Encountering a "Page Not Found" (404 error) can frustrate users and harm your website’s credibility, leading visitors to abandon your site. Broken links also negatively impact SEO and user experience.
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirection that automatically sends users to a new URL when the original page has moved or been deleted. This ensures that visitors and search engines are directed to the correct content instead of encountering errors.
Using tools like All in One SEO, you can easily set up 301 redirects to prevent broken links, retain backlinks, and maintain keyword rankings. They are particularly useful when changing permalinks, restructuring a website, or removing outdated pages. Proper redirection helps preserve SEO value, improves user experience, and ensures a seamless browsing experience for visitors.
Now, let’s take a look at how you can create 301 redirects in WordPress. We will show you how to do that easily with several WordPress redirect plugins and manually using code.
Video Tutorial
If you prefer written instructions, keep reading!
Method 1: Creating 301 Redirects With AIOSEO Plugin
The simplest way to manage and create 301 redirects is with the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) WordPress plugin. It’s the best SEO plugin for WordPress and is used by over 3 million professionals to improve their site’s SEO.
AIOSEO offers a powerful redirection manager addon that makes it very easy to find broken links on your website and set up 301 redirections to fix them.
First, you need to install and configure the AIOSEO Pro plugin on your website. For more information, please refer to our step-by-step guide on how to set up All in One SEO correctly.
Once the plugin is active, you will need to go to All in One SEO » Redirects in your WordPress dashboard and then click the ‘Activate Redirects’ button
Next, you can click the ‘Settings’ tab and select ‘PHP’ as the Redirect Method.
This is the simplest method for creating redirects and doesn’t require any server-side configuration.
AIOSEO also lets you select the Web Server redirect method. However, it requires configuring Apache or NGINX on your web server. This requires technical knowledge and is not recommended for beginners.
Creating 301 Redirects
Now you are ready to create 301 redirections. To get started, head over to the ‘Redirect’ tab.
First, you need to enter the link you’d like to redirect in the ‘Source URL’ field. After that, you should enter the new destination for the link in the ‘Target URL’ field.
Now make sure that the Redirect Type is ‘301 Moved Permanently,’ and then click the ‘Add Redirect’ button.
If you want to redirect multiple URLs to a new location, then simply click the ‘Add URL’ button under the Source URLs field.
Next, you can scroll down to view the logs of the redirects you have created. It shows the number of people who visited the redirected link under the ‘Hits’ column and a toggle option to enable or disable individual 301 redirects.
Adding 301 Redirects to Fix 404 Errors
AIOSEO can also help you track 404 error pages and fix them.
To turn this option on, you have to scroll down to the ‘Redirect Logs’ section in the Settings tab. Then enable the options for ‘404 Logs’ and ‘Redirect Logs.’
You can also select the time period to keep the logs. We recommend keeping them for a maximum of one month for smooth and fast server performance.
After enabling these options, make sure to click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
You should now see a new ‘404 Logs’ tab appear in the Redirects section. This is where AIOSEO will track and show your broken links and allow you to set up redirections. You will also see the number of visits to the link under ‘Hits’ and the last accessed date and time.
Note: You won’t find any data when you first enable the 404 logs. The plugin only starts to record 404 error pages after the setting is enabled.
Next, click the ‘Add Redirect’ link next to the 404 error URL you’d like to redirect. This is not the button at the bottom.
You will now see options to enter a Target URL and select the Redirect Type from the dropdown menu.
Go ahead and enter your new URL and choose ‘301 Moved Permanently’ as your redirection type. Now you should click the ‘Add Redirect’ button.
AIOSEO will now create a 301 redirect for your broken link. To see if the redirection is working properly, simply visit the old URL to check if you’re taken to the new target destination.
Adding 301 Redirects Directly From a Post or Page
AIOSEO also lets you redirect a published post or page while you are editing it.
If you scroll to the bottom of the page in the WordPress editor, you will find an AIOSEO Settings section. You need to click on the ‘Redirects’ tab.
The source URL has been filled in for you. Simply enter the new URL in the ‘Target URL’ field, and select ‘301 Moved Permanently’ from the Redirect Type drop-down menu.
Also, if you change the permalink of a post while editing, AIOSEO will offer to redirect the old URL to the new one.
Either way, click the ‘Add Redirect’ button, and you are done.
Redirecting Full Websites
If you move your website to a new domain name, then your visitors may encounter broken links, and your site SEO may suffer.
You can use AIOSEO to move your entire website to a new location without losing traffic or search engine rankings. This is a full site 301 redirect.
It’s important that you do this the right way, so we have created a step-by-step beginner’s guide on how to do a full site redirect with WordPress.
Method 2: Creating 301 Redirects With Redirection Plugin
Another way to add and manage redirects in WordPress is with the Redirection plugin.
First, you need to install and activate the plugin. You can follow our detailed guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Note: While setting up 301 redirects using a WordPress plugin is easy, it has some minor performance setbacks. Depending on your WordPress hosting provider, your redirects may be a few microseconds slower than other methods.
If you want to make your redirects as fast as possible, then you can do so by editing your .htaccess file using Method 5 below.
Once activated, visit Tools » Redirection and then click the ‘Start Setup’ button.
Next, you can select options to monitor permalink changes in WordPress and keep a log of all your redirects and 404 errors.
You can simply enable these options and click the ‘Continue Setup’ button.
The plugin will now automatically test the Rest API.
When the status comes back as Good, go ahead and click the ‘Finish Setup’ button
The redirection plugin will perform a few more tasks to complete its setup. When the progress bar reaches 100%, you can click the ‘Continue’ button and then the ‘Ready to Begin’ button.
The plugin is now ready for you to create your 301 redirects. To get started, navigate to the Tools » Redirection section of your WordPress panel. You should look at the ‘Add new redirection’ section at the bottom of the screen.
You will see the basic settings to add a redirection. However, if you click the gear icon, you’ll see more options to choose your redirection type.
Simply enter the Source URL of your old page and add the ‘Target URL’ you want to redirect to. You should also make sure the HTTP code option is set to ‘301 – Moved Permanently.
Once you have entered all the details, go ahead and click the ‘Add Redirect’ button.
Method 3: Creating 301 Redirects With Simple 301 Redirects Plugin
One of the easiest ways to create 301 redirects is with the Simple 301 Redirects plugin. As the name suggests, it makes 301 redirects really simple.
To start, you will have to install and activate the plugin on your website.
After that, you need to visit Settings » 301 Redirects. Here you can enter the old URL in the ‘Request’ field and your target URL in the ‘Destination’ field.
Once you’ve done that, click the ‘Add New’ button to create the 301 redirect. That’s it.
Simple 301 Redirects will begin working immediately.
Method 4: Redirecting Existing Pages With Page Links To Plugin
Sometimes you may want to keep a post in your site’s feed or a page listed a certain way on your site but have the content hosted elsewhere. This is where the Page Links To plugin comes in handy.
Once you install and activate the plugin, it adds a meta box to your WordPress editor. Here you can enter the address of the new location where you want to send your users.
When you press ‘Update’ or ‘Publish,’ WordPress will treat the post or page as normal, but when someone visits it, they will instead be redirected to the custom URL you chose.
For example, you might have a blog where you occasionally create downloadable content, but you want users in your online store site to see certain posts as products. You can use this plugin to do that without risking duplicate content penalties from Google or splitting your user base.