Redirects and 404 Capture
When you rename a page, move a product, or retire a URL, the old address should send visitors (and Google) to the new one. SEO Manager's SEO Redirects screen does this, and it also records every 404 so you can fix broken links before they cost you traffic.
Open SEO Redirects from the admin sidebar.
The Redirects screen
The screen has two halves:
| Section | Shows |
|---|---|
| Redirect rules | Every rule for this site: source, target, match type, HTTP code, hit count and an enable toggle. |
| 404 misses | Recently requested paths that did not match anything, newest first, with a hit count. |
Creating a redirect rule
Click add, then fill in:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Source | The old path, without the domain. For an exact match, enter old-page or /old-page. |
| Target | The destination, either a full URL (https://example.com/new-page) or a path. |
| Match type | Exact matches one path. Regex matches a pattern. |
| Code | 301 for a permanent move (recommended). 302 for a temporary one. |
Save the rule. It takes effect within a few minutes; the rule cache is cleared automatically when you add, toggle or delete a rule.
Exact vs regex
-
Exact is the normal choice. SEO Manager trims leading/trailing slashes, so
old-pageand/old-pageare the same rule. -
Regex matches many URLs at once. For example, to send every product under
/shop/to a new/store/:shop/(.*)with target:
/store/$1Regex rules are validated when you save — an invalid pattern is rejected with a message.
Two rules cannot share the same source on the same site. If you try, SEO Manager tells you a rule for that source already exists.
Query strings
When a visitor arrives with a query string and your target has none, SEO Manager appends the original query string to the target. A request to /old-page?utm_source=news becomes /new-page?utm_source=news.
Managing rules
- Toggle — switch a rule off without deleting it. Useful when you are testing.
- Hit count — each rule counts how many times it has fired, so you can see which old URLs still get real traffic.
- Delete — removes the rule permanently.
Capturing 404s
Every request that returns a 404 on the public site is recorded in 404 misses with the path and how many times it was hit. Use it as a to-do list:
- Open the 404 misses list.
- Find a path that should point somewhere.
- Click the capture action to prefill the Source field.
- Enter the correct Target, choose 301, and save.
The 404 list keeps the most recent 2,000 paths per site; older entries are pruned automatically, so a crawl storm never grows it without bound.
Scope and safety
Redirects and 404 capture only apply to public frontend paths, and only to GET/HEAD requests. These are deliberately excluded:
admin-home/*anduser-home/*(admin and dashboard pages)api/*
So a redirect rule can never break your admin panel, a login, or an API call.
Never create a redirect loop (A → B and B → A). If a page stops loading, toggle off the rule you just added and reload.
Multi-site behavior
Rules and 404 logs are stored per site, keyed by the tenant. A tenant admin sees only their own site's rules and misses; the landlord sees only the central site's. The underlying tables live in the central database, so keeping many tenant sites' rules never duplicates data.