Most WordPress sites end up with broken URLs at some point — after changing a permalink structure, deleting a page that’s still being linked to, renaming slugs, or migrating to a different domain. The URLs that used to work start returning 404 errors, and any SEO value those pages had built up quietly disappears.
A 301 redirect solves this by permanently pointing an old URL to a new one. Visitors and search engines are automatically sent to the right place, and the destination inherits the old URL’s ranking signals. Google’s documentation confirms permanent server-side redirects are the correct mechanism for a URL change. In most sites I work on, redirect management is one of the more neglected areas of SEO maintenance — setting it up properly once, and keeping an eye on it when things change, saves a lot of cleanup work later.
Setting Up the Redirection Plugin
The free Redirection plugin is the most practical choice for managing redirects on most sites — it handles individual redirects, bulk CSV imports, and includes a built-in 404 monitor that logs broken URLs automatically. Install it from Plugins → Add New, search “Redirection,” and run through the setup wizard; the default settings work for most sites with nothing further to configure.
Go to Tools → Redirection, and under the Redirects tab, add a new one: Source URL is the old path starting with a forward slash (e.g. /old-page-name/), Target URL is the full new URL, and Type is set to 301 – Permanent Redirect. Click Add Redirect and it’s active immediately — no cache flush needed from the plugin itself, though a caching plugin may need one cleared separately. For bulk redirects after a site restructure, importing a CSV with source and target columns beats entering dozens by hand — and for a pattern rather than a one-off, Redirection’s Regex toggle on the Source URL field lets a single rule cover a whole family of URLs at once, e.g. redirecting every URL under an old /blog/2024/* date-based archive structure to its flat equivalent, instead of adding one exact-match redirect per post.
Test it by opening the old URL in a browser and confirming it forwards correctly — if it doesn’t, clear browser cache and any caching plugins first, since an apparently broken redirect is almost always a caching issue rather than a configuration one. To verify the actual HTTP status, check the network tab in dev tools: you should see a 301 on the old URL followed by a 200 on the new one. A 302 instead means the type was set wrong — go back into the plugin and correct it.
Redirection’s 404 Errors tab logs every URL returning a 404 on your site — check it after any significant change (a permalink update, a content audit, a migration) and create a redirect directly from any log entry by clicking it and entering a target. This is the most practical way to catch redirects you missed, and it also surfaces broken external links pointing at your site from other domains — links you didn’t know existed but can capture and redirect somewhere useful. For a broader approach, see how to find and fix broken links in WordPress.
What 301 vs 302 Actually Changes
The common claim that a 302 “loses” SEO value compared to a 301 is outdated. Google confirmed back in 2016 — Gary Illyes stated directly that “30x redirects don’t lose PageRank anymore,” and John Mueller has repeated the point many times since — that both 301 and 302 redirects pass ranking signals through equally. Where they genuinely differ is indexing behaviour: a 301 tells Google the new URL is now canonical and the old one should be dropped from the index, while a 302 keeps the old URL indexed and treats the destination as a temporary alternative. Use 301 for anything actually permanent — that’s still the correct signal for a real URL change — and reserve 302 for situations that are genuinely temporary, like a maintenance-page redirect, since the practical difference is about which URL search engines treat as the real one, not how much ranking value survives the move.
Getting Redirects Right the First Time
Redirect to the most relevant destination, never the homepage by default — if a deleted post has a similar replacement, point there; a homepage redirect frustrates a visitor who followed a specific link and signals poor practice to search engines. Avoid redirect chains: if /page-a/ redirects to /page-b/ and /page-b/ redirects to /page-c/, collapse it so /page-a/ goes straight to /page-c/ — chains add latency and dilute the signal at each hop. Set up the redirect before changing a permalink, not after, since a slug change with no redirect means the old URL 404s immediately, even for a few minutes. And review the 404 log monthly on an active site — it’s the easiest way to spot redirect gaps before they’ve been sitting broken for weeks.
Mistakes That Undo the Benefit
Redirecting everything to the homepage. The quickest fix, and the worst outcome — visitors arrive with no idea why, and the signal is dispersed rather than directed anywhere useful. Creating redirect loops — Page A to Page B, Page B back to Page A, or a page redirecting to itself — which the browser eventually flags as an error; check for an existing redirect before adding a new one to a URL that already has one. Not testing after adding a redirect — a typo in the source means it never triggers, a typo in the target sends visitors to another 404, so test immediately after saving, every time.
When a Redirect Isn’t the Right Tool
A 301 is the right call for URL restructures, deleted pages with a relevant replacement, domain migrations, and HTTP-to-HTTPS transitions — anywhere a URL has permanently moved and both visitors and search engines need forwarding. Other situations call for something else: a 404 (Not Found) when content is intentionally removed with no relevant replacement — a well-designed custom 404 page can still guide visitors back in; a 410 (Gone) when you want to explicitly signal permanent removal rather than just “not found”; or a canonical tag when similar or duplicate content exists on multiple URLs and you want to indicate the preferred version without redirecting users at all — see adding canonical URLs in WordPress for that approach.
Set up a redirect every time a URL changes, and do it before the change goes live where possible. The Redirection plugin covers everything most WordPress sites need, and the 404 error log catches anything missed after the fact — handled consistently, redirects turn a common source of SEO and usability problems into a minor, routine task. If you’re working through the broader technical SEO setup for a new site, the step-by-step guide to building a WordPress website covers redirects alongside every other foundational element.
Etienne Basson works with website systems, SEO-driven site architecture, and technical implementation. He writes practical guides on building, structuring, and optimizing websites for long-term growth.