You can use the Old Links feature to 301 redirect retired permalinks and articles to a new location. To set this up:
- Go to the new article and click on Old Links at the top of the editor.
- Specify the old permalinks that should redirect to this new article, click Save Redirects, and click Save the article.
Note: You only need to copy the editable portion of the permalinks (e.g. april-10-2018, not https://support.knowledgeowl.com/help/april-10-2018). So in this example, old-permalink-1, old-permalink-2, and old-permalink-3 are the previous permalinks I want to redirect to april-10-2018.
Use Case
Old links let you redirect permalinks for old/outdated links to a current article. There are two primary use cases for old links:
- When you've written a new article that "replaces" an existing article
- When you've updated an article's permalink due to title or content changes
Let's look at each of these in turn.
Replacing an existing article
So, for example, let's say you have an articled called Giving a hoot about knowledge, and the permalink was something like:
https://support.knowledgeowl.com/help/giving-a-hoot-about-knowledge
Let's suppose that you used that permalink in a public blog post on owls and wisdom, maybe mentioning a particularly lovely owl (Linus!) by name.
Now, let's suppose that you have since written a new and better version of this content called Docs or it didn't happen:
https://support.knowledgeowl.com/help/docs-or-it-didnt-happen
But you aren't sure all the places out in the wide world that referenced that Giving a hoot article. And what if it was so brilliant that other people also referenced it, linked to it, or bookmarked it?
Old links to the rescue! Instead of trying to track down every instance of the original permalink for Giving a hoot about knowledge, you can enter the giving-a-hoot url as an old link for Docs or it didn't happen. When people try to go to the giving-a-hoot url, we'll auto-redirect them to docs-or-it-didnt-happen instead.
Updated permalink
In other cases, you haven't written a new replacement article, but for some reason you just want to update the permalink of an article. So, for example, let's say I have an article whose permalink has always been this:
https://support.knowledgeowl.com/help/a-hooting-good-time
But that permalink was generated from the article's old title (A Hooting Good Time). When I updated this article to a new version, I renamed it to "Why Knowledge Management Matters." I want to update the permalink to:
https://support.knowledgeowl.com/help/why-km-matters
But I also want any links or bookmarks to a-hooting-good-time to still work.
First, I edit the current permalink to why-km-matters.
Then, I add an Old Link to a-hooting-good-time and the old URL will automatically redirect to why-km-matters:
Once I Save Redirects and re-save the article, anyone visiting
https://support.knowledgeowl.com/help/a-hooting-good-time
will be redirected to
https://support.knowledgeowl.com/help/why-km-matters
In a nutshell, old links are here to make it easier for you to keep older/public article permalinks but have them point to the most recent relevant content.