Webflow 301 Redirects: How to Set Up, Wildcard and Fix Them

Webflow creates permanent 301 redirects from Site settings > Publishing > 301 redirects. You enter the old path and the new path, publish, and the old URL sends visitors and search engines to the new one. Folders move with a wildcard such as /old/(.*) to /new/%1, query strings need their special characters escaped with %, rules run in the order they were added, and nothing fires until you publish.

This guide covers the everyday redirects a marketing team sets on a live Webflow site: a renamed page, a merged folder, a retired campaign URL, a tracking link that changed. Every rule below comes from Webflow's own documentation, linked where it applies. If you are moving a whole site to Webflow, start with our redirect map guide for migrations instead; it covers inventory, mapping rules and the CSV import in depth.

What kind of redirects does Webflow support?

One kind: the 301, a permanent redirect. Webflow's redirect documentation notes that temporary 302 redirects exist but that 301s are what you use to route traffic permanently to a new URL. There is no 302 option in the settings panel.

Two conditions apply. Redirects need a paid Site plan, or a site inside a Workspace with a paid Workspace plan. And rules are relative to the root domain: a rule for /old-url does not cover /es/old-url, so localized paths need their own rules.

How do you redirect a single page in Webflow?

1. Open Site settings, then Publishing, then 301 redirects.
2. In Old path, enter the path only, starting with a slash: /old-url.
3. In Redirect to path, enter the new path: /new/url.
4. Click Add redirect path.
5. Publish the site. The rule does nothing until the site is published.

Then open the old URL in a new tab and confirm it lands on the new one. For a stricter check, see the testing section below.

The page must no longer exist at the old path

A redirect cannot fire while a live page still answers at the old path. For a static page, delete it, set it to draft or change its slug first. For a CMS item, archive, delete, unpublish or draft it, or change its slug. Webflow spells this out in the same article.

Changing a slug creates the redirect for you

When you rename a static page's slug in Page settings and tick "Permanently redirect the old URL to this new one", Webflow adds the 301 automatically. You can see it afterwards in the 301 redirects list. This is the safest way to rename a page, because the redirect and the new URL ship in the same publish.

How do you redirect a whole folder?

Use a capture group. The pattern (.*) in the old path captures whatever follows, and %1 in the new path puts it back:

The second pattern is the one to use carefully. Sending every page in a folder to a single URL is right when the folder genuinely has one replacement, and wrong when each page has a closer match. Google's guidance on site moves with URL changes favours one-to-one mapping where a replacement exists.

How do you redirect URLs with query strings?

Query strings work, but every special character in the old path must be escaped with a % sign. Webflow lists the characters that need escaping: % - & * ( ) = _ + ?. Only the old path needs escaping; the new path does not.

One trap: Webflow removes a trailing slash that sits directly before a query string before it evaluates rules. So /slug/?param=value is matched as /slug?param=value. Write the old path as /slug%?param%=value. With the slash left in, the rule silently never fires.

Why does the order of redirects matter?

Webflow runs redirects in the order they were added: the oldest rule is tried first. If a broad wildcard such as /resources/(.*) was added before a specific rule for /resources/pricing, the wildcard wins and the specific rule never runs. Add specific rules first, then the wildcards. To see the order, sort the list by Date created in Site settings.

If a wildcard already exists and you need a specific exception, delete the wildcard, add the specific rule, then add the wildcard again so it sits later in the order. Publish once at the end.

How many redirects should a Webflow site have?

Webflow sets no hard limit but recommends a maximum of 1,000. Each rule is written into the site's manifest.json, which every visitor's browser downloads, so a long list costs a little speed on every page view. Wildcards keep the count down. If you are above a few hundred rules, review for patterns a single wildcard could replace, and for rules whose old URLs no longer receive any traffic.

How do you redirect one domain to another?

Connect both the old and the new domain to the site, set the new domain as the default, and publish. Webflow then redirects the old domain to the new one. The same mechanism handles typo domains such as a .net or .org you own alongside your .com.

How do you import or export redirects in bulk?

The 301 redirects panel has Import and Export. The CSV has two columns, old path and redirect-to path, one row per rule, up to 16MB. Two rules from Webflow's import and export documentation matter most: a new import overwrites every existing redirect, so export first and append to that file; and a single invalid row fails the whole import, after which Webflow emails you the file with the errors marked. Publish after the import. Only site managers can use Delete all.

How do you test that a redirect works?

• Browser: open the old URL in a private window so a cached redirect does not fool you. Browsers cache 301s aggressively.
• Command line: curl -I https://www.example.com/old-url should return a single 301 with a Location header pointing at the new URL, and the new URL should return 200.
• Chains: if the Location header points at another URL that also redirects, flatten it: point the first old URL straight at the final destination.
• Search Console: after publishing, inspect the old URL; it should report "Page with redirect". Watch the Not found (404) report for a week after any batch of changes.
• Internal links: update navigation and body links to the new URL directly. Redirects are for the outside world, not for your own menu.

Common Webflow redirect mistakes

1. Forgetting to publish. The most common one. Rules take effect only after a site publish.
2. The old page still exists. Draft, delete or rename it first.
3. Unescaped characters. A ? or = without a leading % breaks the match.
4. A slash before the query string. Webflow strips it before matching, so the rule never fires.
5. Wildcard added too early. It catches the URL before your specific rule.
6. Redirecting everything to the homepage. Search engines treat a redirect to an unrelated page much like a 404. Map to the closest replacement.
7. Testing in a tab that cached the old answer. Use a private window or curl.

How ActiveSet handles redirects

ActiveSet is a Webflow Premium Partner based in Bengaluru, India. On every build and every migration we keep a redirect map in the project repository, export Webflow's existing rules before any import, and test each row on the live domain after publish. Redirect checks are also part of our Webflow maintenance plans: when a client renames or retires a page, the rule and the internal-link updates ship together. For a site move, see website migration to Webflow.