Why old URLs need redirects when a new website launches
A new website can be live while old WordPress addresses still break. A 301 redirect bridges the old path to the new page so visitors and search engines do not hit a dead end.
Old request
/precios/
New website
yoursite.com
Without redirect
404 page not found
With 301 redirect
301 redirect to the new pricing page: /es/pricing
A common misunderstanding during a website rebuild is thinking that if the new website is live, every old page address will keep working automatically. Those are two different things.
The new website can be available at the same domain while the old pages are not. For example, a site may move from an old WordPress install to a new app. The domain stays online, but a WordPress address such as /precios/ no longer has a page behind it if the new app uses /es/pricing instead.
So the issue is not that the new site is down. The issue is that the new site organizes content under different URLs.
Who still asks for the old page?
You might never type /precios/ again, and new visitors may never see it. But old URLs can keep receiving traffic for months or years.
Google may still have the old pricing page in its index because that page ranked for searches such as "coliving Tenerife precios". Anyone who saved the page has the old URL bookmarked. Any other website that linked to the pricing page also linked to the old address.
If the new app answers those requests with a 404, visitors see an error page and search engines lose the connection between the old page and the replacement page.
What a 301 redirect does
A 301 redirect is a permanent forwarding rule. It tells the new website: when anyone asks for /precios/, send them to /es/pricing instead.
That means the old address keeps working. Google can transfer relevance to the new URL, bookmarks land somewhere useful, backlinks keep sending visitors to the right content, and people never see a dead end.
The practical takeaway
Redirects are not about making the new website available. The new website is already available. Redirects make sure the old paths people and search engines still use do not dead-end after the launch.
For a rebuild, that redirect map is the bridge between the addresses the internet already knows and the new addresses where the pages actually live.