Do you want to know the absolute easiest way to setup bulk 301 redirects in WordPress?
As exciting as a redesign of your website might be, we know how much work it takes behind the scenes to ensure all technical aspects are in place. And especially to make sure your links stay intact to maintain your rankings in search engines.
That’s why it’s crucial to redirect your moved or deleted pages to your new ones, which often includes multiple URLs. So in this post, we’ll show you how to setup bulk 301 redirects in WordPress the easy way. We’ll also cover whether redirects are bad for SEO and how to test your redirects.
Are Redirects Bad For SEO?
Redirects aren’t bad for SEO as long as they are redirected the right way. And the easiest way to ensure this is by using a redirection plugin.
Why?
Because if you’re not an experienced web developer with extensive server knowledge, you may not implement your redirects the right way, which can cause your rankings to drop and make you lose website traffic, backlinks, and conversions.
That said, redirecting your old pages is a must when making any changes to your URLs. And when using a plugin like AIOSEO and its Redirection Manager addon, you don’t have to apply complicated htaccess rules or have server knowledge to create 301 redirects.
It’s as easy as 1-2-3!
Best Way to Bulk Setup 301 Permanent Redirects
With AIOSEO’s Redirection Manager, you can easily manage your 301 redirects, track and monitor 404 errors, and add simple 301 redirects in bulk.
In fact, it comes with everything you need to boost your SEO from one plugin only. Here are a few of AIOSEO’s powerful SEO tools:
- Smart XML Sitemaps — automatically generate an XML sitemap, video sitemap, or news sitemap and notify Google of all your new updates.
- Rich Snippets Schema — add schema markup to your pages and get more clicks and traffic with Google rich snippets.
- Analyze Your Competitors’ SEO — analyze your competitors’ SEO and find out what keywords they’re using to get ahead and gain an edge.
- WooCommerce SEO — easily optimize your product title and meta descriptions and boost rankings for your product pages.
- Advanced Robots Meta SEO Settings — take full control over the instructions you give web crawlers about what folders and files to crawl on your WordPress site.
- …and much more.
Alright, let’s get into the nitty-gritty and begin showing you how to setup bulk 301 redirects in WordPress using AIOSEO’s Redirection Manager. It allows you to easily redirect multiple URLs to the same destination URL.
1. Installing AIOSEO’s Redirection Manager
To get started, you first need to get AIOSEO Pro or Elite license, then download and install the plugin. For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to install All in One SEO.
If you’ve never installed a plugin before, you can check out WPBeginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
2. Enabling Redirects on Your Site
Once you’ve installed AIOSEO, you need to enable redirects on your site. Simply go to Redirects in the All in One SEO menu, and click on the Activate Redirects button.
You’re now ready to start adding your first redirection!
3. Adding New Redirection
Once you’ve activated redirects on your website, a new window will open where you’ll see the Redirects screen, and the Add New Redirection form.
To start adding a new redirect, you need to enter the URL you want to redirect from in the Source URL field.
Note: The URL must be a relative URL, which means that it shouldn’t include the full https://mydomain.com part of your URL. Only the /mydomain.com/ part.
Like in this example:
That was easy peasy, right!?
Now, let’s take a look at how to add multiple redirects. It’s literally the same simple process.
4. Adding Multiple/Bulk Redirects
To add multiple or bulk redirects, you click on the Add URL button, and another Source URL field will be displayed.
Simply repeat this process to add more source URLs until you’re done.
Next, in the Target URL field, you need to enter the URL you want to redirect your website visitors to.
And in this case, the URL can be either a relative URL or an absolute URL.
You can also start typing the title of any post, page or other content on your site, or the slug or ID in the Target URL field and the matching content will show up. And all you need to do is click on the post or page you want to select as your target.
Now, it’s time to choose your redirect type. Simply select the type you want to use in the Redirect Type drop-down.
The 2 most common redirect types are:
- 301 Moved Permanently (Simple 301 Redirects): You should use this option if you want to permanently redirect your old URL because the content has been deleted or moved.
- 307 Temporary Redirect: And you should use this option if you only want to temporarily redirect your old URL.
Then, click on the Add Redirects button to add your redirects.
Once you’ve clicked the button, your redirects will be shown in the Redirects table, and you’re all set!
As simple as that!
5. Testing Your Redirects
After adding your redirects, it’s always good to test a few of them to make sure the redirects are working.
You can check this directly from the Redirects table in AIOSEO’s Redirection Manager. Just hover with the mouse over your redirect link, and the Check Redirect option will appear. Then, simply click on it to check if your redirect is working.
And if they do, you’re good to go!
If they still display a 404 error, you can try deleting your browser cache or visiting your old URLs in an incognito tab.
That’s all for this time!
To learn more about redirects, you can check out our posts on how to how to easily find and fix 404 errors or how to import and export redirects in WordPress.
If you still feel that redirects are complicated, you can also visit our beginner’s guide on how to add 301 redirects in WordPress. It’ll explain what 301 redirects are and show you how to add them step by step.
We hope this helped you understand how to setup bulk 301 redirects in WordPress the easy way. Give these tips a try, and we promise that moving your old pages to your new ones will feel like a walk in the park.
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