REDIRECT & CSV PREPARATION GUIDE
Good inputs.
Clear redirect decisions.
Use a recent crawl export, preserve exact URLs, and document pages with no suitable replacement. The checks are only as current as your supplied data.
1. Check an existing redirect map
Export a comma-delimited UTF-8 CSV with these headers. Use absolute HTTP(S) URLs, including the domain, path and any meaningful query string.
source_url,destination_url,status_code https://example.com/old-about,https://example.com/about,301
The free checker accepts up to 1,000 rows. It flags invalid URLs, duplicate or conflicting sources, self redirects, chains, loops and statuses other than 301/308. Shared destinations are flagged for inspection because consolidation can be intentional.
The checker does not contact your site. A clean report means no detected CSV structural issues; it does not prove that the server returns those redirects or that destination content is appropriate.
2. Prepare the old and new inventories
Use one row per URL. The old inventory can contain up to 250 pages; the new inventory can contain up to 1,000. Each file must be under 2 MB. Keep one origin (scheme, domain and port) in each file. Old and new origins may be the same for a path-only migration.
| Column | Use | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| url | Required absolute URL | Address, loc |
| title | Page title improves automated matching | Title 1 |
| status | Destinations must have supplied HTTP 200 | Status Code |
| canonical | If supplied, must point to that exact destination | Canonical Link Element 1 |
| indexability | Non-indexable destinations are excluded | — |
| robots | Destinations marked noindex are excluded | Meta Robots 1 |
url,title,status,canonical,indexability https://new.example.com/about,About the studio,200,https://new.example.com/about,Indexable
Headers are case-insensitive. Quote cells containing commas, double quotes or line breaks; escape a quote as two quotes. Spreadsheet “Save as CSV UTF-8” is usually suitable. Tabs and semicolons are not supported delimiters. Duplicate URLs, mixed origins, fragments and embedded credentials are rejected. Paths retain case and query strings: /Page and /page may be different resources.
Record crawl dates in your project notes and refresh before deployment. Missing canonical or robots fields are not positive evidence of indexability. Never change a status to 200 merely to make a destination eligible.
3. Resolve and approve the map
Automated matching uses exact titles, paths and shared words. Matching scores are ranking signals, not probabilities or a semantic content review. Similar candidates remain unresolved. Select a relevant eligible destination and approve it yourself.
If there is no relevant replacement, explicitly exclude the URL and record a reason such as “Expired event; no replacement page.” Exclusions appear in the exceptions file and generate no redirect. Decide separately how that old page should behave; the tool does not instruct you to delete it or choose a 404/410 response.
Approve or exclude every row before preview. The workflow blocks chains, loops and multiple approved sources sharing a destination. Complex consolidations require a separate process outside this bounded workflow. Same-URL approvals are recorded as unchanged and omitted from the redirect CSV.
4. Preview, checkout and hand off
The preview shows redirect and exclusion counts and the first five CSV rows. It saves an immutable snapshot; later changes require a new preview. Save the private recovery link before checkout.
Purchases are currently unavailable. The checkout simulator charges $0 and signs a test payment event that the server verifies before generating the export. A return URL or browser-side success state does not unlock files.
The ZIP contains approved-redirects.csv, decision-log.csv, exceptions.csv and README.txt. The redirect file uses source_url,destination_url,status_code and generates 301s. It is a generic handoff, not a platform-specific import. Cells beginning with spreadsheet formula characters are escaped.
Your developer should adapt the format, back up current rules, test on staging, confirm each source returns the intended permanent redirect, ensure no chain or loop, and confirm destination content, HTTP response and indexability. Recheck after launch. Redirect Desk makes no traffic preservation guarantee.
Data handling and recovery
The checker and inventory analysis run in browser memory. Files are not sent for analysis and are not passed to an AI provider. Creating a preview, after your authorization checkbox, saves a normalized inventory and your decisions on Redirect Desk’s server. The files must contain no credentials, private access tokens or personal customer records.
Snapshots and generated exports can be accessed for seven days from preview creation through the private recovery link. Checkout and payment do not extend this deadline; save your ZIP before it expires. The access secret is in the URL fragment, not a query parameter, and the server stores its hash. Anyone with the full link can access the job. No account is created and no recovery email is sent. Keep the link secure; losing it means the app cannot recover your job for you.
Access expires seven days after preview creation. There is no scheduled daily deletion task. Expired server objects are deleted in small batches when new previews are created; physical deletion may occur later during low traffic. Hosting backups or provider logs may have separate retention. Clearing local data does not delete an already saved snapshot or downloaded files. Minimal checkout acceptance records are retained separately as described in the Privacy Policy.
Analytics consist of daily aggregate checker usage, workflow entry and checkout outcomes, tagged with a short optional acquisition label such as ?utm_source=guide. File contents, private links, emails and full referring URLs are not included in analytics. Short-lived request limits use a hash of the network address and current minute. Hosting may process ordinary request logs.
Real purchases remain unavailable until seller disclosures and payment terms are approved. Support: utilitygrove@outlook.com.