How to add a URL redirect in Sitecore 8.

I came across this issue a few weeks ago when I realised that a page URL had been created within our Sitecore website that contained a spelling error!

Upon investigation into the issue, I identified that if I renamed the page URL that contained the spelling error then this would potentially break any links from external sites that may have historically linked to this page URL. I needed a solution that would allow me to create a new correctly spelt URL and redirect the old one, allowing a seamless transition and no broken page links or 404 errors.

After talking to our technical team here at the agency about how I could solve this issue, they advised that there was indeed a solution! A plug-in that could be added to our Sitecore development that would allow me to create a URL redirect.

This would allow me to create a new version of the same page (spelt correctly) and then redirect the incorrectly spelt URL to this page, halleluiah I said to myself!

Once Bob in our server–side development team had added the plugin, I set to work adding this redirect into the site.

The steps I followed are shown below:

Select the Sample Rewrites option from the content tree:

Then right select on the Sample Rewrites, select insert and select Simple Redirect. Give your redirect a name, which relates to the page where the redirect is located.

Once created you can then follow the below to see where the incorrect spelling is added and the correct spelling is added.

Then save your newly created redirect.

I then renamed the URL on the Client Testimonials page to the correct spelling:

Next go to the ‘Review’ Tab

Click Fast Track Deploy

As these items have a workflow by default and unless you deploy them they won't publish.

Then publish your site updates and your URL redirect should be up and running!