Top WordPress Redirection Plugins

When managing your WordPress website you may find it necessary to redirect visitors from one page to another. While this can be done manually by modifying the .htaccess file, if your site has a large number of redirects you may benefit from using a plugin to manage your WordPress redirections. 

Having an easy-to-navigate site with functioning permalinks can boost SEO and bring even more traffic to your content. In this article we will review some of the most popular redirection WordPress plugins and compare their features. 

Topics Include:

• Why Use a Redirection Plugin?
• Key WordPress Redirection Plugin Features
• Top WordPress Redirection Plugins
  • Redirection
  • 301 Redirects – Easy Redirect Manager
  • All-in-One SEO
  • RankMath
• Finding the Right Plugin

Why Use a Redirection Plugin?

When managing a WordPress site, occasionally it is necessary to redirect visitors from one page to another. This situation commonly arises under the following circumstances: 

• A page or post has been removed or merged with another page or post. 
• The post or page URL (also known as a permalink) has been updated.
• An error is causing a page or post to not display properly and traffic needs to be directed to a temporary landing page. 

Under these conditions, adding a redirect is a simple and reliable way to ensure that your visitors find the right content when clicking on links or following URLs. This can be done manually via the .htaccess file, or you can use a plugin to help you manage them. Manually adding redirects is feasible if you only have a few, but sites with hundreds of redirects will likely benefit from a redirection plugin.

While WordPress redirection plugins primarily focus on providing a convenient way to set up basic 301 redirects, some have additional features such as 404 error management and conditional redirects. There are also popular SEO-centric plugins that even include redirection management as part of their toolset. 

Key Features of WordPress Redirection Plugins

Many WordPress redirection plugins share a number of key features: 

Creation and Management of 301 Redirects

This feature is relatively self-explanatory, it involves the creation of 301 redirects to redirect traffic from one URL to another. This also includes an interface for reviewing, modifying, and deleting existing redirects.  

404 Error Tracking

This feature involves the automatic tracking of 404 errors. A 404 error results when a page at a given URL cannot be found. Having too many 404 errors on your site can be frustrating for users and negatively impact your overall SEO. With the 404 error tracking provided by a redirection plugin, you can easily identify and manage all of the 404 errors present on your site.

Redirected Traffic Logs

This feature involves the logging of how many visitors navigate your site via redirected URLs, to help keep track of how effective your redirections are. If a given redirection is receiving a lot of traffic, you know that it was effective.  

Importing/Exporting Redirects

This feature involves importing and exporting existing redirects between various redirection plugins. This makes moving between plugins easier by allowing you to export your redirects and import them into the new plugin. This prevents you from having to re-add each redirect manually, which can be time consuming for sites with a large number of redirects.  

Top WordPress Redirection Plugins

Redirection

With over 2 million active installations, Redirection ranks as one of the most popular WordPress redirection plugins. In addition to providing an interface to create basic 301 redirects, Redirection has a number of noteworthy features:

• Automatic Permalink Change Detection and Redirection Setup
• Conditional Redirects
• Detailed Logging of Redirected Traffic
• 404 Error Tracking and Management
• Importing/Exporting Redirects  

With this list of features it is easy to see why this free plugin is the highest ranking of the top redirection WordPress plugins. 

While the other entries in this article all support some of these features, Redirection stands out as a specialized tool for the management of redirections. This is mainly due to the ability to set up conditional redirects, context-specific redirections that only take place under certain circumstances. For example, if you want a user to be redirected only when logged in, the Redirection plugin can help you set that up.

301 Redirects – Easy Redirect Manager

With over 200,000 active installations, Easy Redirect Manager is another popular WordPress redirection plugin. In addition to providing an interface for the creation and management of 301 redirects, Easy Redirect Manager has a number of noteworthy redirection management features:

• 404 Error Tracking Widget
• Importing/Exporting Redirects
• Redirected Traffic Stats

While not as comprehensive as the Redirection plugin, Easy Redirect Manager functions as a simplified solution without all of the bells and whistles of the Redirection plugin. Have no need for conditional redirects but use multiple language prefixes in your URLs? Easy Redirect Manager gives you a simple but effective redirection management solution that works with popular translation plugins such as WeGlot and TranslatePress. 

All-in-One SEO

With over 3 million active installations, All-In-One SEO differs from the previous two entries by functioning as a general-purpose SEO enhancement suite. In addition to features relating to keyword management, content creation, and much more, this plugin provides support for the creation of 301 redirects as well as the following noteworthy redirection management features:

• Automatic Permalink Change Detection and Redirection Setup
• 404 Error Tracking
• Importing/Exporting Redirects

If you need a comprehensive SEO plugin that also supports redirects, the All-in-One SEO plugin is a solid choice. Since the plugin is compatible with the redirects set up in popular plugins such as Redirection, you can import your existing redirects into the All-in-One SEO plugin for easy migrations.  

RankMath

With over 1 million active installations, RankMath is an SEO enhancement suite similar to All-in-One SEO that also provides support for redirects. In addition to a content AI assistant and detailed SEO tools, RankMath offers a few noteworthy redirection management features:

• Automatic Permalink Change Detection and Redirection Setup
• 404 Error Tracking
• Importing/Exporting Redirects

Since RankMath and All-in-One SEO have the same features in terms of redirection management, deciding between these two plugins boils down to their SEO-related features. Whichever you choose, you will have access to helpful redirection management tools. 

Finding the Right Plugin

Whether you decide to go with the comprehensive redirection management of Redirection, the streamlined experience of Easy Redirect Manager, or choose from one of the SEO plugins, you can skip the .htaccess file modifications and set up redirects in seconds.