Save Your SEO: 6 Best WordPress Redirect Plu…

Setting up redirects to fix broken links and web pages is a quick way to increase your domain authority and Google rankings. What's more, this process becomes quite easy when you use a WordPress redirect plugin to manage your URL redirects. In this article, we'll review the best WordPress redirect plugins for everyone, from beginners to experts. If you think redirects are too technical or complex, keep reading and discover how useful and user-friendly these plugins are for setting up 301 redirects and other types of redirects quickly and easily.

What Is a Redirect?

A redirect tells browsers the new address of a web page when its URL has changed for any reason. Technically, redirects can work in several different ways, but they all redirect browsers from one web address to another. Situations that may require you to use a redirect include:

If you want to move existing content to a new domain (for example, from mysite.com to mynewsite.com).
If you want to change the URL (slug) of a WordPress post or page.
If your URLs are long or complex and you want to shorten them for a better user experience.
If you have multiple domains and want all of them to redirect to the same website.
If you're moving content from http://mysite.com to https://mysite.com.

Why Should You Redirect URLs?

You should redirect URLs because this ensures that users and search engines find your content where it should be. When a visitor tries to access a web page with a non-working URL, they encounter an error message indicating that the page doesn't exist. The most common error is the 404 error. Broken links and 404 errors create a bad impression for search engines and the bots that index your website. When URLs pointing to non-working web pages are indexed, this can negatively affect your site's domain authority and page rankings. Google does not consider users clicking on links that lead to error pages as a good user experience, and may penalize sites with many 404 errors and broken links. If a web page of yours is ranked for a particular search term and you want to maintain that position, you should definitely set up a redirect when you change its URL. If you have backlinks pointing to old URLs, those links appear broken to search bots. This further damages your site's reputation in search engines. Broken links also leave a bad impression on users. If a user encounters a 404 error on your site after a search, they may go to another site and not come back.

How to Choose a Redirect Tool for WordPress?

You have two main options for redirecting your WordPress URLs. First, you can use a redirect management tool built into an SEO plugin. This is probably the best option. If you're managing a business website, you should definitely try an SEO plugin and see how you can improve your search rankings in just a few simple steps. The second option is to use a standalone redirect plugin completely dedicated to this function. If you have very basic redirect needs or are looking for a free redirect plugin, this may be the best option for you. Alright, now let's get to our list of the best WordPress redirect plugins!

1. All in One SEO

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best search engine optimization plugin for WordPress sites. With over 3 million users, AIOSEO is both popular and extremely powerful. AIOSEO checks all the boxes for website optimization:

Unlimited keyword tracking
Advanced SEO for local, e-commerce, and images
On-page SEO analysis and recommendations with TruSEO scoring
Optimizing internal link structure and suggesting new links with the built-in link assistant
Smart schema markup and sitemap generator

In addition to these professional SEO features, the Pro plan of All in One SEO offers a powerful Redirection Manager tool to handle all your redirect operations. The Redirection Manager offers the following features and benefits:

20 different redirect types from 301 to 307 and 503
Automatically redirect users and Google bots from 404 pages
Easily redirect the entire site to a new domain
Track and fix 404 errors with a few clicks
Keep redirect and 404 logs
Export redirect and log files in multiple formats
Import redirects from other redirect plugins
Regex support for bulk redirects

In addition, the developers of the AIOSEO plugin provide great documentation and customer support and continuously update the plugin with new and improved features. For this reason, with AIOSEO's comprehensive redirect tools, we see this plugin as the best value for WordPress users. You get a premium SEO plugin and a complete redirect solution at an affordable price.

2. Redirection

Redirection is a free and simple WordPress plugin for managing redirects and tracking 404 errors. With over 2 million installations on WordPress.org, it is the most popular free redirect plugin. Also, the developer of the Redirection plugin works at Automattic, the company behind WordPress. This means the plugin is regularly updated and compatible with the latest WordPress core software. Although it doesn't have many of the additional features found in other tools, Redirection performs the basic functions most WordPress users need. It sets up and logs 301 permanent redirects, records 404 errors, and can even automatically create a redirect when you change the URL of a page or post. Redirection also has some powerful conditional redirect settings. For example, you can automatically redirect 404 page errors to another page such as the homepage.

3. 301 Redirects

301 Redirects is another WordPress plugin dedicated to redirect management. It offers both free and premium versions. The free 301 Redirects plugin offers the ability to create 301, 302, and 307 redirects in a simple and user-friendly interface. It also offers features such as importing and exporting redirects in CSV format, simple logs, and redirect history. The simplicity of this plugin is a plus, as it keeps the plugin's size small and doesn't slow down your website. The 301 Redirects Pro version offers the following additional features:

Wildcard URL matching
Automatic correction of URL typos
Full redirect and 404 logs
Proactive link checking with the link scanner

Perhaps the most striking feature of 301 Redirects Pro is a SaaS dashboard that lets you monitor and manage redirects for multiple domains and websites.

4. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is another premium SEO plugin for WordPress and offers a range of search engine optimization tools. While there is a free version, you need Yoast SEO Premium to use the Redirect Manager add-on. Yoast's Redirect Manager supports the following basic redirect functions:

Supports the most common redirect types such as 301 (permanent), 302, and 307 (temporary)
Automatic redirect suggestions for deleted posts and pages
Automatically creates a redirect when you change a page's URL
Full site redirect log and editor
Support for regex, Apache, and NGINX redirect configurations

As you can see, Yoast's redirect tools are not as comprehensive as some other tools. It also doesn't include a function for finding 404 errors. You'll need to use another tool for that. However, if you only want to set up and monitor basic redirects and are looking for a top-tier SEO plugin, Yoast SEO Premium may suit your needs.

5. 404 to 301

404 to 301 – Redirect, Log and Notify 404 Errors is a tool that primarily focuses on finding 404 errors and setting up redirects to fix them. This free WordPress redirect plugin detects and logs every 404 error that occurs on your website. It allows you to create a generic redirect or unique redirects for each 404. A few nice features 404 to 301 offers are:

Automatically redirect broken links to a custom 404 page or another page
Find and fix broken URLs with comprehensive 404 error logs
Email notifications for 404 errors so you can fix errors immediately

Finally, 404 to 301 is an open-source project from a small developer. While beginners can easily do basic 404 logging and redirects, more advanced users can customize this plugin as they wish.

6. Safe Redirect Manager

Safe Redirect Manager is another free, open-source redirect plugin that works a bit differently. This plugin is designed to prioritize speed and efficiency, so it doesn't have many fancy features. However, it has powerful, enterprise-grade redirect capabilities. Safe Redirect Manager stores redirects as custom post types, making them easy to manage and export. This redirect plugin simplifies things with a single screen where you create and manage redirect rules. It allows you to create redirects using relative URL paths, regular expressions (regex), and wildcards. Safe Redirect Manager may be more suitable for users with some technical skills. You can create a simple 301 redirect, but that's not the best use of this tool. It's more suitable for creating automated redirects and bulk redirect projects.

Which Is the Best WordPress Redirect Plugin?

Since most WordPress sites need other SEO tools in addition to redirects, we've chosen All in One SEO as the best WordPress redirect plugin. AIOSEO Pro provides you with the flexibility and toolkit of a dedicated redirect manager along with the best SEO tools to optimize the rest of your WordPress site. This integrated solution is a better option for most site owners. It is also more convenient to manage all your SEO functions in one place. That's it, we've reached the end of our list of the best WordPress redirect plugins. Whatever your situation, you should be able to find something on this list to manage your site's redirects. If you liked this article, after redirects you may want to learn how to check the traffic statistics of your WordPress posts and pages.