How to 301 Redirect WordPress URLs using Redirect Plugin
How to 301 Redirect WordPress URLs using Redirect Plugin. In this post, we will discuss 301 redirection in detail and how to create one in WordPress With Plugins.
Fix the Broken links
Today, many businesses are moving to digital platforms for growth and expansion. But, just building a website is not enough to bring in more traffic and sales. There are various factors that one must consider and optimize the site accordingly for better results and performance. One such vital factor is broken links.
Let’s say, you designed a website and include a service page – https://www.xyz.com/ac-maintainenace-service. The crawler visits your site and indexes your page. But a month later or so, you updated the permalink to https://www.xyz.com/ac-service. Now, the old indexed link becomes unavailable. As a result, when a visitor clicks on the old indexed page, he is directed to a broken link page.
In nutshell broken links are a source of frustration for the users. In addition, they might switch to your competitor, if they fail to find the answer to their query. Generally, the broken links are bad for websites and can affect website conversions and credibility as an authority. Hence, to avoid losing your traffic and potential customers, it is best to immediately redirect the old link to the new page link.
There are various tools available in the market that you can use to help discover broken links on a website. For example, use some popular broken link checker tools and fix the issue on time. Additionally, you can also create a custom 404 page or perform redirections to maintain the traffic and improve web performance. With the growing competition, it is essential for businesses to adapt a strategy that brings in more leads and traffic to the website.
Let’s continue with how to 301 Redirect WordPress URLs using Redirect Plugin.
What is a 301 redirect?
Firstly, if you want to change the URL of your website permanently, you need to do a 301 redirect. This is a permanent redirect that tells search engines and users that the new URL is the one they should use. A 301 redirect is a permanent redirection from an old web address to a new web address.
Additionally, the 301 redirection prevents visitors from reaching a page that is irrelevant or has been moved or updated. Using the 301 redirection, you avoid losing organic traffic due to an alteration or resource change. Instead of hurting your website’s ranking and reputation, it is best to use a redirection that will connect your users and search engines to the correct page.
It’s also called “HTTP status code 301” or “301 response code”. This type of redirect tells search engines and visitors that the page has been moved permanently and they should update their bookmarks and links.
301 Redirect Setup
A 301 redirect can be set up in three ways:
- In the Apache server, you add this line to your .htaccess file
2. In WordPress, you can use the Redirection and other plugins.
3. You can also use Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Central) to set up a permanent redirect.
Why 301 Redirect is Important?
Generally, 301 redirects are permanent and mostly used when a page has been permanently removed or moved to a new URL structure. When a user visits an old page, the 301 redirection immediately tells the browser that the page is moved/removed and automatically sends your user to a new URL.
Using 301 redirection prevents users from losing organic traffic, ranking and reputation. It also helps users keep track of 404 error pages and fix those pages. Also broken links are not good from an SEO point of view. Hence, the use of different plugins is there to implement 301 redirections. Below, we have listed steps via which you can redirect broken links in a WordPress website.
So How to 301 Redirect WordPress URLs using Redirect Plugin? Let’s find out.
Steps to Create Redirects via Plugins in WordPress
1. All in One SEO (AIOSEO)
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is one of the trusted WordPress SEO plugins majorly used by professionals to improve website search rankings. We can also use it to manage and create 301 redirects. At present, over 3,000,000+ professionals use All in One SEO (AIOSEO) to optimize a website and improve their site’s SEO.
It provides complete support for schema mark up, aids in improving local SEO and on page SEO optimization, as well as helps discover broken links on your website. It has a powerful redirection manager add on, through which you can redirect broken pages and fix 404 page not found errors. But, you need to upgrade to the Pro version to access the redirection manager feature.
The free version of All in One SEO (AIOSEO) offers various benefits but does not include 301 redirections.
Steps to install Pro AIOSEO Plugin
Hence, to use this feature, install and activate the AIOSEO Pro plugin.
1. Go to Plugins> Search All in One SEO (AIOSEO)> Install> Activate> Upgrade the Pro Version.
Once you have upgraded the Pro Version, go to All in One SEO from the dashboard and click on Redirects. A dialogue box will appear on your screen as shown in the screenshot.
2. Now, click the ‘Activate Redirects’ button visible on the screen.
3. Next, go to the ‘Settings’ tab under Redirects and choose ‘PHP’ as your Redirect Method. With this method, you do not require any server side configurations and can easily create/manage 301 redirects.
If you select Web Server as your Redirect Method, you need to configure Apache or NGINX on your web server to perform redirection. This method also requires users to have complete technical knowledge. Hence, not a good option for beginners.
4. Once you are done with the redirect method, go to the redirect tab for creating redirections.
5. Here, all you need to do is place your source URL and the new URL (under the Target URL field) to which you want to redirect the deleted or moved link. Select the redirect type as ‘301 Moved Permanently’ and press the ‘Add Redirect’ button.
6. For redirecting multiple URLs, press the Add URL button under the Source URLs field to add more links.
Once all the redirections are complete, you can view the logs from the dashboard. The Hit column highlights the number of people who visited the redirected link. Also, there is an enable/disable option for each redirection that one can select to disable 301 redirects.
How to Track 404 error pages using AIOSEO plugin?
Another benefit of using AIOSEO plugin is you can keep track of all your 404 error pages. All you need to do is go to AIOSEO plugins > Redirects > Settings tab > Logs section.
Under the logs section, enable the 404 Logs and Redirect Logs available on the screen. You can also choose the time period for smooth and quick server performance.
Once the changes are active, all the broken links will be visible to you under the ‘404 Logs’ tab in the Redirects section. Remember, you need to enable the settings or no data will be visible on the screen.
As soon as you enable the settings, a list of broken link pages will appear on the tab highlighting the number of hits and last accessed date and time. To create a redirect, press the “Add redirect” button and follow the above listed steps.
Lastly, to check if your redirections are properly working, visit the old URL. If the redirection is working, it will immediately display the new targeted page link on the screen.
2. Redirection method
Another method where you create and manage redirects is by installing the Redirection plugin.
1. Go to plugins > Add New > Search Redirection plugin > Install and activate it on your site.
2. Now, go to Dashboard > Tools > Redirection. A dialogue box appears on the screen showing the benefits of the feature. Click the ‘Start Setup’ button below the features provided by the plugin.
3. Next is to enable the options like monitor permalink changes in WordPress and keep a log of all your redirects and 404 errors to complete the basic setup.
4. Following step is test the Rest API and proceed, if the result comes back as Good. Finish the set up and go to Tools » Redirection » Redirects to create redirections.
5. Under the Add New Redirection Option, fill in the source URL (Old page URL), target URL (the new page), query parameters, and other details. Choose the type of redirection. For permanent redirection, select the HTTP code option to ‘301 – Moved Permanently’ and save settings.
3. Page Links to plugin
In case you want to keep a post or page but also redirect it to another URL, try the Page Links to the plugin. The plugin creates a meta box with an option to enter the target URL or the location to which you want to send your user.
Fill in the details and the plugin will redirect the user to the new location.
4. Simple 301 Redirects
Simple 301 Redirects is another popular plugin used by developers to redirect URLs permanently. in order to install and activate the plugin and go to settings from the dashboard > 301 redirects.
Here, all you have to do is place the old location in the request field and the new location under the destination field. Once done, press the ‘Add New’ button to activate the redirection.
The only disadvantage of this plugin is it is a bit slower and has a few minor performance setbacks.
Thank you for reading How to 301 Redirect WordPress URLs using Redirect Plugin. Let’s conclude.
How to 301 Redirect WordPress URLs using Redirect Plugin Conclusion
Creating a 301 redirect on your WordPress website is not challenging as it sounds. The 301 redirections are mostly used to fix 404 page not found errors and connect users and search engines to the correct page. If you want to deliver a better user experience and improve traffic or keyword ranking, make sure to apply 301 redirections for the changed permalinks.
There are different types of redirections available, including 301, 302, 307, etc. But, in this blog, we have focussed majorly on the 301 redirections and how to create one for a WordPress website. The 301 redirections update the browser that the particular requested page has been permanently moved to a new location and has no intention of moving back.
The redirection is useful in cases where the user wants to delete a post or page in favor of new content or when you want to update the existing permalink structure. Basically, if you don’t update the deleted page or moved pages, the user will receive a 404 page not found error that can create an impact on SEO as well as the site’s user experience.
