Your website is always developing, with newer, better material being added to replace older pieces. When eliminating old material, however, it can be difficult to avoid 404 errors and keep your page ranks.

This is where the concept of redirection comes into play. When visitors try to access posts you’ve moved or removed, this method redirects them to your fresh, live material, eliminating 404 errors. They also aid in the transmission of your former page rank to your new content. When it comes to WordPress, the process is quite simple. People pay tons of money to WordPress Development Agencies to sort the redirects. When in reality it can be done on your own.

We’ll go through the importance of redirects and how to set them up in this article. Then we’ll go over some best practices and pointers to help you make the most of yours. Let’s get this party started!

Why Redirects are Important for your WordPress Website?

When implemented appropriately, redirects can be quite advantageous to your website. Because the internet is always changing, your site’s content and structure may need to change as well.

When visitors try to view a page at its previous address after it has been deleted or moved to a new URL, they will receive a 404 error:

Even minor flaws like these might make your site appear unprofessional and cause visitors to become confused. Users will have a tougher time navigating your site if there are broken links.

It’s similar to changing your mailing address at the post office when it comes to WordPress redirection. When a visitor types a redirected page’s URL into their browser, they are redirected to the page’s new URL. The same thing happens if they click on a link to the old URL; they’ll be automatically redirected to the new one.

Furthermore, redirecting might convey the SEO benefits of your old page to your new content. This is especially critical if you want to keep the authority that backlinks give your site.

Redirects are divided into three categories. The most common type of redirect is a 301 redirect, which indicates that the page has moved permanently. A 302 redirect informs browsers that the page was discovered somewhere other than the one provided, and is typically used for temporary redirection. If you plan to return to the previous URL in the future, you can also use a 307 redirect for temporary migrations.

In your .htaccess file, you can manually configure up redirects. Using a WordPress plugin like Redirection, on the other hand, maybe more convenient. It allows you to quickly enter the old page’s URL and the new page’s address.

6 WordPress redirection tips and best practices

When you first start using WordPress redirection, it may appear simple, but there are many things that may go wrong. Knowing some best practices can assist you in properly setting them up. Here are six pointers to help you get started.

Use 301 redirects (most of the time)

There are several types of redirects that you can employ on your website, as previously indicated. If you employ the wrong one, your website’s SEO will suffer. Fortunately, remembering which type to use is simply because the response is nearly always a 301 redirect.

Permanent page moves are indicated by 301 redirects. When search engines see these redirects, they know that the old page’s SEO value should be transferred to the new one. This can help you maintain your search engine ranking.

After a set length of time, search engines will de-index the original URL given by a 301 redirect. Instead of being routed to your new page from the old one, visitors will see and click on the listing for it.

Your visitor will still be directed to the correct page if you use 302 or 307 redirects. Search engines, on the other hand, will see the change as transitory. As a result, the original URL’s SEO value is preserved. You’ll have to start over with your modified content optimization.

In addition, the old page will continue to be indexed. If search engines index duplicate content, you may find yourself fighting for a higher ranking on results pages.

Redirect to relevant pages

When you delete or transfer material, redirects are used to avoid 404 errors. While this is vital, it isn’t beneficial if visitors are directed to a page that isn’t relevant to them. This will raise your bounce rate and have a negative effect on your SEO.

Consider the case of a dog accessory e-commerce website. If you stop selling a certain sort of leash and don’t plan to sell it again, you’ll probably delete its product page from your website.

It’s not helpful to send customers looking for the deleted product to a page about dog bowls. They’re seeking leashes, so they’ll most likely leave. Instead, direct them to another leash that they might be interested in. This notion can be applied to any sort of content.

Make Sure that your redirects work

After you’ve set up a redirect, double-check that it’s working properly. A 404 error could occur from something as simple as a misspelling in your target URL, undermining the point of the redirect in the first place.

Simply type your old URL into your web browser to see if your redirect is working. You should now be on the correct landing page. If this isn’t the case, check your .htaccess file or the Redirection plugin for errors.

Try to Avoid redirect chains

You’ll probably have more redirection as your website expands. This might result in redirect chains, which happen when users are forwarded from URL A to URL B, but URL B redirects them to URL C.

While this may not appear to be a problem, each new redirect adds a request to your server, slowing down your page’s performance. This may have a detrimental influence on your SEO. Furthermore, if your website takes too long to load, visitors may abandon it.

Keep all redirects neat and tidy

Redirect chains aren’t the only problem that a huge website can have. As the number of redirects grows, it can become difficult to keep track of them all. This will also make tracking any redirect chains and removing old redirects more difficult (as we’ll see shortly).

Keeping your redirects neat and tidy using the Redirection plugin is simple enough with some basic housekeeping. Sorting them into groups is the simplest approach to manage them. When you categorise your redirects, you may quickly click to the appropriate group whenever you need to find or handle a certain redirect.

Remove old 301 redirects

301 redirects should be removed from your website after a certain period of time. As search engine results, links, and other references to the former URL become updated with the page’s new address, you should be able to remove them over time.

Before looking at your past 301 redirects, Google’s John Mu recommends waiting at least a year. You can now see if the old URL is still receiving traffic. If there is no traffic to the previous URL, the 301 redirects can be removed. However, if there is traffic, you must leave it alone, otherwise, you risk SEO issues.

Using the Redirection plugin, you can easily delete an outdated 301 redirect. All you have to do now is locate it in the list and select Delete. You’ll need to remove the required code from your .htaccess file if you manually added your redirects. This should be done with caution to avoid accidentally deleting the wrong one.

Final Takeaway

Redirects are essential for ensuring that your visitors see the material they seek. They help you offer live content instead of 404 errors, providing a better User Experience (UX) while maintaining your page rank when used correctly.