Careful planning is vital for making changes to web pages, or for overhauling the overall website structure. Inadequate planning can lead to loss of ranking and traffic. It will have taken you a lot of time and effort to build a successful presence on the internet, so it is necessary to always adhere to the best SEO practice.

When you remove an old web page, or if you modify your permalink structure, or create a new blog post for replacing an old one, you must use proper redirects. It helps to avoid the page-not-found 404 errors from getting flashed, when visitors try to access your old link. WordPress redirect can be created in several ways, but you must first know the basics of redirects.

Redirect basics

The redirects are status codes that tell browsers that URL A is unavailable at the requested link, and is now available at URL B. URL redirection is conducted the same way on any kind of site, be it HTML, Wix, Drupal, or WordPress. Several redirection types are available with different numerical codes. The common ones used are 301 and 302.

• 301 status codes – These are used when URLs or a website structure gets changed permanently. The old sites or URLs link power and ranking gets inherited by the new one.
• 302 redirects – When there is a short-term modification 302 is used temporarily. It can be to fix tiny glitches or site outlay but remember the link equity does not get transferred.

Other status codes are 308.307, 304, 303, and 300. These are used in very special cases, but around 95% of users don’t need it.

Methods to create WP redirects

Using .htaccess

Hypertext access or .htaccess is the most crucial file for a website. You can deny, approve or redirect any site access by using it. You mustn’t make any errors while redirecting. Use an FTP program to gain access to the .htaccess file. Follow the prompts and add the necessary codes. Before re-uploading the .htaccess file on the server, save it as plain text.

Use WP 301 redirect plugin

If you are concerned about editing with .htaccess file, then you can use the WP 301 redirect plugin. Setting up a redirect plugin is quick and easy. Just type the old and new URL in the fields asked and hit the save button. You can even monitor the 404 pages, broken links, and missing URLs.

When your website moves, the structure changes, or links get broken sometimes, due to WP updates. Therefore gaining knowledge about how to set WP redirects is very helpful. It doesn’t matter, which methods you choose both are effective and give you the same end results

Make sure you use 301 redirects only when there is a proper relevancy with the existing pages that you want to do away with. Avoid multiple redirects too reach a destination page, as it can hinder the user experiences and slow down the page loading as well.

Don’t use redirects on pages with negative SEO value or rankings, as they can infect the new destination page too. In such cases, it is better to reset WordPress and start off fresh.