Redirects are hideous & messy when you don’t know how to handle them. But to run an efficient site sometimes you have to apply redirects. Whether that is to consolidate old pages, redirect users to a new page or domain etc.
In this one-stop-shop guide, we are going to go over everything you need to know about redirects & how to actually implement them to your WordPress website or blog.
TL,DR: The easiest way to do it is to use a plugin called Redirection (We have a tutorial to it in this guide)
Redirects Explained
A redirect is nothing but a type of signal that tells a user’s browser or a search engine crawler that the present URL they are requesting has moved on to a new URL.
It’s like asking somebody for directions. Say you ask somebody “Where is this ABC house?” and then the person replies “Oh it has shifted to XYZ house” so after you receive the new intel you drive straight to XYZ house instead of ABC house. And that’s how redirects work.
Types of Redirects
Redirects also have types (though there are a few of them). They are;
- 301 Redirects
- 302 Redirects
- 307 Redirects
- Meta Refresh
301 Redirects
This type of redirect is used when the URL that is being requested has moved on to a new location/URL permanently. These types of URLs pass full Link Juice (Ranking power) to the page that it has redirected to.
(PageRank = Link Juice)
302 Redirects
This type of redirect is used when the URL that is being requested has moved on to a new URL temporarily. While according to Googe, both 301 & 302 redirects pass the same amount of Link Juice, but Moz’s study disagrees.
According to Moz, using 301 redirects sends stronger canonicalization signals to Google. Although use cases are always different for redirects.
307 moved temporarily
A 307 redirect is the HTTP 1.1 successor of the 302 redirect. While major crawlers will still consider it to be a 302 redirect & thus apply its properties, it is still ideal to use 302 redirects when moving content to a new URL for maintenance.
Meta Refresh
Meta refreshes are a type of redirect executed on the page level rather than the server level. They are usually slower, and not a recommended SEO technique. They are most commonly associated with a five-second countdown with the text “If you are not redirected in five seconds, click here.” Meta refreshes do pass some link juice, but are not recommended as an SEO tactic due to poor usability and the loss of link juice passed.
A meta refresh might look like this:
<http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=https://example.com/">Redirecting a URL in WordPress
There are a lot of methods to redirect URL’s in WordPress. But as this guide is specifically created for non-techie WP users, we are going to use 4 methods.
#1 Redirection Plugin
Redirection is an awesome plugin that can be used to create redirects. You can create 301,302,307,308 & all other types of redirects. The Redirection plugin is easy, free & fast. It also has a lot of advanced features.
#2 Simple 301 Redirects
Another simple plugin that helps you create redirects. Simple 301 redirects has a very good developer team that regularly updates the plugin for best performance. It’s a 4 star rated plugin with more than +300,000 websites using it.
Here’s how you create a redirect with Simple 301 redirects
#3 Hosting Solutions
These days Hosting companies are also creating easy redirect tools for their users. So why not leverage them too?
Siteground
Siteground is one of the best hosting providers out there. (To learn more click here) Here’s how you redirect on siteground.
#1 Go to SiteGround >> Websites and select a site.
#2 Go to Site Tools and navigate to Domain >> Redirects.
#3 Enter the path here and redirect type and Create your redirect
Bluehost
- Log in to your Bluehost control panel.
- Click the Domains tab from the side navigation menu to the left.
- Next to the domain name you wish to update, click the ▼ icon next to Manage, then choose Redirects from the drop-down menu that appears.
#4 Yoast SEO
The Premium version of the YoastSEO plugin also has a redirect manager. Here is a tutorial on it from them.
How to find and remove WordPress redirects?
To find redirects you have to have access to core files of your website like .htaccess, index.php, etc. And we won’t go deep into this topic here. This is because we have found a great resource for you to follow & find WordPress redirects.
You also need access to core files like .htaccess and index.php for removing these suspicious redirects. And here is a great resource to help you with;
Redirects By Use Case
We would recommend contacting your domain registrars for assistance.
We have summed up the use cases along with some tutorials for your ease.
#1 Redirecting an entire domain
#2 Redirect entire domain from non-www to www (and vice-versa)
#3 Redirect entire domain from HTTP to HTTPS
Tips for Redirecting
Here are some tips.
#1 Avoid redirection chains
This essentially means avoiding 10 redirects of a single URL.
#2 Setup 404 error logs
Setting up is very easy. You can install a plugin like YoastSEO & RankMath to check all the 404 logs your users are running into.
#3 Careful Redirection
As mentioned earlier redirects can get quite messy, so make sure to execute these things with extreme caution. Also if you have access to support them make sure to leverage that before changing some super techy settings.
Wrapping Up
This guide is created specifically for WordPress users. And in most of the cases you can do simple redirects with the help of plugins. But complex redirects like HTTP to HTTPS & www to non-www need some extra knowledge and precaution.
Just remember: “If you have access to support, please use that” and we can’t emphasize it’s importance enough. If you have any questions make sure to ping us (here)
Until next time, Adios!