How to Create URL Redirect in Magento 1 & 2

In Magento, sometimes you need to change (rewrite) an existing URL into a new one. The reason may be:

The old URL is not user-friendly
There’s a typo in the old URL
You have duplicate content issues

In those cases, permanently redirect the old URL into a new one is necessary to make your site more well-structured and perform good in SEO as well as look good in customers’ eyes. This guide is gonna walk you through how to create URL redirect in Magento 1 & 2 via Magento backend and using functions.

Create URL redirect in Magento backend

Magento 1

In your Magento backend, go to Catalog > URL Rewrite Management.
Click Add URL Rewrite.
Magento allows you to create URL rewrite for products, categories, and custom URLs. Select which type of URL you want to rewrite from the dropdown list.
If you select For category or For product, you will need to select a specific category or product whose URL you want to redirect.
The URL Rewrite Information fields will show up for you to fill in.
- Type: this is Custom by default.
- ID Path: Enter the same as Target Path. (This will be automatically filled in if you choose For category or For product at previous step)
- Request Path: Enter the URL of the page to be redirected (the old URL), without the domain name. For example, if you want to redirect the URL https://www.example.com/test/old.html, you only need to enter “test/old.html”.
- Target Path: Enter the URL of the destination page (the new URL), without the domain name. For example, if you want to redirect the URL https://www.example.com/old.html into https://www.example.com/test/new.html, you need to enter “test/new.html”. (This will be automatically filled in if you choose For category or For product at previous step)
- Redirect: Select Permanent (301). Unless you really only want to redirect a URL for a short period of time, you should always choose 301 redirect. It’s good for SEO.
- Description: You can note down the purpose of the rewrite.
When you’ve done, click Save.
Go to System > Index Management. Check the box at Catalog URL Rewrites. Set the Actions control to “Reindex Data,” and click the Submit button.

Magento 2

In your Magento 2 backend, go to Marketing > SEO & Search > URL Rewrites.
Click Add URL Rewrite.
Magento allows you to create URL rewrite for products, categories, CMS pages, and custom URLs. Select which type of URL you want to rewrite from the dropdown list.
If you select For category or For product or For CMS page, you will need to select a specific category or product or CMS page whose URL you want to redirect.
The URL Rewrite Information fields will show up for you to fill in.
- Store: Select the specific view where the rewrite applies.
- Request Path: Enter the URL of the page to be redirected (the old URL), without the domain name. For example, if you want to redirect the URL https://www.example.com/test/old.html, you only need to enter “test/old.html”.
- Target Path: Enter the URL of the destination page (the new URL), without the domain name. For example, if you want to redirect the URL https://www.example.com/old.html into https://www.example.com/test/new.html, you need to enter “test/new.html”. (This will be automatically filled in if you choose For category or For product or For CMS page at previous step)
- Redirect Type: Select Permanent (301). Unless you really only want to redirect a URL for a short period of time, you should always choose 301 redirect. It’s good for SEO.
- Description: You can note down the purpose of the rewrite.
When you’ve done, click Save.

Create URL redirect using Magento functions

The redirect functions are available in Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Action class.

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/* Redirect to certain url */
_redirectUrl($url)

/* Redirect to certain path */
_redirect($path, $arguments=array())

/* Redirect to success page */
_redirectSuccess($defaultUrl)

/* Redirect to error page */
_redirectError($defaultUrl)

/* Set referer url for redirect in response */
_redirectReferer($defaultUrl=null)

/* Identify referer url via all accepted methods (HTTP_REFERER, regular or base64-encoded request param) */
_getRefererUrl()

/* Check url to be used as internal */
_isUrlInternal($url)

Examples:

Use the redirect functions in your controller class

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$this->_redirect($path, $arguments=array());
// OR,
$this->_redirectUrl($url);

1 2	$url = "http://example.com"; Mage::app()->getFrontController()->getResponse()->setRedirect($url);

Redirect with path and arguments

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Mage::app()->getFrontController()
->getResponse()
->setRedirect(Mage::getUrl($path, $arguments));

Redirect from Model or Observer

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$url = "http://example.com"; // e.g. Mage::getUrl('customer/account/login')
Mage::app()->getFrontController()
->getResponse()
->setRedirect($url);

2 Comments

Dom

A knowledge craver who always strive to be wiser everyday.

newest oldest most voted

Guest

Damon Moats

A very informative article, enabling URL rewrite’s really contributes in improving search engine optimization of Magento store, there’s another really good tutorial for this magenticians. I found it really helpful and to the point, do have a look at it too. Thanks

Guest

Ovidiu Caramida

To make the process easier for magento 2 product URL rewrites you can use a tool that generates the URLs automatically and allows you to customize the structure of the URL to make it more SEO friendly. You can add for ex the SKU in the product URLs(or any other product attribute)

https://marketplace.magento.com/webpanda-catalog-url-rewrites.html

How to Create URL Redirect in Magento 1 & 2

Create URL redirect in Magento backend

Magento 1

Magento 2

Create URL redirect using Magento functions

Dom

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