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Changing a product URL in PrestaShop (its link_rewrite) takes two seconds on the SEO tab of the product page. If you don’t redirect the old URL, those two seconds can cost you the rankings that page had earned: Google still has the old address indexed, and every visit arriving from search lands on a 404.
- The short rule: change the URL only when it’s worth it and, at the same moment, redirect the old one to the new one with a 301.
- One URL: from the product page in the back office, a module like Zeyvro SEO Redirect 301 creates that 301 on its own when you save the new slug.
- Many URLs at once: note down the old ones before the change and load the old → new list by CSV.
What is the link_rewrite in PrestaShop?
The link_rewrite is the PrestaShop field that defines the “friendly” part of the URL of a product, a category or a CMS page: whatever comes after the domain. It’s edited on the SEO tab of each page and there is one value per language. Changing it changes that page’s public address.
What happens if I change a product URL without a redirect?
The old URL stops existing and starts returning a 404, even though Google still has it indexed and keeps sending visits to it. To Google, the new one is a new page that starts without the old one’s history. Changing the URL isn’t the problem; changing it without a redirect is.
When is it worth changing a product URL?
It’s worth it when the current URL gets in the way more than it helps. The usual cases:
- It carries junk from an import: codes, double hyphens, meaningless words.
- It doesn’t contain the word you want the page to be found for.
- It’s excessively long or repeats information already in the category.
- You renamed the product and the old URL confuses whoever reads it.
If the current URL already ranks and looks reasonable, the usual answer is to leave it alone: a “prettier” URL rarely outweighs the risk of a badly handled change.
How do I change a product URL without losing SEO?
By redirecting the old URL to the new one with a 301 at the same moment you change it. The safe order:
- Note down the exact old URL, in every language of the store.
- Change the link_rewrite on the product’s SEO tab and save.
- Create the 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.
- Check that the old URL returns a 301 and not a 404.
- Update the internal links that pointed to the old one, so you don’t chain redirects.
Change it and leave it
New URL, no redirect: the old one returns a 404, Google loses track and visitors arriving from search bounce.
Change it + 301
New URL with a 301 from the old one: the visitor lands where they should and Google knows the page has moved.
Does PrestaShop create a 301 redirect when you change the link_rewrite?
No: PrestaShop doesn’t include a redirect manager and, out of the box, only redirects disabled products. If you change the link_rewrite of an active product, the old URL stops working. To redirect it you have two options: write rules in the server’s .htaccess or use a module that manages them from the back office.
With Zeyvro SEO Redirect 301, when you change the slug of a product or a category from its page and save, the 301 from the old URL to the new one is created on its own, in every language. CMS pages are not part of that automatic creation: their redirects are created by hand or by CSV.
💡 If your product URL format includes the category, when you change a category slug also check its products’ URLs. The full walkthrough is in how to set up 301 redirects in PrestaShop 8.
What if I have to change 50 URLs, not one?
Then the redirect can’t depend on going page by page. The typical case is cleanup after an import, with dozens of link_rewrites full of noise. The method that works:
- Before touching anything, export the current URLs of the products you’re going to change.
- Change the URLs, page by page or with a bulk editor.
- Build a CSV with one line per redirect:
old_url;new_url;type. - Import it into SEO Redirect 301 (Import CSV, separator
;or,). It tells you how many lines it discarded as duplicated or malformed.
A word of caution about bulk editors: if they write the URL straight into the database, without going through the product page, no module notices the change and the automatic 301 doesn’t fire. That’s the case with our own editor, Zeyvro SEO Bulk (coming soon): it edits the link_rewrite of products, categories and CMS pages from a single table, and its CSV export includes each row’s link_rewrite, which helps you note down the old URLs before the change. The redirects for that bulk change go by CSV.
What if a URL had already been changed before?
You can end up with chains: A redirects to B and B to C. SEO Redirect 301 rewrites them when it creates the new one, so A goes straight to C with no intermediate hops, and it keeps a history of every URL change. Even so, it’s worth fixing internal links so they point to the final URL.
Does changing a product URL make you lose SEO?
If you don’t redirect the old URL, usually yes: the old one starts returning a 404 and the new one starts without its history. With a 301 from the old URL to the new one, both visitors and Google reach the right page.
Does PrestaShop create the redirect automatically when you change the link_rewrite?
No. PrestaShop doesn’t include a redirect manager: out of the box it only redirects disabled products. With Zeyvro SEO Redirect 301, when you save the new slug of a product or a category from its page, the 301 is created on its own.
What exactly is the link_rewrite?
The PrestaShop field that defines the friendly part of the URL of a product, a category or a CMS page: whatever comes after the domain. It’s edited on the SEO tab of each page, with one value per language.
How do I redirect many URLs changed at once?
With a CSV of one line per redirect (old_url;new_url;type) imported into Zeyvro SEO Redirect 301. Note down the old URLs before making the bulk change.
Does the automatic redirect work if I change URLs with a bulk editor?
Only if the editor saves through the PrestaShop product page. If it writes the URL straight into the database, the automatic 301 doesn’t fire and those redirects have to be loaded by CSV.
Does it also redirect CMS pages?
The automatic creation covers products and categories. Redirects for CMS pages are created by hand in the module or imported by CSV.
Change URLs without leaving 404s behind: the 301 is created on its own when you save the product.
See Zeyvro SEO Redirect 301 →Zeyvro builds PrestaShop modules from a real store in production. Unobfuscated code.