Have you ever clicked on a link of your website and ended up on a page that says 404 Not Found? Or have you ever changed your site’s URL and lost all your traffic and rankings? If you have, then you know how frustrating and damaging it can be for your site and your visitors.
That’s why you need to use WordPress redirects. WordPress redirects are a way of telling your visitors and search engines that a page has moved to a new location, and sending them there automatically. This way, you can avoid broken links, improve SEO, update your site structure, or redirect traffic to a different site or page.
But how do you create and manage WordPress redirects? Well, you could do it manually by editing your .htaccess file or using PHP code, but that’s not very easy or convenient. Plus, you could mess up your site if you make a mistake and trust me, I have been there.
That’s why you need a WordPress redirect plugin that lets you create and manage WordPress redirects from your WordPress dashboard, without touching any code or your server.
Benefits of Using Plugins for WordPress Redirects
Using plugin for WordPress redirects gave you various benefits, such as:
- Ease of use: You can create and manage redirects with just a few clicks, without any technical skills or knowledge.
- Flexibility: You can choose from different types of redirects, such as 301 (permanent), 302 (temporary), 307 (temporary), or 404 (not found), and many more depending on your needs and goals.
- Performance: You can optimize your site speed and performance by reducing the number of redirects and avoiding redirect loops or chains since everything is in dashboard( In code you can forgot about how many redirects you created ).
- Analytics: You can monitor and track your redirects and see how they affect your site traffic, SEO, and conversions in a user friendly plugin interface.
So in this article, I am going to show you some of the best WordPress redirect plugins. But before I show you different redirection plugins, you should have to be familiar with two things: installing and activating the plugin and how to use them.
So let me give you a quick overview on this since many of you will know about the installation process and managing redirects in each plugin and are here on this guide just for checking which one is the best plugin for managing redirects in WordPress.
Installing and Activating a WordPress Redirect Plugin
Installing and activating a WordPress redirect plugin is super easy and simple. You can do it in two ways: either from your WordPress dashboard or manually. I will recommend the first way, because it’s faster and safer and here is how you do it:
- Go to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New.
- Search for the WordPress redirect plugin that you want to use.
- Click on the Install Now button next to the plugin.
- After the installation is complete, click on the Activate button to activate the plugin.
That’s it! You have successfully installed and activated a WordPress redirect plugin. Easy, right?
If you want to install and activate a WordPress redirect plugin manually, you can do it by downloading the plugin file from the WordPress plugin directory or the plugin’s official website, and then uploading it to your WordPress site in the plugins section.
Creating and Managing Redirects in a Redirect Plugin
Now that you have installed and activated a WordPress redirect plugin, you can start creating and managing redirects using this plugin. The exact steps may vary depending on the plugin that you are using, but the general process is similar. Here’s how you do it:
To create and manage redirects with a WordPress plugin, follow these steps:
- Go to the plugin’s settings page in your dashboard.
- Click on Add New or Add Redirect to create a new redirect.
- Enter the source and target URLs and choose the redirect type (e.g., 301, 302, 307, 410, etc.).
- Optionally, add some conditions or rules to your redirect (e.g., login status, browser, IP address, etc.).
- Save your redirect and repeat for more redirects as needed.
- View, edit, delete, or export your redirects and monitor their hits on the plugin’s settings page.
Best WordPress Redirect Plugins for Your WordPress Site
Now you know how to create and manage redirects with a WordPress plugin, but which plugin should you use? There are many WordPress redirect plugins available, but not all of them are equally good.
Some are more user-friendly, some are more powerful, some are more lightweight, and some are more compatible. So to help you choose the best WordPress redirect plugin for your site, I have tested and compared several WordPress redirect plugins and compiled a list of some of the most popular and reliable ones, and here are my top picks:
1) Redirection
Pricing:
Redirection is a free plugin that you can download from the WordPress plugin directory or install it directly from your WordPress dashboard. It has no hidden costs or premium features, and it is compatible with PHP from 5.6 to the current version, its average rating is 4.4 out of 5 stars.
Features:
The redirection plugin has many features that make it the most popular redirect manager for WordPress. Some of the main features are:
- Redirect any URL with full support for regular expressions and query parameters. You can create conditional redirects based on login status, browser, referrer, cookies, HTTP headers, IP address, server, page type, and custom filters.
- Monitor and fix 404 errors and track all redirects occurring on your site. You can view detailed logs of each redirect and error, and filter them by date, source, target, and status.
- Add HTTP headers to redirects or your entire site to improve security and performance. You can set headers such as cache-control, content-type, X-Robots-Tag, and more.
- Migrate permalinks and export redirects to Apache or Nginx files. You can easily change your site’s permalink structure and import or export your redirects to other formats.
- Work with translation plugins (WPML, Polylang) that use lang prefix in URL.
Summary:
Redirection is a trusted and well supported plugin that has been a WordPress plugin for over 10 years. It can help you optimize your site for SEO and user experience in terms of redirects. It is the top choice for our list because it includes everything you need to create and manage redirects on your WordPress site.
Note: Before managing redirects you should backup your site for safety purpose.
2) Safe Redirect Manager
Pricing:
You can get Safe Redirect Manager for free from the WordPress plugin directory, and it works with WordPress version 4.6 or higher, it has an average rating of 4.7 out 5.
Features:
Safe Redirect Manager is a simple and reliable plugin that lets you easily and safely manage your site’s redirects. With this plugin you can:
- Redirect any URL with full support for regular expressions and query parameters. You can pick from different HTTP status codes for your redirects, such as 302 (temporarily moved) or 301 (permanently moved) for most cases, or other codes if needed.
- Store redirects as Custom Post Types, this makes your data portable and your website scalable. You can also view and edit your redirects in the WordPress admin panel.
- Set up redirects within the post itself, no need to go to the plugin’s settings. This can save you time and hassle when you want to redirect a specific page or post to a new URL.
- Handle heavy traffic and avoid performance issues. The plugin is designed to work on major publishing websites and can handle thousands of redirects without slowing down your site. It also uses the Transients API to cache your redirects and prevent serving stale redirects.
Summary:
Safe Redirect Manager is a free and lightweight plugin that has everything you need to create and manage redirects on your WordPress site. It can help you avoid broken links, improve your site’s SEO, and enhance your site’s functionality. It is a good choice for our list because it has a user-friendly and developer-friendly interface.
3) Rank Math SEO
Pricing:
Rank Math SEO has free and pro versions but the redirection is free feature in it, it has average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars.
Features:
Rank Math is not just a redirect plugin, but a complete SEO solution for any WordPress site. But since the redirection features are the focus of this article, let me insights for this plugin:
- It allows you creating any type of redirect, such as 301, 302, 307, 410, 404, and 451, and setting conditions for them, such as login status, referrer, user agent, custom fields, and more. This gives full control over how and when the redirects are applied.
- It makes it easy to import and export redirects from other plugins or formats. This is useful for migrating redirects from one site to another, or for backing up redirects in case something goes wrong.
- It helps to monitor and fix 404 errors and broken links, showing a list of all 404 errors occurring on the site and can redirect them to appropriate pages. It also enables automatic redirection of 404 errors to the homepage or a custom URL. This can improve the site’s SEO and user experience by preventing the visitors from encountering dead ends.
- You can easily see redirection data in WordPress Dashboard by going to Dashboard > Rank Math > Redirections.
Summary:
Rank Math is a very powerful and versatile plugin that can help with redirects and much more. It is a great choice for our list because it offers a comprehensive solution for any WordPress site and I personally use it as well( for my needs if you have other specific needs you have the list of other best redirect plugins ), I would have placed this plugin in top of the list but since we are only taking about best redirection plugin and not a complete SEO package plugin.
4) All in One SEO – WordPress SEO Plugin & Toolkit
Pricing:
All in One SEO has a free and a pro version with more features but the redirection features come in free version. It has an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars.
Features:
All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin and toolkit. It has all the features you need to fully optimize your WordPress site. One of the features that makes All in One SEO stand out is the Redirection Manager feature in it through which you can:
- Set up WordPress redirects automatically and avoid 404 errors and dead ends.
- Choose from different redirect types and HTTP statuses, such as 301 (permanent), 302 (found), 307 (temporary), and more.
- Relocate your entire site to another domain with ease.
- Link a second domain or a subdomain to your existing site by adding a site alias.
- Easily force an HTTPS redirection and add or remove www from your site URL.
- Keep track of all 404 errors and fix them in a matter of clicks.
- Easily import redirects from any other WordPress redirection plugins.
- Comply with GDPR laws by disabling or anonymizing IP logging.
- Manage redirects from inside any page or post to add temporary redirects.
- Redirect attachments to parent post.
- Automatically redirect old URLs when you change permalinks, slugs or deleted posts or pages.
Summary:
All in One SEO is a comprehensive WordPress SEO plugin but it also offers a simple and effective solution for your redirects. It can improve your site’s SEO and user experience.
5) Redirect-Redirection
Pricing:
This is another redirection plugin its name is similar to the one I showed you as first plugin, it’s also a free plugin and has average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars, which shows how useful it is.
Features:
Redirection is a powerful and easy to use plugin that lets you create and manage redirects for your WordPress site. With this you can:
- Create specific URL redirections and redirection rules in a few clicks with a beautiful user-friendly interface.
- You can Set up conditional redirections based on various criteria, such as user role, referrer, cookie, IP, language, and more
- You can pick from different redirect types, such as 301 (permanent), 302 (temporary), 303, 304, 307, and 308.
- View and edit all your redirects in one place ( in plugin settings area )
- Organize, filter, search, edit and delete multiple redirects at once.
- Track and fix the 404 errors on your site and fix them with one click.
- You can also see how often your redirects are used and where they come from.
Summary:
This plugin comes fifth on my list, but its very useful URL redirecting plugin, its not very popular like others but has beautiful user-friendly interface which I hope you would definitely like.
6) 301 Redirects – Easy Redirect Manager
Pricing
EPS 301 Redirects has a free and a pro version with more features, It has an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars.
Features
301 – EPS Redirects is a simple and lightweight plugin that lets you create and manage 301, 302 and 307 redirects for your WordPress site. With EPS 301 Redirects, you can:
- Redirect any URL with full support for regular expressions and query parameters (Only in Pro version)
- Choose from different redirect types, such as 301 (permanent), 302 (temporary), 307 (temporary)
- See and edit all your redirects in one place.
- Organize, filter, search, and edit multiple redirects at once.
- Keep the query strings in the original URL when redirecting.
- Fast and smooth redirection.
- Track and fix the 404 errors on your site and can view it on your WordPress Dashbaord.
- Import and export your redirects for backup or migration.
- See how often your redirects are used
- Work with translation plugins (Weglot, TranslatePress, Gtranslate, Loco Translate) that use lang prefix in URL.
Summary:
EPS 301 Redirects is a reliable easy to use and light-weight( since its only managing basic WordPress redirects ) plugin that can help you create and manage 301, 302 and 307 redirects for your WordPress site.
It can help you improve your site’s SEO and user experience in terms of redirects. It is a good choice for our list because it offers a simple and effective solution for your WordPress site. It has full documentation available [here].
7) Simple 301 Redirects by BetterLinks
Pricing
It’s a free plugin and has a rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars.
Features
Simple 301 Redirects by BetterLinks is a plugin that helps you create and manage 301 redirects for your WordPress site. It is especially useful when you migrate a site to WordPress and can’t preserve your URL structure. With this plugin, you can:
- Redirect any URL to another page on your site or elsewhere on the web.
- Works great on eCommerce, blog, magazine, small business and any others websites
- Or, set a custom destination URL for your redirects.
- Import and export your redirects for backup or migration.
- Use wildcards to redirect all files within a directory to the same filename in the redirected directory.
Summary:
It’s a good redirect plugin for small sites, you have read its features I hope you can better compare it with others depending on your needs and preferences.
8) SEO Redirection Plugin – 301 Redirect Manager
Pricing:
SEO Redirection Plugin is a free plugin, It has a rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars. There is also a pro version with more features that you can purchase from the plugin’s website.
Features:
SEO Redirection Plugin is a powerful redirect manager that lets you create and manage 301 redirects for your WordPress site. It is useful if you want to migrate pages from an old website or change the directory of your WordPress site. With SEO Redirection Plugin, you can:
- Free version features:
- Manually add 301, 302, and 307 redirections for a WordPress post
- Supports wild card redirection
- Import and export redirects from other plugins or formats
- Automatically add a 301 redirection when a post’s URL changes
- Redirect posts and pages that are published, draft or deleted from their edit page directly
- See and edit all your redirects in one place
- Track and fix the 404 errors on your site
- See the 404 errors on your dashboard
- See how often your redirects are used
- Comply with GDPR laws by disabling or anonymizing IP logging
- Manage redirects from inside any page or post
- Redirect attachments to parent post
- Force HTTPS for your site
- Automatically redirect old URLs when you change permalinks, slugs or delete posts or pages
- Pro version features (in addition to the free version features):
- Fix crawl errors (404 and soft 404) in Google Search Console
- Redirect folders and all their content
- Use regular expressions in redirections
- Reflect changes to all links when you move your site or change the domain name
- Redirect based on login status, referrer, user agent, custom fields, and more
- Work with translation plugins (WPML, Polylang) that use lang prefix in URL
Summary:
It’s a reliable plugin that can help you create and manage redirects for your WordPress site. It has many redirect features in it( some in Free, some in Pro ). This plugin stands 8th on our list although it has many features but its not very popular yet and there are other popular plugins available which people love to use( I showed them too that are in top ).
9) Yoast SEO
Pricing:
Yoast SEO is used for SEO purpose and its free features include only for SEO part of it, so redirecting feature is paid. it has 4.9 out of 5 stars.
Features:
Yoast SEO is the top most popular WordPress SEO plugin, It has all the features you need to fully optimize your WordPress site and rank higher in search engines. It’s feature includes redirecting URLs with Redirect Manager addon but it come in Pro version. Here ais what you can do with it:
Pro version features:
- Automatically create redirects when you move or delete posts or pages.
- Search, filter, and manage redirects from your WordPress dashboard.
- Import and export redirects using CSV files.
- Use regular expressions to create redirect rules.
- Redirect based on login status, user role, browser, referrer, and more.
- Work with translation plugins.
Summary:
This plugin is the last one on our list because it does not offer redirections in the free version. However, if you are willing to pay for the pro version, will find it out best in terms of redirection.
FAQ( Best Redirect Plugins For WordPress )
Here are answers for some of the common question people ask for on this topic:
How do I choose the best redirect plugin for my WordPress site?
You should consider factors such as ease of use( User-friendliness ), compatibility with your WordPress version, support and documentation, performance impact on your site, and the specific features offered (e.g., 301 and 302 redirects, wildcard redirects, import/export functionality).
Are there free redirect plugins available for WordPress?
Yes, many redirect plugins for WordPress offer free versions with basic functionality. Some popular ones include Redirection, Safe Redirect Manager, Rank Math, All in One SEO and Simple 301 Redirects. However, premium versions often provide advanced features and premium support.
What are 301 and 302 redirects, and why are they important?
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect, indicating that a page has moved permanently to another location while a 302 redirect is a temporary redirect. Both are important for SEO as they ensure that search engines understand the changes to your site’s structure and either to transfer the existing page’s ranking to the new page or not once a specific redirection type is applied.
Do redirect plugins affect website speed?
The impact of redirection plugins on website speed can vary, but a well-coded redirect plugin should have a negligible effect on performance, so It’s important to choose a reputable plugin and avoid excessive or unnecessary redirects.
Can I use multiple redirect plugins on my WordPress site?
It is not recommended to use multiple redirect plugins, as they may conflict with each other. Choose one reliable plugin that meets your requirements and stick with it to avoid compatibility and conflict issues.
Does WordPress have built-in settings for redirects?
WordPress itself does not provide built-in features for managing redirects so you have to install plugin for managing redirects.
Conclusion Talk
WordPress redirects are very important for your site, and you need to have a WordPress redirect plugin that can help you create and manage redirects in WordPress easily and effectively. In this article, I have shown you the best WordPress redirect plugins.
I have provided a detailed overview of each plugin specifying there features to make it very easy for you picking the right plugin for your needs. I have myself tested each plugin and all of them are very easy to manage.
There are other plugins too like : 404 to 301, 404 solution, Simple WordPress redirect, Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin, etc. But you should know that this guide is not for showing all redirect plugins but the best ones whom people love to use, having many redirecting features and are popular among WordPress developers.
I hope this article has helped you choose the best plugin for redirecting URLs on your site. You can try out these plugins and see how they work for you. If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to share them in the comments section below.
I know this is super important topic so you may have some question in your mind. I will make sure to respond to you as soon as possible. Thank you for reading😊
