My product was replaced: how do old links keep working?

A brewery welcomes groups for a guided tour. The old product Guided tour (product 5) was replaced by a new product with fixed time slots (product 21). The bookings were moved and product 5 was deactivated. But the Book a tour button on the brewery's own website still links to the old product:

https://organisatie.i-reserve.net/front.php?mod=calendar&configid=1400&product=5&style=103&lang=nl

Visitors using that button get the message that the product is not active.

How you find it

The Not found tab lists mod=calendar&product=5 with the reason Product is not active, and under Last came from the page of the website with the button. See How do I see which links visitors cannot open?

How you solve it

1. Click Make redirect. Redirect on is already set to Link parameters and the old link is filled in: mod=calendar&product=5.
2. Under To, fill in: ?product=21.
3. Leave the type on Permanent (301) and save.

Anyone clicking the button now lands on:

https://organisatie.i-reserve.net/front?mod=calendar&configid=1400&product=21&style=103&lang=nl

Only the product is replaced. The configuration, the style and the language of the old link stay, so the visitor sees the calendar in the house style and in Dutch. The same redirect also works for the English and German button, because they only differ in lang.

Tips

• If more products were replaced, make one redirect per old product.
• Have the website itself updated too. The redirect is a safety net, not a replacement for a correct link. A link to the main page, such as https://organisatie.i-reserve.net, does not depend on a product number and keeps working after a next change as well.