Wordpress and Redirects?
-
I want to update my permalinks - actually I want to change the URL's to fit the content and keywords better. I can choose "edit" the URL, but don't I need a redirect? I don't see any htaccess Plugin installed.......is that what I need to be able to change my URL's in Wordpress?
-
Access .htaccess via Cpanel > File Manager (select view hidden files) or use and FTP program. Don;t rely on yoast. Not everyone uses Wordpress or yoast. Also Yoast can break with wp updates.
-
Hi Courtney! Did you see Dan's response to your question?
-
Hi Courtney
It should be under Yoast->Edit Files -- see this screenshot. If it's not there, are you using some sort of special host for WordPress? You're using WordPress.ORG (not .com)?
I agree that its good for you to learn, but .htaccess is something that can take down your site with one misplaced character, so I would be careful if you're going to edit it. Have a friend you can call on who might know how to fix it if something goes awry. Also, you should have FTP access readily available, in case it does break, that's how you're going to get in and fix it.
Certainly not discouraging you from learning it - just be careful and have FTP access in case you need it!
-Dan
-
All great answers guys! Thanks. Still a little confused which way to go, as it seems I have a few options. I already have Yoast installed. Where is the htaccess in wordpress?
I think I need to learn the correct way also as big spin suggests. I have been writing content for over a year, but 301's is something I haven't mastered yet.
-
Highly suggest the idea by Dan... Yoast SEO is the great plugin!
-
I recommend you learn the correct way of 301 redirects as it's handy with other CMS like Joomla or Drupal etc.
Hopefully you're using cpanel. Login to Cpanel, go to redirects tab. Create the redirect. When using Wordpress, you won't see any changes. Go back to Cpanel home and login to File Manager. Ensure to select view hidden files.
In File Manger select edit code .htacccess.
From here you will see the redirect code thnat you created in Cpanel a moment ago at the bottom. Cut and Paste this and move
It will look like this:
BEGIN WordPress
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule>END WordPress
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomain.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.yourdomain.com$
RewriteRule ^sample-page/$ "http://www.yourdomain.com/" [R=301,L]You now need to move the rewrite so it appears above #BEGIN WordPress, like below. Presto. 301s work. You don;t need to worry about plugins breaking etc.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomain.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.yourdomain.com$
RewriteRule ^sample-page/$ "http://www.yourdomain.com/" [R=301,L]BEGIN WordPress
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule>END WordPress
-
Try this plugin : http://wordpress.org/plugins/change-permalink-helper/
I have had good success with it . As with any plugins test it out after you deploy .. there might be conflicts with other plugins or with the theme you are using
-
Thanks for that! Just want to add for Courtney - if she uses Yoast SEO plugin, you can also edit .htaccess right in wordpress without having to FTP.
-
I agree John this is the most user friendly way to do the redirects. The only thing I would add is - shut OFF the features which automatically adds redirects when you change URLs. It sounds like a nice feature, but it can get confusing because I found it to do them automatically a little too aggressively. Best to use the plugin but keep it on manual.
-
I think you could use a redirect plugin for this, for example this one here. This way you don't have to manually edit .htaccess. Just make sure the resulting URLs are using 301 redirects. It looks like there are a lot of plugins for this, so try a few out and see which you like the best!
As you change your URLs, keep track of the old and new URL mappings, and add those redirects to the plugin.
-
Hello,
Yes, if your pages are indexed and you want to change the URLs then a 301 redirect is your best bet. Edit the URL on the page or post you are looking to edit. Then add the redirect to the .htaccess file. You may need to create one to add to the root directory of your wordpress install. The general .htaccess file looks like this.
BEGIN WordPress
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
END WordPress
Just add in the redirect to the end of this file. It could look something like..
redirect 301 /old-page http://www.something.com/new-page
Then you should be all set.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
301 Redirect Expert
I have hired two website people from odesk and had bad experience in 301 redirects. One never got it done and the other cause my website to crash on a 500 error code, he load all the redirects in a script on .htaccess on my wordpress site on godaddy, there were 1400 redirect.Can somebody recommend a expert for my redirect problem.
Technical SEO | | tjacquet0 -
What's with the redirects?
Hi there,
Technical SEO | | HeadStud
I have a strange issue where pages are redirecting to the homepage.Let me explain - my website is http://thedj.com.au Now when I type in www.thedj.com.au/payments it redirects to https://thedj.com.au (even though it should be going to the page https://thedj.com.au/payments). Any idea why this is and how to fix? My htaccess file is below: BEGIN HTTPS Redirection Plugin <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^home.htm$ https://thedj.com.au/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^photos.htm$ http://photos.thedj.com.au/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^contacts.htm$ https://thedj.com.au/contact-us/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^booking.htm$ https://thedj.com.au/book-dj/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^downloads.htm$ https://thedj.com.au/downloads/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^payonline.htm$ https://thedj.com.au/payments/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^price.htm$ https://thedj.com.au/pricing/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^questions.htm$ https://thedj.com.au/faq/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^links.htm$ https://thedj.com.au/links/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^thankyous/index.htm$ https://thedj.com.au/testimonials/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://thedj.com.au/ [L,R=301]</ifmodule> END HTTPS Redirection Plugin BEGIN WordPress <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule> END WordPress RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mrdj.net.au$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.mrdj.net.au$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "https://thedj.com.au/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mrdj.com.au$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.mrdj.com.au$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "https://thedj.com.au/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^thedjs.com.au$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.thedjs.com.au$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "https://thedj.com.au/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^theperthweddingdjs.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.theperthweddingdjs.com$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "https://thedj.com.au/" [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^thedjs.net.au$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.thedjs.net.au$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "https://thedj.com.au" [R=301,L]0 -
301 redirect homepage question
Hi If i have a homepage which is available at both www.homepage.com and www.homepage.com// should i 301 the // version to the first version. Im curious as to whether slashes are taking into consideration Thanks in advance
Technical SEO | | TheZenAgency0 -
Redirect Question
We have a client that just did a redesign and development and the new design didn't really match their current structure. They said they didn't want to worry about matching site structure and never put any effort into SEO. Here is the situation: They had a blog located on a subdomain such as blog.domain.com - now there blog is located like domain.com/blog They want to create redirects for all the old the blog urls that used to be on the subdomain and not point to the domain.com/blog/post-name What is the best way of doing that - Through .htaccess?
Technical SEO | | Beardo0 -
Temporary redirects
why is wordpress creating redirects from trackbacks and what can i do about it? according to seomoz i have several of these kinds of temporary redirects: http://redlandsorthodontics.com/about-us-2/meet-the-staff/redlands-orthodontics/trackback/ redirects to http://redlandsorthodontics.com/about-us-2 what are trackbacks anyway since i didn't purposely create them?
Technical SEO | | dad7more0 -
301 redirects and Dynamic URLs
I just ran my first diagnostic and one of my primary immediate problems are duplicate titles and duplicate content. My guess it that because the root URL http://sitename.com (which has not yet been redirected to www...) has generated an entire tree of content which is identical to the tree rooted at http://www.sitename.com. QUESTION: Do I need to do a redirect simply for the root url (sitename.com -> www.sitename.com) or do I now need to develop specific 301 redirects for each of the sub-nodes/pages? ie sitename.com/?q=about-us -> www.sitename.com/?q=about-us sitename.com/?q=our-team -> www.sitename.com/?q=our-team etc.
Technical SEO | | Barrycliff680 -
How can i redirect a url that has % in it?
Google webmaster tools shows a 400 eroor for an old link that contains a 30% off in it. The problem is the % I would like to 301 redirect this link : http://www.geographics.com/Graduation-Stationery,-35%-OFF-Printable-Certificates-Blank-Gift-Certificates/c1353_1354_1359/index.html to http://www.geographics.com/Graduation-Stationery-Printable-Certificates-Blank-Gift-Certificates/c1353_1354_1359/index.html We do not know how to do this in httaccess. Can you please advise? Thanks a lot! Madlena
Technical SEO | | Madlena0