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July 28, 2026
You have likely received the news: Weebly will stop allowing new page publishing starting June 29, 2026. Sites will be taken down starting in late September, and data will only be accessible until December 26. Website migration redirects are the settings that automatically guide visitors from your old URLs to your new ones. For long-term migrations like this, you must use 301 permanent redirects so that SEO authority is transferred. 302 temporary redirects should only be used for short-term detours. Most people focus only on backing up their content during a move and forget about redirects. As a result, once the new site goes live, their Google rankings and years of accumulated external link traffic drop to zero. This guide covers everything from pre-migration preparation on Weebly to rebuilding your site and setting up redirect rules, with step-by-step instructions you can follow.
URL redirects are the mechanism that automatically guides visitors or search engines to your new URL when they visit an old one. This doesn't just solve the problem of moving content; it ensures that people can still find you. Your old URLs are scattered everywhere: Google search results, recommendations on other websites, social media posts, ad landing pages, QR codes on business cards, and even bookmarks saved by your customers. Once the content is moved, these entry points do not update automatically.
To search engines, a migration without redirects is equivalent to your old site vanishing into thin air. Old URLs will start returning 404 errors, and Google will gradually remove these pages from its index. The rankings and external link authority you have built up over the years will not transfer to your new site; they will simply reset to zero. Your new site will be treated as a brand-new entity, requiring it to be crawled and scored from scratch. Redirects are the only bridge that allows you to carry your old site's SEO assets to your new one, which is why they are more important than reformatting or changing your design. In the context of a platform shutdown like Weebly's, there is also a time pressure: once the old site is taken down, you will lose the opportunity to set up redirects forever.
To answer this question directly: use 301 for migrations and 302 for temporary detours. They mean completely different things to search engines.
| Feature | 301 Permanent Redirect | 302 Temporary Redirect |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning for Search Engines | Page moved permanently; remember the new one | Temporary detour; might revert later |
| SEO Authority | Transfers to the new URL | Stays with the original URL |
| Best Use Case | Platform migration, URL structure changes | Site maintenance, short-term campaigns |
| Browser Behavior | Caches the redirect; jumps to new URL | Does not cache; checks every time |
For a permanent move like a Weebly migration, the answer is clear: use 301 permanent redirects. 302 is for short-term changes, such as temporarily pointing an event page to a sign-up form or a maintenance page. If you are unsure whether a move is permanent, you can start with 302, but once you are certain, switch to 301. However, doing it the other way around is problematic because 301 redirects are cached by browsers and search engines, making them harder to fix if you make a mistake.
While you can take your time comparing platforms, data loss is hard to recover from, so backing up is always the first priority. You can find the site archive feature in your Weebly settings. After requesting it, you will receive a download link for a ZIP file. Additionally, you can request an export via the official data download link in their announcement. Beyond the archive, we recommend manually saving: your logo and original image files (as archived images may not be at full resolution), text content for every page, blog posts, form and inquiry records, and product exports in CSV format if you have a store. Finally, take screenshots of every important page; this will save you a lot of effort when rebuilding your layout.
This list will be the basis for your redirect rules. Use Google search with site: followed by your domain to list pages that have rankings. Then, check your active ad landing pages, links in your social media profiles, and pages referenced on other websites. Record the full path of each old URL and decide which page it should correspond to on your new site. Note one detail: Weebly page paths often end in .html (e.g., about-us.html), while new platforms usually do not. This is why you need to map them one by one.
Whether you can redirect depends on who holds the domain control. There are three scenarios:
Redirect rules must be set up on your new site, so it needs to be operational first. Users migrating from Weebly have a time-saving starting point.
The Kanorio homepage features an entry point: "Already have a website? Try building one with Kanorio!" Enter your Weebly URL, and the system will automatically fetch your brand information, including brand name, positioning description, and visual style, and organize it into a summary for your confirmation. When you proceed to the four-step build process, fields that can be fetched will be pre-filled, and you can manually fill in the rest. This is much faster than starting from scratch.
After confirming the analysis, proceed with the four-step input:
Once completed, the AI will automatically generate an initial version of your site, which is about 80% complete. For most needs, this initial version can go live immediately. If you have all your data ready, you can finish in under 15 minutes.
If your original Weebly site was multi-page, you can continue adding pages in Kanorio to build out your service pages, portfolios, and FAQs independently. However, multi-page features and custom domains require upgrading to a Pro plan.
Here is a clear logic: Kanorio does not offer a limited-time free trial, nor does it lock features behind a paywall. You can use all features first and only decide whether to upgrade right before you publish. If you don't upgrade, the system will remind you which paid features need to be turned off or adjusted, rather than locking you out entirely. This logic is particularly friendly for migrations: you can finish every page, arrange the multi-page structure, and confirm the result is exactly what you want before deciding to upgrade. You don't have to pay upfront to gamble on a product you haven't seen yet.
Once you are satisfied and have published your new site, connect your custom domain to Kanorio. Once you confirm the domain opens your new site correctly, you can proceed to redirect settings.
Setting up URL redirect rules in Kanorio requires no coding. The logic is like a "change of address" notification: tell the system that when a visitor goes to X, they should automatically be taken to Y.
Go to your target site's dashboard, find the URL management card, and open URL settings. Scroll down to the redirect rules section. The top of the list may contain system rules that automatically guide visitors from free or secondary domains to your main domain; these do not count against your quota, so you can ignore them. You need to add your custom rules in the editable area below.
About and about are two different paths, so ensure they match your old URL exactly.about). For external sites, select "External URL" and enter the full URL.If your old site has many pages under a specific category, you don't need to set them up one by one. Enter the category name in the source path (e.g., blog) and enable "Include sub-pages." All pages under blog will apply the same rule. Pair this with "Retain sub-path," and the remaining part of the path will automatically be carried over to the new address (e.g., blog/hello will correspond to articles/hello). If you don't enable "Retain sub-path," all pages within that range will be directed to the same target, which is useful if the old category no longer exists on the new site and you want to redirect everything to a summary page.
After adding or modifying rules, remember to click save. Drafts do not take effect automatically; the system applies the entire list at once. After saving, open an incognito window and test each old URL to ensure it redirects correctly. You must use an incognito window because normal windows may have cached previous 301 results, which could lead you to believe the rules aren't working.
Take an interior design business that has been operating for over a decade as an example. The owner's self-built Weebly site included a homepage, service items, construction cases, and over a dozen articles on construction methods, all of which ranked for relevant keywords on Google. After receiving the shutdown notice, the owner spent half a day organizing a list of old URLs, recording every ranked article, service page, and inquiry page, plus several articles referenced by engineering forums, totaling 23 URLs needing redirects. Building the new site in Kanorio took less than 15 minutes, but mapping the 23 old URLs to new pages, entering them into the redirect rules, and testing them took nearly two hours—especially since the construction method articles had .html endings and inconsistent casing. For the construction articles, using "Include sub-pages" and "Retain sub-path" saved a lot of time, but the service and inquiry pages had to be set manually due to structural differences. This is where the real work of migration lies; if redirects aren't done correctly, your accumulated search rankings are essentially lost.
To prevent errors, the redirect feature has built-in checks:
blog and blog/news have "Include sub-pages" enabled, a visitor to blog/news/1 will follow the blog/news rule.Weebly's timeline waits for no one: new pages cannot be published, the site will be taken down in late September, and data will be inaccessible by the end of the year. The real risk of migration is never rebuilding the site, but waiting until the old site disappears, at which point you lose the chance to set up redirects. While the old site is still online, back up your data, organize your URL list, and start the domain transfer process. You can finish your new site and 301 rules in a single weekend. Take the first step today: log in to Weebly and request your site archive.
If you are still evaluating where to move or want a more complete guide on Weebly data backup, read this Weebly Migration Guide. It covers the timeline, backup, and platform selection clearly. Once you've read it, come back and follow this guide to set up your redirects, and your migration process will be complete.
It depends on whether Weebly provides an external redirect mechanism. Based on current public information, Weebly's redirect features are primarily for internal paths, and they have not promised to provide external redirects for subdomains after service termination. We recommend planning for the subdomain to stop working, updating all external links as soon as possible, and following official announcements.
It is not recommended. Google recommends that old pages correspond to content-matched new pages so that authority can be effectively transferred. Redirecting a large number of pages to the homepage may be treated as a 404. Only redirect to the most relevant category page or homepage if you truly cannot find a corresponding page.
Keep them for at least one year to allow search engines and external links enough time to update. If your quota allows, keep them long-term, as old links scattered across the web may still be clicked years later.
They take effect immediately after saving. Please use an incognito window to test old URLs, as normal windows may have cached previous results, making it seem like the rules aren't working.
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