PLEASE NOTE! This article is only for users who know what they are doing. Activating this setting/feature is entirely at your own risk. This feature can have major consequences if you don't know exactly what you're doing. Actions carried out with it cannot be restored or reversed by PromoCat. Permalinks/redirects cannot be deleted.
What is a "permalink"?
On a dynamic website where old information also stays online, a link to information on the website is called a permalink (short for permanent link) if it permanently points to the same information. An intermediate form is a link that permanently points to information about the same topic, but where the information can change through corrections and additions. The opposite is, for example, a link to the homepage of a news site or forum that always shows the latest news or the newest replies.
Current situation
In the past, permalinks really were permanent links. However, there is now a setting that lets you turn them into ordinary permalinks.
Currently, these permalinks (permanent links) may not be reused except for the same product, category or page. The URLs of these pages are permanent. Imagine you once sent someone a URL to a product, sent a quote with a URL to this product, or this URL ranks high in your Google Shopping Feed or in Google. Changing this URL currently has no consequences, because a redirect (301 redirect) is created from the old URL to the new URL.
When creating this redirect, the system stores the old URL as history, so that the product can always be found again by users or applications that previously accessed this URL. This URL may therefore not be used for another product, category or page.
It is, however, allowed to change a URL back for the same product. Suppose you once had "www.promocat.nl/paraplu-met-logo" and turned this URL into "www.promocat.nl/praraplu-bedrukt-met-logo". Then you may reuse this URL (only for exactly the same product, category or page that has previously used this URL) and set it back to "www.promocat.nl/paraplu-met-logo"
Example
Suppose you have 2 products with the following redirects
1. Umbrella: 301: paraplu-corona -> 301: paraplu-bier -> 301: antiregending -> 200: paraplu-met-bier-logo
2. Poncho: 200: mooie-poncho
If you now decide to use 301: antiregending for another product (the poncho), you get the following.
1. Umbrella: 200: paraplu-met-bier-logo
2. Poncho: 301: paraplu-corona -> 301: paraplu-bier -> 200: antiregending <- 301: mooie-poncho
This is because the manually imported redirects redirect purely based on the URLs and not directly to a product/category/page.
How do I set up this feature?
Step 1: Go to your webshop's CMS and click "Instellingen" (Settings)
Step 2: Go to the "SEO" tab
Step 3: Find the "Sta hergebruik van permalinks toe" (Allow reuse of permalinks) feature and turn it on.
Step 4: Click save at the bottom of the page.
Links that are already in use may now be reused.