WordPress Redirects is a fast message your website is sending to visitors letting them know that the desired post or page has been moved to another location. The browser they use will redirect them to a new page automatically. There are many different redirects, but 301 belongs to the most important ones.
In WordPress, 301 points users’ attention to a new web address when an old page has changed location. It happens, for example, in the case when you want to replace some old content with the new one, or you want to delete the old content completely. Such an action may cause loosing of visitors, readers, or potential customers if you do not think in advance and create a redirect in favor of new content.
Permalinks linked to the content are supposed not to be changed, but if you have to change them for whatever reason, you should avoid your users to see ‘404 page not found’ on the screen. This can lead them to search for information or product on other websites which is exactly what must not happen.
There is one problem more – 404 can affect your website’s SEO and heart your rankings in some other way which is later hard to correct. 301 redirects are in charge of preventing SEO issues, and therefore they are of utmost importance. By using them properly, you preserve the quality of your site and its content. Search engines and user’s browsers know exactly where to find the missing post or page. Consequently, it means that thanks to 301 redirects permanent change of location does not mean any loss of the content.
All the traffic and SEO related to the old URL will be transferred to the new one. There are different methods available to create 301 redirects, but none of them is as simple to conduct as that of the 301 Redirect plugin for WordPress.
Create Redirects without a Single Code Line
301 Redirects allows you to set up wished redirects per under your needs and preferences without having any special coding skills. Not a single line of code has been needed. As the name suggests, this plugin redirects posts and pages, but it does it in a fast and simple way. This user-friendly plugin can be installed from the WordPress Admin Dashboard.
Some other plugins with similar purposes might have one minor drawback regarding the performance of redirects. They might be a little slower, and you can make them perform faster by modifying the .htaccess file. If you are an expert, this is your field, and do not hesitate to show up your skills, but remember that the smallest mistake in the code can lead to Internal Server Error. The website might become inaccessible. With 301 Redirects this is not the case, but if changing code is still your choice, please backup .htaccess before you change it.
However, there is no need to deal with the webserver configuration file when there is a more convenient way to get to results. Besides redirecting, 301 Redirects is a reliable tool when it comes to repairing links or creating new websites. For that reason, it is mostly used by overhauling or redesigning websites without any risk of traffic drop. Traffic maintenance is a top priority while maintaining the websites or doing any kind of changes on posts and pages.
The same URL structure has been preserved as much as possible, which is of crucial importance since every structural change can impact the traffic. However, if redirecting posts and pages considers changes in structure, the best you can do is to carry out 301 redirects first.
When to Use Redirects?
In the beginning, you are probably not yet aware of how fast your website will grow and become overloaded with content. Sooner than you expect, it will run slower, or it will show some other changes in performance that will require action. Broken links are one of the greatest fears of every website owner, and the users hate them most. Such issues are the red alert to act immediately and fix the problem soonest possible.
Redirecting posts and pages is the right solution in many cases, from the simple ones to those more complicated. You can change your mind regarding the name of the page or post, you can put a different name with a belonging permalink, or you might want to move the content to another directory. If SEO is what concerns you, and you want to add some new keyword in the URL, it is also the change that would require 301 redirects.
These are just a few cases when you are the one who wants to make a change, but there are also situations involving other users. If someone has linked to your post or page and has given the wrong address, you have two options at disposal. The first option is to contact them and ask to change a mistake, but if they are not available, the only one left is to redirect the content to the right URL. The list does not end up here, but it is long enough to show how important redirects are, and 301 Redirects plugin is a reliable and helpful tool in creating them almost effortlessly.
Redirects are not as complicated as they may sound. Contrary to that, users who are non-techs can create them without accessing any files by using 301 Redirects. It is up to date and maintained plugin, and there is no better way to keep your website under control all the time and set it as needed. The plugin re-routes traffic from the requested URL to a different destination in a search engine friendly manner. The basic information it contains is that the requested URL has permanently moved to a new location. In this way, no content will be lost or unavailable to users while on the other side, every click on the old URL will lead imperceptibly to a new permalink. Risk of traffic drop, losing visitors and readers, or the SEO ranking decrease has been excluded.
