	Rule
Substack	`/p/my-post`	`^/p/([^/]+)/?$: /$1/`
WordPress with dated links	`/2019/05/12/my-post/`	`^/\d{4}/\d{2}/\d{2}/(.*)$: /$1`
WordPress categories	`/category/news/`	`^/category/(.*)$: /tag/$1`
A blog in a subfolder	`/blog/my-post/`	`^/blog/(.*)$: /$1`

Check that your imported posts kept the same slug (the last part of the address) before using a pattern. If some changed, add a one-to-one rule for each of those.

If saving fails

YAML input is invalid: usually a missing 301: or 302: heading, a missing space after a colon, or tabs instead of spaces. Each rule must be indented under its heading.
Incorrect RegEx in redirects file: an old address isn’t a valid pattern, often an unmatched bracket. Fix that line or put a backslash before the special character.
If a line has characters YAML treats specially (#, :, {, a leading * or ?), wrap the address in single quotes: '/what-is-#1/': /number-one/.

Routes: change how addresses are built

Redirects send old addresses somewhere else. Routes decide what your addresses look like in the first place: where posts live, what your home page shows, and the addresses for tag and author pages. Most sites never need to change them.

In Labs, the Routes row works like Redirects: Edit opens your routes.yaml file in the browser, Upload routes file replaces it, and Download current routes saves a copy. Every site starts with this file:

The Routes editor showing the default file: an empty routes section, a collection at / with the permalink /{slug}/ and template index, and taxonomies for tag and author. — The default routes file. Posts live at /post-slug/.

collections say where posts live. Changing permalink: /{slug}/ to permalink: /{year}/{month}/{slug}/ puts dates in every post address, which can match an old WordPress site without any redirects.
taxonomies set the addresses for tag and author pages.
routes add extra pages that use a template from your theme, such as a custom home page.

If the file can’t be saved, the message names the problem. The usual causes are the same as for redirects: indentation, tabs, or a missing colon. Download your current routes before experimenting, so you can upload them again if something goes wrong.

Good to know

Saving or uploading replaces all your redirects (or routes) at once. Download the current file first.
Redirects only apply to your site’s pages. Links to your old domain only reach them once that domain is connected to Blogaly.
Redirects and routes are included when you export your data from Labs.
Only Administrators and the owner can see Labs.

Last checked against the product on 7 November 2026.

Import your contentBring your posts, pages and subscribers to Blogaly from Substack, WordPress, Medium or another publishing platform.Connect your own domainPoint a domain you own at your Blogaly site from your dashboard. HTTPS is set up for you.Beta features in LabsTry new features early from Labs: automations, an enhanced Editor role, the inline excerpt, extra payment methods and navigation icons.Export your content, members and imagesDownload your posts, settings, members, analytics, theme, redirects and images, for a backup or to move elsewhere.

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