When visitors visit a specific page or article, there will be times when you want to redirect them to another page or post them to your website. In cases where the URL has been changed or a page or post has been deleted. You ‘d like to build a 301 redirect to an active link in that scenario.
What is WordPress 301 Redirect?
A redirect 301 is a permanent redirect from one URL to another. 301 forwards website visitors and search engines to a URL different from the one they initially entered in their browser or selected from the search engine results list. If you don’t redirect to a new link and the destination URL is removed then the user ends up seeing 404 Error.
WordPress 301 Redirect is not the only way to redirect. There is also a 302 redirect, which is distinct from the 301 redirects. The difference between the two is that the WordPress 301 is a permanent redirect and the 302 has two main versions, 1.0 and 1.1. In the first edition, 302 applied to the status code “Temporarily moved.” This was modified to “Found” in version 1.1. There is also a redirect of 307, but in this post, we will learn more about 301 redirects and learn how to do it.
How To Create a WordPress 301 Redirect on the server?
Some of the most popular ways to embed a 301 redirect are to update your .htaccess file on the server. This approach is available only for servers running Apache. Nginx has its own way to define redirects in server configuration and requires comprehensive network administration expertise.
These settings can get pretty unsustainable over time, particularly if you’re an active blogger or if you’re trying to boost your posts’ SEO. Besides that, any time you add a new redirect, you will have to log in to your server via FTP, edit, and re-upload files. That is why it is not considered the way forward, generally speaking, to use this strategy.
How To Create a WordPress 301 Redirect with PHP?
As a WordPress developer, you have two options: either make a redirect by modifying the headers of a file in the code-or make use of WordPress’ built-in code.
wp_redirect function.
The following could be an example of a plain PHP:
<?php
// MyExampleFile.php
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: http://www.my-blog.com/a-new-destination");
?>
And this is how you’d do the same, but now by using WordPress’ built-in function:
wp_redirect( "http://www.my-blog.com/a-new-destination", 301 );
If you forget to add the 301, both WordPress and PHP will assume that it’s a 302 redirect, which isn’t always the case.
How to create 301 redirect using WordPress plugins?
The easiest way to build and handle 301 redirects is to use one of the many WordPress redirect plugins. It helps you to set up a redirect without a single line of code ever being written.
Redirection
The easiest way to add and manage redirects in WordPress is to use the Redirect plugin. Install and turn on the plugin. Visit Tools » Redirect to set up your redirects once activated. Redirect is designed to be used on sites with a few redirects to sites with thousands of redirects.
Redirect plugin not only allows you to set up redirects, but it also helps you find 404 bugs on your WordPress site. You can then redirect these URLs to the appropriate destination. See this tutorial on how to track 404 pages and redirect them to WordPress.
The plugin can also be configured to monitor when a post or page permalinks are changed and automatically redirect to the new URL.
Simple 301 Redirects
It is another easy-to-use plugin. Simple 301 Redirects is an open-source software program. As the name suggests, 301 Redirects is simple. Simply install and activate the plugin, and then go to Settings » 301 Redirects to add your URLs.
Now, while setting up 301 redirects using a WordPress plugin is easy, it has some minor performance setbacks. Based on your WordPress hosting provider, your WordPress redirects a bit slower by a few microseconds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you undo the redirect 301?
Yes, you can undo the WordPress 301 redirect, even if it’s permanent. However, while you cancel the 301 redirects, you must also perform the Fetch and Render in the Google search console. The idea is for Google to know that content is available on that page again. If you don’t perform this function, it might take a very long time for Google to get back to that URL.
Does 301 redirect affect Google ranking?
Redirects to WordPress 301 will not harm your Google rankings. Previously, after a 301 redirect, you would lose about 18% PageRank. But the rules have now changed. After a 301 redirect, you would lose absolutely 0% PageRank.
We have come to the end. And I hope you found this post useful.
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