Web page links can break for several reasons, and visitors come across a 404 error that says ‘Page NOT found’.
- Typo errors can lead to the wrong page
- Page doesn’t exist currently
- The page is permanently transferred to another link or removed
Experienced marketers and web developers make creative and fun 404 pages. Actually, 404 pages are bad user experiences, and can harm the SEO results. The crawlers identify these negative instances, and your site ranking factor gets affected. It is better to create redirects for the modified or removed URLs.
When your WordPress site is moved to a new domain, then you will need to do a WP redirect. Make sure that you take a proper WordPress backup before migrating the site, or moving the web pages.
What are WordPress redirects, and their impact on SEO?
A WordPress redirect helps you to transport your old URL visitors to a new one. Redirects are set for the following reasons.
- Some pages are inactive
- The webpage needs instant updates/repairs
- Maintain SEO rankings by telling crawlers about your destination URL. It is crucial for indexing as well as transfer the link juice to the new domain
If redirect gets overlooked, your site visitors hit the frustrating 404 error page. They leave never to return. Similarly, search engines have no information on which page to return or search the query. Therefore, you must get to know how to redirect WordPress website, in order to maintain your SEO footprint and deliver the best user experiences.
Different kinds of redirects
- 301 redirects – When there is a permanent modification of the URL, the search bots and visitors are redirected to the new one. Moreover, the ranking power [90%] also gets transferred to the new URL.
- 302 redirects – It informs that the page location is moved temporarily.
- 303 redirects – It tells the visitors and the server having page data can never be bookmarked or refreshed. It is for one-time use like payment forms.
- 307 redirects – Same as above.
- 308 redirects – Similar to 307 but with permanent status.
The plugin WP 301 redirect can help in several ways –
- Enhance user experience
- Clean untidy site framework
- Address old content problems
- Preserve SEO ranking & link diversity
When to use the WP 301 redirect plugin?
When a page is being modified or moved to a permanently new URL, the 301 code informs the search engines of this new status. From an SEO viewpoint, it assures that you will not lose any PageRank, inbound links and other relevant search engine data, even when the URL gets modified.
You can use .htaccess to apply the redirects, but it needs a lot of programming and technical knowledge. Fortunately, WP 301 redirect plugin installation is the easiest way to create redirects.
There is hardly any need for coding knowledge. The plugin tool allows adding and managing redirects on your WP site. You can even keep a check of 404 error pages, which needs fixing. Maintain your hard-earned backlinks and SEO efforts by setting WP redirects!
