“Are you striving for how to add 301 redirects to WordPress”? These dandy redirects are SEO friendly.
These redirects are a way through which you can attract more traffic to your website in a number of ways. It is slightly troubling for many of the WordPress website users who are not much familiar.
So, here we are going into the detailed discussion about the 301 redirects.
Firstly we have to be very clear about the concept of redirect. Then it will become easy to understand 301 Redirects.
What is Redirect?
A redirect is an approach of sending search engines and users to a different URL except of that one which are actually requested by them.
Redirects can be divided into three categories. But here we are focusing 301 redirects.
Introduction to 301 Redirect?
It is also known as “permanent redirect”, as it passes 90-99% ranking power to the which is being redirected. It is used for the purpose of SEO. It is considered as a best way of applying redirects to a WordPress website.
Working of 301 redirect:
The basic work of the redirects is to passes traffic from one page to another. For example, consider there are two pages Page A and Page B. If in case of Page A is requested by the user or search engine and if the redirects have been applied then it passes traffic by default to the page B.
So, now it becomes very clear with this simple example that what is the work of 301 redirects. But here we have to consider one more point that is the work of 301 redirects is permanent or temporary. As mentioned above it is known as a permanent redirect.
So,in accordance with its name it is basically doing its work permanently. Means that it is being told by this redirect to search engines and other users that the page is being redirected to other location on a permanent basis.
If you want to maintain the same Google ranking of your new page as that of your old page then using 301 redirects are the best way of doing this. So it will help you to a great extent in managing your SEO task.
The best feature of this redirect is that it does not uses 1:1 page for redirecting purpose. That is it is possible that we can redirect more than one page to a single new page.
Then it will reroute traffic of multiple pages to that one new page.
Some requirements of 301 redirects:
When you want to change your domain name:
It is most required in this instance as your potential customers or the search engines not know that you have changed your domain name. So, it is imperative to use 301 redirects to pass traffic from your old domain to your new domain name otherwise you lose your probable customers.
Centralizing numerous post into one:
It is preferred by most of the SEO analyst who is experts in their stream to use one massive post for the different smaller posts. If you want to do so then it is feasible to use 301 redirects for redirecting those small posts into that one hefty post.
Transiting URL of a single page to another:
This should be the task which has been taken care by WordPress website itself, of redirecting old post URL to new post, we do not need to pay much attention. But in some instances, it may be advisable to do that manually by using 301 redirects.
Maneuvering to SSL/HTTPS on your WordPress website:
If you are adding SSL or HTTPS to your website then by using 301 redirects we have to be sure that all baggy traffic is being sent to website’s SSL version.
Various approaches to add 301 redirects to WordPress Website:
1. By using simple 301 redirects plugin
2. Through wild-card practices
3. Manually by using a .htaccess file
A detailed description of above-mentioned approaches:
1. By using simple 301 redirects plugin:
It is a free plugin which you can use to add 301 redirects(which are not much important). As the name suggests it is much easy and simple to use. Some of the reasons for using this plugin
A. It is easy for beginners who do not have much technical knowledge about WordPress.
B. The process of creating redirects by using this plugin is not much lengthy, you can create redirects instantly even you need not go out of your dashboard area.
C. It also makes it effortless to maintain redirects which already existed.
You just need to follow this simple steps for creating redirects with use of this plugin. At first, you need to search for this plugin then simply install and activate it.
Then navigate to settings->301 redirects option for creating your redirects. But this plugin can only be useful if you want to create simple redirects like creating a redirect from one page to another not for creating the redirect for multiple pages.
2. Through wild-card practices:
Using wild-cards for creating redirects is an advanced option which are used for creating complicated redirects. For example, by using this you can create redirects which is used for redirecting multiple pages to one new page or more related pages.
Wild-cards are usually represented by an asterisk(*). Asterisk which is genearlly used to represent any influential value entered in that part of URL framework. An example is as follows
Request: /tour/*
Destination: /hill-station/
3. Manually by using .htaccess file:
If you want to generate more convoluted redirects then using .htaccess is the best available alternative for this. For example, if you want to reroute traffic to SSL or want to redirect traffic or search engines to an entirely new domain from the old one then for this intent using this is a good option.
If you want to add 301 redirects to your website by .htaccess file then at first you will need o connect to the root folder of your website whether by using cPanel’s File manager tool or FTP(File Transfer Protocol).
Then you have to search for the .htaccess file.
Note: Before doing anything even a small change to your WordPress Website it is good to take backup of your current .htaccess file.
Conclusion:
Hope this blog will be helpful for you in resolving your issue oh how to add 301 redirects to your website.
In my opinion, 301 redirects are one of the best available alternatives for your SEO approaches and proved to be very helpful.