How to implement redirects in BigCommerce

Redirects come in a couple of different ways, with the most common being a 301 & a 302 redirect. A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect, essentially telling Google that a particular URL is now indefinitely redirecting to a different one. A 302 redirect tells Google that you’re temporarily redirecting a page, but it’ll come back in the future. 

A 301 redirect would, for example, be implemented if you change platforms e.g. from Shopify to BigCommerce, which would result in the URL structure being different, so you’d need to implement a 301 redirect. This, obviously, is hugely important for SEO to maintain value to a page rather than it becoming “dead”, but also for user experience.

A 302 redirect would be implemented typically in an example of a seasonal page e.g. Christmas-flowers, that you just don’t want live year-round for whatever reason, so you temporarily redirect it to a /Christmas page that does live all year round, then remove that temporary redirect when you’re ready to expand the pages.

Follow the steps below if you want to implement a 301 redirect on BigCommerce:

• Go to “Server Settings
• “Add Redirect”
• Under “Old URL” put the URL of the page (only the folder, not the whole URL) and conclude it with a /
• Select if the redirect is manual or dynamic:
  • A manual redirect is where you enter the URL you want the redirect to go to. If you change the URL again you’ll have to re-do the redirect in future
  • A dynamic redirect allows you to select the category, product, brand, blog or webpage you want the redirect to go to. Should the URL change later, it will automatically update the redirect
• If you choose manual, enter the URL destination under “new URL” – same again, just the folder and conclude it with a /
• If you choose dynamic, click the link that says “click here to choose a product, category, brand or web page” and then in the pop up that comes up, select the type of page you’re redirecting to, then select the page from the list provided & “insert link”.

• Click Save to then save the redirect

If you need to bulk upload redirects, this can only be done for new redirects and has to be done using excel/Google Sheets as you need to generate a CSV file.

• You need to create 2 columns in your file: one for “Old URL” and next to it should be a  “New URL” column.
• Once the file is created, go to Server Settings > 301 redirects > Bulk Import
• Go to “Choose File” and choose the CSV file from your computer, and if your CSV file has the headers mentioned above for “old” or “new” URL, make sure to click “This file contains headers”.
• Click import, and once processed the 301 redirects will be updated and in place

To read more on BigCommerce SEO, read our guide on how to change URLs on BigCommerce here.

Alternatively, read more about our eCommerce SEO services here, or reach out to us and let’s work together to grow your eCommerce SEO non-brand traffic & revenue sustainably below!