About the Redirect Mapping Tool (Site Migration)
A site migration lives or dies by its redirect map: every old URL that earned traffic or links should 301 to its closest new equivalent. Building that map by hand for hundreds of pages is slow. This redirect mapping tool takes a list of old URLs and a list of new URLs and matches them automatically by comparing slugs and paths, then shows a confidence level for each match.
Review low-confidence matches yourself, correct any that point to the wrong page, and decide what to do with old URLs that have no sensible match. The work happens in your browser, so the URL lists stay on your device. When you are happy, export the map as CSV for your developer or as .htaccess rules, and after launch test the old URLs with the bulk status code checker.
How to use it
- Paste your old URLs and your new URLs into the two lists.
- Run the matcher to pair URLs by slug and path similarity.
- Review low-confidence and unmatched URLs and correct them manually.
- Export the redirect map as CSV or .htaccess rules.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I get the list of old URLs for a migration?
Combine several sources: a crawl of the old site, your XML sitemaps, top landing pages from analytics, the pages report in Google Search Console and URLs with backlinks from a link tool. Pages that only appear in one source are easy to miss, and those are often the ones with traffic or links worth keeping.
Should I redirect every old URL to the homepage if there is no match?
No. Google tends to treat mass redirects to the homepage as soft 404s, and users land on a page that does not answer their need. Redirect to the closest relevant page, such as the parent category. If nothing relevant exists, a 404 or 410 is more honest and is not a penalty.
How accurate is automatic URL matching?
It works well when slugs stay similar between the old and new site, for example the same product names under new folders. It struggles when pages were renamed, merged or split, because the URLs share few words. Treat the matches as a first draft and check every low-confidence pair before you publish redirects.