As an advertising & marketing agency, we perform about 100 relaunches a year, meaning we replace an existing website with a new, modern, and optimized website or online shop. It is crucial, however, that after switching from old to new, redirects (301 Redirects) are implemented cleanly and without 404 errors. For small sites, this can be done manually, but for several hundred or thousands of subpages, you need a „trick“ and tools to help you.
Easily create an XML sitemap with CSV / XLS conversion for 301 redirects during a relaunch in 3 steps
With these 3 simple steps, an XML sitemap is created, converted into a CSV or XLS (Excel) file, and prepared for manual editing, which can then be easily uploaded to the htaccess file or WordPress with a plugin.
Step 1: Create an XML sitemap of the old site
For up to 500 pages, the free version of www.xml-sitemaps.com reliably helps. Otherwise, we recommend purchasing the Pro version to make your life easier. Within a few seconds or minutes, the XML sitemap is ready for download and can be saved locally on your computer.
Step 2: Convert the XML file to a readable CSV or XLS file
The online tool www.convertcsv.com/xml-to-csv.htm helps directly with this. Upload the file, click Convert to CSV or XLS, and download it back to your computer.
Step 3: Prepare in an editor program
Enlarge the left column and insert a new empty column to its right. Column A (left) contains the old link, and Column B (to its right) will contain the new link (path). Done!
Trick & Hint: Now that the old path is on the left and the new path is on the right, you can easily remove http://www.DOMAIN.XYZ using Ctrl + F or on Mac cmd + F and the „Find & Replace“ function, as this is NOT needed for a clean 301 redirect.
Creating redirects in .htaccess is then very easy with Copy & Paste from Excel following these instructions: https://www.df.eu/blog/301-redirects-weiterleitungen-mit-htaccess/
Here is an example of a relaunch redirect file and its editing from Bugiad spare parts trade for automotive, commercial vehicle, and truck parts:
For WordPress, we always use this:
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Another trick for possible automatic redirection to prevent 404 errors:
Of course, we offer this and other services as clean relaunch support.
Feel free to also check out our SEO packages:
Florian Ibe
CEO & Marketing Consultant
Your contact person: Florian Ibe
DE
