WordPress Redirects Creation Guide

Are you trying to create a redirect in WordPress? Not sure what a redirect is and why it is important? Don’t worry, we have got you covered in this beginner’s guide to WordPress redirects, we will cover what a redirect is, how to create a redirect in WordPress, why do you need, and when you should use redirects.

There are many different kinds of redirects, each with a different numerical code, so let’s break those down first. The two most common are the 301 and 302, which is what we will focus on today.

301 — A permanent redirect. You use these when you change URLs or site structures for good. All of the old link’s SEO power and ranking are transferred to the new one. For all intents and purposes, the old URL just turns into the new one.

302 — A temporary redirect. You use these when you need a short-term change. Maybe a site redesign or quick-fix for a bug or glitch. No link-juice or ranking is transferred.

All you have to do for a WordPress redirect is add in a simple line of code just above the line that reads # BEGIN WordPress.

Redirect 301 / http://visualmodo.com/

or

Redirect 302 / http://visualmodo.com/

Note that either of these lines of code will redirect your entire site to the URL specified. If you want to redirect a specific page, post, or URL within your site, you will need to provide it as well as the destination URL. Both can be the relative path (if you’re staying on the same domain) and separated by a single space.

or

Regardless of which route you choose to enter the redirects, you need to save your .htaccess file as plaintext before you re-upload it to the server.

Setting up your redirects is as easy as can be. Once activated, Quick Redirects adds a new item to your admin dashboard called Quick Redirects. The default type of WordPress redirect is a 301 (they are the most common, after all), and you set them up simply by typing the origin and destination URLs into a couple of fields. Hit the save button, and you’re golden.

Additionally, you will see a list of your existing redirects (note in the image above how the ones I’ve used are all relative paths, not to a new domain, but that’s possible, too). If you don’t need the redirect anymore, you can trash it with a click, or you can edit the redirect for any number of reasons. For me, it’s when I sausage-finger an indecipherable typo.

And finally, if you look into the Redirect Options, you will see an absurd number of choices that you can make, either creating rules that apply for all of your redirects or enabling settings that work with custom post types and meta boxes and so forth. It’s a lot to fiddle with

Whether your site has moved to a new location, you’re changing your permalink structure, or somehow a WP update broke everything about your installation and you’re starting fresh…having a working knowledge of how to set up a WordPress redirect is pretty handy.

It doesn’t matter if you like digging into Core files or prefer to use plugins. Both are effective and achieve the same results in the end. So don’t be scared. Start playing around and see what works best for you. You might even find a way to improve rankings and SEO with just a few clicks.

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