Ghost makes it fairly easy to redirect URLs. This comes in handy when you want to link a shortcut like /workshop to an external Zoom meeting, or redirecting old post URLs after restructuring your site. But there's a catch: once you visit a redirect, your browser remembers it. For quite some time.
How to Set Up Redirects in Ghost
Ghost handles redirects through a redirects.yaml file. You'll find this in Settings → Labs within the Ghost Admin.
The file uses a simple format:
301:
/old-path/: /new-path/
/workshop/: https://zoom.us/random
302:
/temporary-link/: /destination/
To add or edit redirects:
- Download your current
redirects.yamlfrom Labs - Edit the file in any text editor
- Upload the modified file back to Ghost
More on Ghost's redirects here:
Team Ghost
Why Your Updated Redirect Isn't Working
You've updated your redirect from one Zoom link to another. You've confirmed the change is saved in Ghost. But when you click the link, you still end up at the old destination. Whoops.
Well, good and bad news.
The good news: this isn't Ghost or Magic Pages.
The bad news: it's your browser 🙃
You've probably set up the redirect as a permanent redirect – with the status code "301". When you first visited that 301 redirect, your browser stored it locally. Now it's not even asking the server. It's redirecting you based on its cached memory.
Purging your CDN cache won't help here because the redirect never hits the CDN in subsequent requests. Your browser intercepts it first.
This affects only you and anyone else who previously visited the old redirect. New visitors will see the correct destination.
301 vs 302: Which One Should You Use?
This is where things get tricky.
- 301 (Permanent): Tells browsers and search engines "this URL has permanently moved." Browsers cache this aggressively, since the 301 indicates that the redirection is well...permanent.
- 302 (Temporary): Tells browsers "this is a temporary redirect, check back next time." Browsers are more forgiving for these and it won't be cached as aggressively.
As a rule of thumb: If you might ever change the destination of a redirect, use a 302.
Event links, meeting rooms, promotional redirects – anything that might point somewhere different next week – should be a 302. Reserve 301s for truly permanent changes, like when you've restructured your entire URL scheme after a migration.
How to Fix a Cached Redirect in Your Browser
A quick fix, if you want to see whether the new redirect is working: open the link in an incognito/private window or a different browser. This bypasses your browser cache.
For a more permanent fix in your normal browsing environment:
Chrome
- Press
F12to open Developer Tools (before navigating to the URL) - Go to the Network tab
- Check "Preserve log"
- Navigate to the redirect URL
- Find the request in the log, right-click it, and select "Clear browser cache"
Firefox
- Open your browser history
- Search for the site URL
- Right-click and select "Forget About This Site"
- Close all tabs with that site first. This won't work with the site open
Safari
- Open Developer Tools (enable in Preferences → Advanced first)
- Go to the Network tab
- Check "Disable Caches"
- Reload the page
Does Magic Pages Cache Redirects?
No. Magic Pages's CDN doesn't cache redirect responses. When you purge your domain cache in the Magic Pages portal, it clears cached HTML, CSS, images, and other assets – but redirects pass through directly from Ghost.
The caching that causes these issues happens exclusively in visitors' browsers. There's nothing we can clear on our end to fix a browser's memory of a 301 redirect.
Still Have Questions?
If you're stuck with a redirect issue or need help setting up complex redirect patterns, reach out at help@magicpages.co.
About Jannis Fedoruk-Betschki
I'm the founder of Magic Pages, providing managed Ghost hosting that makes it easy to focus on your content instead of technical details.
