Why Redirects Matter When You Launch a New Site

When a nonprofit launches a new website, the URL structure almost always changes. Pages that existed at one address move to a different address. Every URL that changes without a redirect creates a broken link with consequences in three directions.

For visitors. Anyone following an old link — from a grant application, a funder's website, an email newsletter — lands on a 404 error page. For a grant officer trying to verify your charity registration details, that 404 is a credibility failure at exactly the wrong moment.

For search rankings. When a URL changes without a redirect, the search authority accumulated by the old URL evaporates. For a nonprofit that has built up organic search visibility over years, an unredirected migration can cause significant ranking drops that take months to recover.

For grant references and institutional records. Many nonprofits reference specific pages in grant applications and funder communications. Those references persist long after the document is submitted. A funder reviewing a grant renewal who finds a broken link where your impact page used to be is encountering an entirely avoidable problem.

301 redirects solve all three. A 301 is a permanent instruction: the page at this old URL has moved permanently to this new URL. Transfer any search authority to the new address.

Before You Build the Redirect Map

The first step is an inventory of every URL on the existing site that needs a redirect. This is done before any design or development work begins on the new site.

Use Screaming Frog to crawl the existing site and export every URL it finds. The free version crawls up to 500 URLs, covering most nonprofit sites. Run the crawl, export as a spreadsheet, and filter for HTML pages only.

From this list, identify three categories: pages being recreated at new URLs (need a direct 301), pages being retired (redirect to the most relevant equivalent page), and pages staying at identical URLs (no redirect needed).

Document this in a spreadsheet with old URL and new URL columns. This is your redirect map — the source of truth for Webflow setup and post-launch testing. On every migration I work on, this spreadsheet is built before any Webflow work begins.

How to Set Up Redirects in Webflow

Webflow has a built-in redirect manager in site settings that handles 301 redirects without code.

1. Open site settings and navigate to Hosting
2. Find the 301 Redirects section
3. Click Add Redirect
4. In Old Path, enter the path after the domain (e.g. /about-us/our-team)
5. In New Path, enter the new path (e.g. /team)
6. Save the redirect

Important conventions: paths start with a forward slash, don't include the domain name, and trailing slashes matter. Webflow treats /about-us/ and /about-us as different URLs.

Bulk Importing Redirects

If you have more than twenty or thirty redirects, Webflow supports bulk CSV import. Prepare a CSV with two columns: old-path and new-path. Each row contains one redirect pair. In Webflow's redirect manager, use the import option to upload the CSV.

The redirect map spreadsheet built earlier doubles as the source for this CSV with minimal reformatting.

Testing Redirects Before Launch

Redirects set up in Webflow's redirect manager are active on the live site after publishing — they don't work on the staging URL. Test them immediately after launch before announcing the new site publicly.

Visit each old URL and confirm it lands on the correct new page. For larger migrations, use Screaming Frog to crawl a list of old URLs and check response codes.

Priority URLs to test manually every time: homepage, donation page, contact page, any page referenced in current grant applications, and any page with significant organic traffic according to Google Search Console.

After Launch: Monitoring for 404 Errors

Even with a thorough redirect map, some 404 errors will appear. Monitor these in Google Search Console under Pages → Not Found (404). Review this report in the weeks after launch and add redirects for any legitimate old URLs that should be pointing somewhere.

The Redirect Checklist Before Launch

• Screaming Frog crawl of existing site completed and URL list exported
• Redirect map built
• All redirects entered in Webflow's redirect manager or imported via CSV
• Webflow site published after redirects are added
• Priority redirects tested manually after launch
• Google Search Console set up to monitor post-launch 404s

Further Reading

• How to Prepare Your Nonprofit Website to Go Live
• SEO Fundamentals for Nonprofit Websites
• How to Connect Your Domain to Webflow via DNS