Replacing the native redirect with a better solution for improved control and maintenance of your SuiteCommerce redirects.
Unfortunately, NetSuite has some flaws that need to be worked out, but it still allows for ways to customize around the issue.
Native SuiteCommerce Redirect Tool
The native SuiteCommerce redirect tool isn't the best for managing large amounts of data. If you have an old website that has been migrated several times, you may have noticed that your redirects have piled up to maintain SEO rankings. The native SuiteCommerce redirect tool allows for mass deletion and uploads, but it is challenging to filter and navigate.
Our team encountered this issue when a client had over 200,000 redirects to manage and needed an easier way to audit them. This is where our team came in to help implement a solution to replace the native redirect tool.
Unsure if the native functionality is sufficient for your business?
Before getting any customizations or extensions for your NetSuite or SuiteCommerce instance, it is always important to evaluate the native features to see if they meet your needs. If you don't already know how to set up SuiteCommerce redirects using the native tools available in NetSuite, here is a quick tutorial:
If the tools demonstrated in this video meet your business needs, great! However, if you have a large number of redirects and are looking for an easier way to manage them, continue reading to learn about our custom redirect solution for SuiteCommerce!
Our Redirect Resolution
We created a NetSuite Custom Record to host all the redirects. This allows for Saved Searches to filter redirects. The record could be customized to view the redirects in different lists without having to navigate to the alphabetical order of the native redirect tool. It also allows for exporting redirects from NetSuite to an Excel file.
In addition to the Custom Record, we created an extension that would trigger whenever a 404 page not found was accessed on the domain. The extension would then go to the Custom Record, find the "Redirect From" URL, and take the user to the "Redirect To" URL.
Allow Secure and Non-Secure Absolute URLs
To help make the audit process a little easier, the custom record took absolute URLs so that the administrator would know 100% that nothing was happening in between. It was important for this client to have total control of the absolute URLs, including non-secure redirects.
Working between the two can get a little tricky because the domain host often redirects HTTP to HTTPS in their own settings. This means that the extension was never triggered on HTTP because NetSuite only saw the secure domain redirects. To fix this, it was necessary to host the non-secure domain in NetSuite in addition to the secure domain while turning off the auto-redirect with the domain provider.
SuiteCommerce Redirects Summary
Working with redirects is never a fun project, but it is crucial to SuiteCommerce implementation success. The native NetSuite redirect tool is good for most people, but it lacks flexibility when many redirect URLs need to be managed and audited.
Hopefully, this helped you set up your SuiteCommerce website to become more useful to customers. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact our team at Anchor Group.
Oracle NetSuite Alliance Partner & Commerce Partner
Hopefully, this post gives you something to work with while trying to understand NetSuite and what it can do for your business. If you have general questions about SuiteCommerce or more specific questions about a SuiteCommerce redirect issue you are facing, feel free to contact us at any time. Anchor Group is a certified Oracle NetSuite Alliance Partner and Commerce Partner and is equipped to handle all kinds of NetSuite and SuiteCommerce projects, large or small!
We are a premium SuiteCommerce agency that creates powerful customer portals. Unlike our competitors, we have already solved your problems.
FREE SuiteCommerce Book
Want to learn more about SuiteCommerce and how it can benefit your business? We'd like to give you a FREE NetSuite Ecommerce paperback book! Here at Anchor Group, we pride ourselves on having the heart of a teacher. This is just one of the many ways that we follow through on that value. So, what are you waiting for?
Order the free SuiteCommerce book today, and we'll even pay for shipping!
