Redirecting traffic from deleted help center articles

If you've deleted articles from your help center, you may have noticed that users occasionally still attempt to access the URLs associated with these articles. No matter the source of such traffic, you can automatically redirect users visiting these URLs to more valuable pages.

Note: The solutions contained within this article may affect Google search rankings since they contain Javascript redirects. For this reason, they may not be suitable for long-term or large-scale deployment.

Accessing your help center's custom JavaScript file

To implement the solution, you must first access your help center's JavaScript file:

Choose subdomain

.zendesk.com Go to account

1. Sign in to Zendesk Support as an administrator. Next, click the Zendesk Products icon () in the top bar, then select Guide.
2. In the top right corner of Zendesk Guide, select Guide admin.
3. Click the Customize design icon () in the sidebar.
4. Click Customize on your theme.
5. Click, Edit code.
6. Click the script.js file.

See the GIF below for a visual example of accessing the JavaScript file:

This article includes several solutions that, in most cases, can redirect traffic:

• Example 1: Redirecting a set of deleted articles to new article equivalents
• Example 2: Redirecting untranslated articles to an existing language
• Example 3: Redirecting all deleted articles to one specific page
• Example 4: Generalizing or specifying which articles (or community posts) redirect to a particular page

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Example 1: Redirecting a set of deleted articles to new article equivalents

In this example in which, a help center has a set of old, deleted pages, each corresponding to a new page to which we are redirecting.

Within the first few lines of the JavaScript file, you will see a line reading:

$(document).ready(function() {

Insert the following code directly above that line:

  var oldIds = ["217352077", "216552968"];
  var newIds = ["216553098", "216552958"];

  for (var i = 0; i < oldIds.length; i++){
    if (window.location.href.indexOf(oldIds[i]) > -1) {
      window.location.href = 'https://YOURSUBDOMAIN.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/' + newIds[i]; 
    }
  }

Before saving it, you must customize a few things about this script. The first part of the code you'll edit is here:

  var oldIds = ["217352077", "216552968"];
  var newIds = ["216553098", "216552958"];

This is a list of the old article IDs and new article IDs. Add your article IDs here. To find an article ID, view the article in your browser (or the URL from your analytics platform). The URL will look similar to this:

https://[YOURSUBDOMIAN].zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203664386-Help-Center-guide-for-agents-and-end-users

In this case, the article ID is "203664386".

To redirect properly with this solution, the article IDs must be at the same position within the array. In this case, an article whose URL contains "217352077" will now redirect to "216553098". And an article containing "216552968" will now redirect to "216552958".

Be sure to keep these IDs wrapped in quotes, as seen above, and separated by a comma in each case. So if you added a new set of redirects, it would look like this:

  var oldIds = ["217352077", "216552968", "216552902"];
  var newIds = ["216553098", "216552958", "216552944"];

Next, you will have to edit the URL in this line:

window.location.href = 'https://YOURSUBDOMAIN.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/' + newIds[i]; 

Make sure you use your subdomain, or alternately, use your entire help center URL as it normally appears in your help center if it is white labeled to your URL. Do not remove the end of the line, where it reads "+ newIds[i];". This is how the loop appends your new article ID to your URL. The code will fail without it.

Example 2: Redirecting untranslated articles to an existing language

In this example where you have help center content in multiple languages. Let's say all of your contents exist in English, but only some of them exist in French and German. Users who try to access those articles in French or German will get an error page. This code allows redirects them away from the error page back to the existing English-language article:

var notDefaultLanguage = window.location.href.indexOf('/en-us/') == -1;
var isArticle = window.location.href.indexOf('/articles/') > -1;
var isErrorPage = $(".error-page").length > 0;


if ( isArticle && notDefaultLanguage && isErrorPage ) {
    var newURL = window.location.href.replace(/(.*\/hc\/)([\w-]+)(\/.*)/, "$1en-us$3");
    window.location.href =  newURL;
}  

In this example, only a small amount of customization needs to be done. If your default help center language isn't English, you can replace that language. In the code, you'll see "en-us" appear in two places:

var notDefaultLanguage = window.location.href.indexOf('/en-us/') == -1;

and

var newURL = window.location.href.replace(/(.*\/hc\/)([\w-]+)(\/.*)/, "$1en-us$3");

Replace "en-us" in these two lines with your default language code. You can find your default language code in the URL for your main articles. For example, a URL for a French-language help center page will look like

https://[YOURSUBDOMAIN].zendesk.com/hc/fr/articles/214943538

with "fr" representing the country code.

Example 3: Redirecting all deleted articles to one specific page

In this example, a help center redirects all deleted articles (not including community posts) to a particular article.

Within the first few lines of the JavaScript file, you'll see a line reading:

$(document).ready(function() {

In this case, insert the following code directly below the line. Important note, inserting the above (as with the previous example) will not work for this example:

if ( window.location.href.indexOf('articles') > -1 && $(".not-found").length > 0 ) {
 window.location.href = 'https://[YOURSUBDOMAIN].zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/216553068-error-redirect';
}

You'll need to customize the URL in this script before saving it. Replace it with the article URL you want your help center to redirect to.

This solution will only work if we ensure a ".not-found" class exists on your error page. So let's add one.

On the grey bar where the "JS" link appears, click on the "Home Page" link. Find and select "Error page" in that dropdown. In the error page, you'll find an area starting with the code {{#is error 'not_found'}} . It will look something like this:

{{#is error 'not_found'}}
 <h2>{{t 'nonexistent_page'}}</h2>
 <p>{{t 'mistyped_address_or_moved_page'}}</p>
 {{/is}}

You'll want to add a new class to the h2 element or any element within the 'not_found' #is tags so that it looks like this:

<h2 class="not-found">{{t 'nonexistent_page'}}</h2>

Now you have all the elements in place that you'll need for a generally deleted article redirect.

Example 4: Generalizing or specifying which articles (or community posts) redirect to one specific page

You can get more specific or general with this solution by customizing the if statement. For example, to redirect from any deleted article or community post, change the if statement to:

if ( $(".not-found").length > 0 )

Alternately, to only redirect deleted articles that have the word "buttermilk" in the title, change the if statement to:

if ( window.location.href.indexOf('buttermilk') > -1 && $(".not-found").length > 0 )

Unlike the first solution presented, these solutions will briefly show the error page, then redirect to the new page. This is because we are using JavaScript to search for an element within the page, and to do that, we must first wait for the page to load.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for instructional purposes only. Zendesk does not support or guarantee the code. Zendesk also can't support third-party technologies such as JavaScript, jQuery, or CSS. Post any issues in the comments section, or try searching for a solution online.