WordPress is ever-evolving and with new expertise being introduced every day, your site’s content also needs to stay up-to-date and be in the know. You will always have new and better content to replace outdated posts. However, deleting or moving old posts can cause 404 errors and you would not want to hurt your SEO. Therefore, redirection is the option you can rely on. Redirection basically sends your visitors to new and refreshed content when they try to access your old posts and articles that you’ve moved or deleted. Redirects can be very beneficial to your site, but you also need to be mindful while redirecting your links as even a slight misconception can result in negative outcomes. Therefore, we are today listing out some best WordPress Redirection Tips you can try to avoid possible errors.
If you delete an old page or move it to a new URL, your visitors are likely to see a 404 error when they try to access the old URL. The error is harmless, however, it does make your site look less professional and the broken link may also confuse visitors. Therefore, you can use redirection and forward the link to a new URL. Redirection will simply send your visitors to the new link automatically who’re trying to access the old link.
Types of Redirects:
- 301 Redirects: These redirects indicate the URL had been permanently moved.
- 302 Redirects: These redirects are usually used for temporary redirects and indicate that the URL exists at a different location than the one specified.
- 307 Redirects: These redirects can be used if you’re planning to switch back to the old URL address in the future.
With this being said, let’s now have a look at some of the best WordPress Redirection Tips you must try.
Best WordPress Redirection Tips
301 Redirects are reliable
As mentioned above, there are many types of redirects, and choosing the best is an utmost priority. 301 Redirects are reliable and mostly used when choosing redirection types. It indicates a permanent URL change. Also, this doesn’t hurt URL SEO as it passes the SEO value of the old URL to the new one.
Check Relevancy
Since you are forwarding your visitors to a new URL with fresh and updated content, you need to make sure the new URL displays the content related to the old URL. If your visitors don’t get what they’re searching for, they’re most likely to leave your site. Therefore, make sure your new redirect link is relevant to the old URL content.
Check Redirection URL
After you’ve decided what you want to display in your new redirect link, you need to check if the new link works accurately. Even the slightest mistake in the URL can result in a 404 error. Therefore, always check the redirection yourself first and then only further proceed.
Keep your Redirect chains short and tidy
You are likely to have more redirects as it grows and this can lead to redirect chains and confuse you. Redirect chains, for instance, URL 1 to URL 2, URL 2 to URL 3, and more can slow down your website speed. This affects your SEO and visitors may leave your site if it loads slower. For this, you have to search for your target URL and if it is redirecting to another page, you should use the final URL as your target instead.
Remove old 301 Redirects
Over time, you should remove the old 301 Redirects as search engine results, links, and other references to the original URL become updated with the page’s new address. You should check if the old URL is still getting any hits. If there is no audience to the old URL, you can remove the old 301 redirects. However, if it is still getting hits, then you can leave it as it is.
Redirects are a win-win situation for both you and your visitors; your SEO doesn’t get hurt even after moving a URL and your visitors get what they’re searching for. Mindfully making use of redirects is beneficial and provides a better user experience by avoiding 404 errors. So, next time you want to move or delete an old post or page, you can follow these helpful WordPress redirection tips. Quick and easy!
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