How to set up 301 redirects in a Zendesk help center

To add 301 redirects to a Zendesk help center, install Sprucewell, open it from the left navigation bar and go to Redirects. Type or paste one rule per line as old address, new address, or pick a CSV file, then click Preview and Set. These are your help center's own redirect rules, 301 permanent by default, and they take effect once the old address no longer exists.

Why redirect rules instead of theme code

Zendesk's own article on redirecting deleted articles describes JavaScript in the theme for short-term cases and the redirect rules API, with a developer, for permanent 301s. Sprucewell gives you a screen for those redirect rules.

Steps

1. Open Redirects. You need to be a Guide admin.
2. Enter the rules, one per line: old address, new address, optionally followed by a status (301, 302, 303, 307 or 308). Or pick a CSV file with those columns; a header row is skipped.
3. Click Preview. Each line shows as new, update (replaces a rule for the same old address) or a problem.
4. Read the flags. Lines whose old article still exists are flagged, because a redirect only works for addresses that no longer exist.
5. Click Set. The list below shows every rule. Search it, tick rules and click Delete selected to remove them.

What addresses work

Problems in the preview include a duplicate line, an address that isn't your help center, and the same address on both sides.

Example CSV

old,new,status
/hc/en-us/articles/360001111111,/hc/en-us/articles/360002222222,301
/support/returns-policy,/hc/en-us/articles/360003333333
https://help.example.com/hc/de/articles/360004444444,/hc/de/articles/360005555555

Archive and redirect in one step

In Clean up, pick stale articles, choose Archive, and type an article id, a /hc/... path or a full address as the redirect. Every language address of each archived article gets a 301 to it. The preview lists the articles that link to each one first.

The Links tab also has Add a redirect on every missing-target row, which opens Redirects with the missing address filled in.

Undo

Every redirect change is in History. Undo removes the rules a change added or puts back the ones it replaced. Undo can't restore archived articles (restore those in Knowledge admin > Manage articles > Archived), but it does remove the redirects Sprucewell added for them.

What it costs

Sprucewell is billed monthly by Zendesk per Zendesk account, by article translations: Starter $85 a month for up to 2,000, Growth $125 for up to 6,000, Scale $175 for any number. Every feature is on every plan, with a 14-day free trial. See the Sprucewell documentation.