RedirectAtlas
Migration field notes / 01

Audit the map.
Then test the site.

Redirects can look sensible one row at a time and fail when you connect them. Check the entire path before importing your file.

1. Export your planned redirects

Use a spreadsheet with old and new URL columns (CSV or Excel, including Shopify’s Redirect from and Redirect to), or the file your server already uses: .htaccess, nginx, Netlify or Cloudflare _redirects, vercel.json or netlify.toml. Exact rules are checked. Wildcard and regex rules are listed but not checked.

Moving a Shopify store? See the worked Shopify redirect CSV example, with before-and-after files and the exact findings.

Using Vercel bulk redirects? See the statusCode CSV examples and staged-review checklist.

Moving to Shopify from another platform? Worked maps for WooCommerce, Squarespace and Wix show how old URLs change and what Shopify won’t redirect.

2. Enter the source website

Relative paths such as /old-product are resolved against this origin. Full URLs retain their own origin. Paths stay case-sensitive, query strings are retained, and trailing slashes remain distinct because servers can treat them differently.

3. Fix errors first

A self-redirect points back to itself. A loop returns to an earlier URL. Conflicting sources give the same URL multiple destinations. Invalid URLs and chains leading into ambiguous rules also need correction.

4. Review warnings in context

A chain goes through an intermediate redirect. A duplicate repeats the same rule. External targets and fragments can be intentional; we flag them so you can decide. A warning is not automatically a mistake.

5. Download the report and recheck

The fixed copy shortens every chain to its final page and removes repeats and rules that point at themselves, in the format you choose. Loops and clashing rules need your decision, so fix those in your file and check again. The full report lists every rule’s line number and final destination. The free audit handles up to 1,000 rows in your browser; a larger migration map can use the one-time Migration Pass to audit up to 10,000 rows for that project.

6. Verify the live behavior

The map audit is a structure checker, not a crawler: it does not make network requests to your URLs, and on its own it does not verify HTTP status, page content, CMS restrictions or search rankings. Our separate live-check preview observes redirects on hostnames you verify through DNS and emails you when a result changes, free for seven days; the Migration Pass extends that to 30 days for a single project without a subscription. After installing your map, test HTTP response codes, destination content, query handling, canonical URLs and your CMS’s redirect rules. Shopify, for example, only applies redirects to certain broken URLs and reserves several paths. See Shopify’s redirect documentation.

Check a map in ChatGPT

Our ChatGPT connection checks a supplied CSV of up to 100 rules and returns findings and corrected CSV text. It processes the map on our server; the browser checker keeps map audits on your device.

Check every pull request

Keep migration mistakes out of future edits with our free RedirectAtlas CSV Check for GitHub Actions. It checks up to 10,000 rows on your own runner, reports loops and conflicting destinations, and can fail a pull-request check when errors appear.

The same checker runs locally with Node.js. It has no dependencies, telemetry or network requests. Logs contain aggregate findings; an optional report includes your URLs and stays where you save it. Keep private maps in private repositories.

Get the workflow and examples ↗

This checks the CSV structure only. It does not visit your URLs or verify a deployed redirect.

Check your map ↗