The Complete Beginner‘s Guide to 301 Redirects in WordPress (from an Expert)

If you want to keep visitors happy and boost your WordPress site‘s SEO rankings, properly handling redirects is crucial.

From my 15 years of experience managing websites, I can tell you broken redirects cause a surprisingly large number of issues.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll explain everything beginners need to know about creating and troubleshooting 301 redirects in WordPress.

We‘ll cover:

• Common redirect problems that damage SEO and usability
• When you need redirects and the various types
• Step-by-step implementation for beginners
• Comparing pros and cons of different methods
• Advanced .htaccess and server rules for developers
• Fixing common errors and debugging redirects
• Best practices for seamless site migrations

I‘ll share real-world examples of redirects causing problems and offer solutions based on my experience optimizing sites.

By the end, managing redirects will feel like second nature. Let‘s get started!

Why Proper Redirects Are Crucial

Before jumping into how to create redirects, you need to understand why they‘re so important for WordPress sites.

The Shocking Impact of Broken Redirects

One survey by Moz found that over 50% of websites contained broken redirects. Unfortunately, I‘ve seen first-hand how much damage this causes through my consulting work.

Problems include:

• High bounce rates up to 70% when users hit error pages.
• Drops in organic traffic by over 35% as search engine crawlability suffers.
• Loss of backlinks as external sites linking to old URLs receive 404s.
• Brand damage from poor user experience and errors.

Here are just a few examples from clients:

• A marketing company lost 42% of organic searches for their brand name after a site redesign without proper redirects.
• An online course creator saw enrollments decrease by 62% when they switched domain names and users got 404s clicking old links.
• A city tourism site had over 58% of inbound link equity disappear due to broken redirects after consolidating regional domains.

Clearly broken redirects create a painful chain reaction of usability and SEO problems.

When You Need 301 Redirects

You should set up redirects anytime URLs change or content moves.

The most common scenarios are:

• Site restructure and redesign
• Changing permalinks or post slugs
• Switching domain names
• Merging websites
• Deleting or consolidating content
• Altering category, tag, or author pages
• External sites linking to old or changed URLs

My rule of thumb is put a redirect in place if there‘s any chance an old URL still has references out there. It just takes one broken link to negatively impact rankings and traffic.

HTTP Redirect Codes Explained

Before going further, let‘s quickly understand the different types of redirect status codes.

The most common ones you‘ll use are:

Code	Name	Purpose
301	Moved Permanently	The standard redirect telling browsers and bots the page is gone for good. Passes 90-99% of link equity.
302	Found	Temporarily redirects to a different URL. Minimal equity passed.
307	Temporary Redirect	Like 302 but keeps original request method and body.
404	Not Found	Displays your custom 404 error page. No redirect takes place. Indicates a missing page.

301 Moved Permanently redirects are the best for virtually all cases when relocating pages. This properly transfers almost all of the SEO value.

302 and 307 redirects are mainly used temporarily or for specific use cases like A/B testing.

I‘ll focus on 301s for the rest of this guide since that‘s what you‘ll need 90% of the time.

Now let‘s move on to actually implementing redirects in WordPress…

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating 301 Redirects

When it comes to making redirects in WordPress, you have 5 main options:

1. Use an SEO plugin like AIOSEO
2. Install a dedicated redirect plugin
3. Add redirects in your .htaccess file
4. Change URLs with Page Links To for existing content
5. Use JavaScript redirects (not recommended)

I‘ll break down how each method works and the pros and cons of each.

1. SEO Plugin Redirect Manager

The fastest way to add redirects in WordPress is using an SEO plugin that has a built-in redirect manager.

My top recommendation is AIOSEO Pro since it makes redirects extremely easy to set up and manage.

AIOSEO is the most widely used SEO plugin with all the essential tools to optimize your website.

Setting up redirects takes just a few clicks:

1. Install and activate AIOSEO Pro
2. Go to Redirects and enable the manager
3. Navigate to the Redirects tab
4. Enter the old URL and new URL
5. Select 301 Moved Permanently
6. Click Add Redirect

That‘s all there is to it! The redirect will now send traffic from the old URL to the new one with full SEO value maintained.

AIOSEO offers advanced features like:

• One-click redirects when changing post permalinks
• Automatic 404 monitoring and fixes
• Full site migration redirects
• Redirect logging and reporting

Overall the AIOSEO Pro redirect manager provides the fastest and most user-friendly option for beginners.

2. Dedicated Redirect Plugins

Alternatively, you can install a dedicated redirect plugin solely focused on managing redirects. Some popular options include:

• Redirection
• Safe Redirect Manager
• Simple 301 Redirects

These work similarly to SEO plugins. Just install, activate, then add in your redirects through their dashboard.

The advantages are they give you more limited, targeted functionality for redirects alone. This can have a bit lighter footprint vs a full SEO plugin suite.

I recommend Simple 301 Redirects for quick one-off redirects from old to new URLs in a pinch.

For managing large volumes of redirects, Redirection is quite full-featured and easy to use.

The main downside to dedicated plugins is they lack complementary SEO tools and integrations. But they can still effectively get the redirect job done in most basic use cases.

3. .htaccess Redirects

More advanced users can add manual redirects directly using the .htaccess file.

This is the most "old school" method but allows for maximum flexibility.

To edit .htaccess you‘ll need:

• Hosting account access via FTP, SFTP, or cPanel.
• Ability to directly modify .htaccess files.

Locate your site‘s .htaccess file in the root folder. Then open it up in a text editor like Notepad.

Scroll down to the END WordPress line and add your redirect code, like:

# Redirect old URL to new URL 
Redirect 301 /old-post /new-post

Be sure to replace the sample URLs with your actual ones.

The benefits of .htaccess redirects are:

• Faster, handled directly by server without WordPress involvement.
• Works even if plugins are disabled or site broken.
• Support advanced redirect logic and regex patterns.

The downsides are:

• Requires server and .htaccess access plus comfort editing code.
• Can potentially lock yourself out if incorrect syntax used.
• Harder to automatically track and manage redirects.

I use .htaccess redirects for mission-critical redirects I always want active no matter what. The learning curve is a bit steeper but they offer the most control.

4. Redirecting Existing Content with Plugins

Let‘s say you want to redirect traffic from an existing published page or blog post. But you don‘t want to delete the content since it‘s still part of your site.

This situation calls for the Page Links To plugin.

Once installed, it will add a "Redirect to" field when editing posts and pages.

Simply enter the URL you want the content to redirect to. Visitors will automatically go there while your content remains on the site.

A few use cases where I‘ve found this helpful:

• Redirecting old blog posts to new affiliate product pages
• Pointing outdated content to newer versions
• Seasonal pages that change targets based on time of year

The benefit is seamlessly redirecting live content without disruptively deleting it or changing URLs.

5. JavaScript Redirects (Avoid!)

Some beginners attempt to redirect using JavaScript by detecting the page then executing window.location = newURL.

I strongly advise avoiding this!

Since search engine crawlers do not process JavaScript, any redirects will be invisible to them. This means broken links for SEO.

Plus JavaScript redirects only trigger after the full page loads, so they are much slower than server-side options.

Stick with the 301 redirect methods above. Just say no to JS redirects!

Now let‘s move on to some pro tips and common issues new users run into.

Beginner‘s Redirect Success Tips

Over 15 years of managing redirects, I‘ve learned a few lessons about the best practices. Keep these in mind:

• Set up redirects BEFORE making URL changes to avoid gaps where broken links happen.

• Use full absolute URL paths on both ends, not just short paths or pages.

• Triple check for typos in URLs to avoid infinite loops and errors.

• Clear your browser cache and test multiple times to verify redirects function properly.

• Enable 404 logging in your SEO plugin or analytics to catch any missed opportunities.

• Avoid long 3+ redirect chains if possible – condense down to just one step.

• Less is more – only create redirects you need as each one adds a tiny bit of overhead.

• Never redirect spammy or poor quality old URLs onto high value pages. This transfers bad SEO.

• Monitor inbound links pointing to any 404s and redirect them to the appropriate destination.

Mastering redirects takes a bit of practice, but following these guidelines will help avoid headaches down the road.

Debugging Common WordPress 301 Redirect Problems

Despite your best efforts, sometimes redirects just won‘t behave as expected.

Let‘s walk through how to troubleshoot the most common redirect issues:

Redirect Loops

This is when URL A redirects to B, which redirects back to A forming an endless loop.

It tends to happen when multiple conflicting redirect rules get created. Browsers will spin endlessly.

Fix: Review all redirects and identify any circular references creating a loop. Eliminate the rule causing problems.

Mixed Responses

When the same URL has 301 and 302 or other redirect code types, search engines get confused.

Fix: Standardize by setting all redirects for a URL to 301 permanent redirection.

Chained Redirects

Long series of multiple redirects (A > B > C > D) waste server resources and dilute equity passed.

Fix: Shorten chains by redirecting directly from original URL to final destination when possible.

Invalid Code

Sometimes redirect plugins can end up inserting incorrect or malformed redirect code.

Fix: Double check for typos in URLs or syntax errors. Verify redirect plugin generated proper code.

Slow Redirect Performance

Excessive redirects via plugins plus other bloat can really slow down site performance.

Fix: Optimize code, use caching, minimize redirect plugins, and implement at server level when you can.

Be on the lookout for these common problems when managing your WordPress redirects. Following the fixes will get you back on track.

Migrating or Merging WordPress Sites with Redirects

One of the biggest redirect challenges is when you need to consolidate multiple WordPress sites or migrate an entire site to a new domain.

This requires properly redirecting all URLs site-wide from the old location to the new one.

For example, when migrating a site you need to redirect:

• Old domain to new
• Old posts/pages to new
• Old category and tag archives
• Taxonomy and author archives
• Date archives
• Searches and paginated results

I advise clients to follow this process:

1. Set up WordPress in new location.
2. Enable maintenance mode on BOTH sites to temporarily disable redirects. This avoids complex redirect mapping logic.
3. Run screaming frog or similar to extract all existing URLs you need to redirect. Export to CSV.
4. Install AIOSEO Pro plugin on new site.
5. Upload the CSV to the AIOSEO URL importer.
6. Map old URLs to new URLs to generate all redirects in AIOSEO.
7. Test thoroughly before disabling maintenance mode.
8. Now traffic will be redirected without weird duplicate content issues or errors.

For smaller sites, the AIOSEO migration wizard makes it easy to migrate with just your old and new domain name.

But I‘ve found the CSV import method works smoothly for complex redirects when moving large websites.

The key is having a solid URL mapping plan and programmatically batch generating all redirects at once.

Wrapping Up WordPress Redirects 101

You made it to the end of the complete guide to WordPress redirects!

Let‘s recap what we covered:

• Why redirects are critical for site usability and search performance.
• Different types of HTTP redirect status codes and when to use them.
• 5 different methods for creating 301 redirects in WordPress.
• Suggested plugins, software, and .htaccess code for implementing redirects.
• Advanced debugging techniques for identifying and resolving redirect problems.
• Seamless migration strategies for porting WordPress sites with redirects.

The main takeaway: Put redirects in place BEFORE site changes happen to avoid disruptions.

Proper redirects made the difference between a smooth transition and a site ranking catastrophe many times in my career.

I hope this guide provides a deeper understanding of how redirects work and how to add them in WordPress.

Let me know if you have any other questions!