Redirection

Redirection icon
Redirection is the most popular WordPress plugin for managing 301 redirects, tracking 404 errors, and generally tidying up any loose ends your site may have. Use it to create powerful redirects with great user experience, and improve your website’s SEO.
What We Think:
98%
Very highly recommended!

Redirection: A Comprehensive Review

The Redirection plugin is one of the most popular WordPress plugins available. It’s designed to monitor all of the broken links on your website, and to ensure that visitors to your site are never taken to a 404 page. It’s been around since 2008, and currently has over 1 million active installations. It is easy to set up and manage, and it's free to use.

Redirection: Breakdown

Specific URL Redirections

Redirection ensures you never have to worry about lost visitors when they click on a broken or outdated link. It creates a list of all the online URLs on your website, which it monitors constantly. Whenever a 404 error is recorded, you’ll get an email notification so that you can take the necessary action. With Redirection, you can either fix the broken link permanently or redirect it to a different URL. The plugin also enables you to monitor the traffic coming to the broken links, so that you can view the specific pages that visitors are trying to access.

It’s easy to configure the Redirection settings via the Settings page. You can enter up to 500 redirects, and they will be automatically listed on the Redirects page. You can easily add new redirects, delete existing ones, or modify any of the settings. The plugin also supports both the HTTP and HTTPS protocols, making it suitable for both websites and mobile apps.

The plugin can be used for a variety of purposes. You can use it to keep track of 404 errors, to redirect users to different pages, or to improve your website’s SEO. Additionally, you can also use it to track the performance of any campaigns you are running.

Pros of Using Redirection

Redirect and Monitor URLs: The Redirection plugin is great for monitoring and redirecting URLs. It allows you to setup 301 and 302 redirects for specific pages, posts, and archives. You can also set up redirects for HTTP to HTTPS, and also monitor 404 errors. This is very useful as it can help you make sure that visitors aren’t receiving any error messages when they attempt to visit a particular URL.

Organised Redirect Management: The Redirection plugin also helps you manage all your redirects in a very organised manner. It has an easy to use interface where you can quickly and easily set up new redirects, review the logs from any redirects, and also manually define a matching rule for a particular URL. This organisation helps make sure that you’re only redirecting visitors to pages where they should be going.

NGINX Support: Alongside regular Apache support, the Redirection plugin also supports NGINX. This is great for those of you running NGINX servers and it ensures that everything works seamlessly on both platforms.

Regular Updates: The Redirection plugin is regularly updated to ensure that you’re always running the most secure and stable version. This helps keep your redirects efficient, whilst also making sure everything works smoothly with WordPress’s updates.

User Support: If there’s ever an issue with the plugin or you need help setting up a particular redirect, the developers offer fantastic support and are always happy to help. This helps you setup redirects quickly and easily, without the need for any programming or CSS knowledge.

Cons of Using Redirection

Negative Impact on Site Performance: Installing the Redirection WordPress plugin can have a negative impact on the overall performance of your site. The plugin requires additional resources to run, adding a burden to your site and ultimately slowing it down. This can become especially noticeable during peak traffic periods, which could be damaging for user experience.

Reliance on Server Redirection Systems: The Redirection WordPress plugin relies heavily on the server redirection systems. If your server is not properly setup for the redirection system, it can start to cause problems when trying to properly execute redirects. Additionally, if your server isn’t fast, these redirects can take some time to occur, potentially affecting user experience.

Endless Loops: Another issue with the Redirection WordPress plugin is the potential for endless looping of redirects. This occurs when one redirect points to another in a way that causes an indefinite loop. The plugin doesn’t have any true protection from these inevitable redirect loops which can lead to some users getting stuck in them and being unable to access the site successfully.

Errors in the Redirects Table: Since the Redirection WordPress plugin stores all of the redirects in the same table, it can start to become cluttered quickly. This can lead to issues, such as typos and incorrect redirects, which can lead to users getting stuck in broken links or improperly redirected pages that could interrupt user experience.

No Ability to Log Redirects: Another downside to the Redirection WordPress plugin is the inability to log redirects. This means that once a user is redirected, there is no way to track user behavior or analyze traffic when the user is redirected. This kind of information could be extremely beneficial for pinpointing user behavior and making improvements to the overall site performance.

98% Very highly recommended!

In conclusion

The Redirection plugin is an excellent choice for WordPress users who want to keep their website functioning properly. It’s quick and easy to set up and use, and it’s a great way to ensure that visitors never hit a 404 page. Best of all, it’s free to use. With Redirection, you can ensure you are always in control of your website, and that visitors can always find the pages they are looking for.

Plugin Specifications
  • Version: 1.1.8
  • Last Updated: 7 months ago
  • Installs: 40,000+
  • WP Version: 4.6+
  • Tested Until: 6.4.2
  • PHP Version: 5.6 or higher
Use Case Examples
  • Redirecting Remnants of Merged Accounts
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    Using the Redirection WordPress plugin, administrators can easily redirect users from remnants of merged accounts. This ensures that visitors will find the new account without manually searching for it. The plugin allows admins to set up a redirect from old account URLs to the new account’s homepage. This ensures a seamless transition for visitors attempting to access the old account’s data.
  • Creating a Custom 404 Error Page
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  • Redirecting Deleted Posts
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  • Managing Deceased User Accounts
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  • URL Rebranding
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Tags
  • 301
  • 307
  • 404
  • redirect
  • redirection