Redirect Tool for Changing WordPress Permalink Structure

Dec 12, 2011

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Searching for the best way to change your permalink structure without sacrificing performance and losing traffic? If you don’t know how to write code for your htaccess file then you need a tool which does the job properly.

Joost de Valk of Yoast has created a new tool which creates the correct code for redirecting your old permalink structure to /%postname%/

The redirect tool will ONLY redirect your old permalink structure to /%postname%/ so if you wanted a different structure, don’t use this tool.

Use this tool to generate redirects from your old permalink structure to the /%postname%/ permalink structure.

Enter the URL of your site
If you have WordPress installed in a sub directory, enter the name of the subfolder in the correct field.
Select or enter your old Permalink structure and click the Generate Redirect button
On the next page you’ll see the code has been generated for copying and pasting into the top of your .htaccess file

In some cases you’ll find there’s no need to add any code when changing permalinks as WordPress will take care of that for you.

I personally use /%category%/%postname%/ which prior to WordPress 3.3 can effect performance if you don’t have caching setup correctly, however the release of WordPress 3.3 has now solved this problem.

Comments

12 responses to “Redirect Tool for Changing WordPress Permalink Structure”

Hoang

December 2, 2014

I tested the tool and it will not work if you current structure is /%category%/%postname%/.

If your current structure is /%category%/%postname%/ then after redirect to /%postname%/ all the Tags will return 404 NOT FOUND.

Can you give some suggestion to fix it? Thanks.

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1. Brad Dalton
  
  December 2, 2014
  
  Its not my tool. I would ask Yoast about it however its not the only solution.
  
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  1. Hoang
    
    December 5, 2014
    
    If it’s not paid product Yoast does not provide support. I hope you may have some solution but thank you anyway.
    
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    1. Brad Dalton
      
      December 5, 2014
      
      Are you a member of wpsites?
      
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Adrian

June 20, 2014

Hello Brad,

I see the tool will ONLY redirect your old permalink structure to /%postname%/
But how about if I wanted to redirect to /%category%/%postname%/
Any idea how to do that.

Thanks

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1. Brad Dalton
  
  June 20, 2014
  
  Why do you want to do that Adrian?
  
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  1. Jen
    
    August 24, 2014
    
    Hi Adrian and Brad,
    
    I would like to do the same as Adrian, as I want the category of the post to show in the link (it helps give more information in the link) e.g. instead of just
    
    it would be
    
    which is more information without doing more work
    
    Thanks,
    Jen
    
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    1. Brad Dalton
      
      August 24, 2014
      
      Are you using the custom structure like this:
      
      [code]
      /%category%/%postname%/
      [/code]
      
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      1. Jen
        
        August 25, 2014
        
        Hi Brad,
        
        Yes, I want to use /%category%/%postname%/
        [code]
        I got the redirect tool to redirect to /%postname%/
        RedirectMatch 301 ^/([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{2})/(.*)$ http://example.com/$3
        [/code]
        But I don’t know what the redirect code is to redirect to /%category%/%postname%/
        
        Thanks
      2. Brad Dalton
        
        August 25, 2014
        
        The tool enables you to add your custom structure before generating the code for your .htacess file which in this case is:
        
        [code]
        /%category%/%postname%/
        [/code]
        
        Add the following redirect to the the top of your .htaccess file:
        
        Replace example.com with your domain.
Harpal singh

March 5, 2014

HELLO Brad,
I followed the instructions and these worked well,
but only HOME PAGE OF MY SITE IS Returning 404 error after this . it redirect to iknowc.in/index
PLEASE HELP ME.

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1. Brad Dalton
  
  March 6, 2014
  
  Understand however not sure how to help with this as its externally generated code and not my own.
  
  Does Yoast offer support for his product?
  
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