How to Change WordPress URL Structure without Loosing Traffic
People usually like the permalink or URL structure of WordPress blogs. However, there may be a few situations where you need to change the URL structure of your WordPress blog without breaking the links. Doing so without the proper set up may get you into even more troubles like having 404 errors (Page Not Found), losing backlinks to your blog, and finally losing traffic & search rankings.
So to prevent this from happening, you should 301 redirect all your old URLs to new destination URLs which actually takes a lot of effort and time in case you’ve ton’s of such broken URLs in your blog. But, you can do it easily with the help of a WordPress plugin called “Advanced Permalinks” which will automatically redirect the links with the old permalink structure to the new URL’s using 301 redirection (tells Search Engines that the old URL has been permanently moved to a new location)
Let’s say; your old URL structure is something like
http://www.example.com/2001/03/postname.html
and you would like to change it to
http://www.example.com/postname/12/
This could be easily accomplished without breaking the links using the plugin mentioned above. Let’s see how to setup the Advanced Permalinks plugin properly.
Change WordPress Permalink Structure without Losing Traffic & SEO Juice
Download, Install and activate the Advanced Permalinks plugin.
Go to Settings Menu > Click on ‘Permalinks’ Section.
Do note your existing permalink structure (copy & paste in a notepad). You’ll need it in the next steps.
You’ll notice 4 new tabs at the top of the ‘Permalinks’ page such as ‘Advanced, Posts, Migration and Debug’.
WordPress Permalink Migration Steps
That’s it! The plugin will now take care of the rest. It will create a dynamic 301 redirect that redirects all the traffic arriving at your old syntax’s to the current or new Permalink structure (chosen by you).
Just re-submit your site to search engines to make them crawl your new URL structure ASAP.
So to prevent this from happening, you should 301 redirect all your old URLs to new destination URLs which actually takes a lot of effort and time in case you’ve ton’s of such broken URLs in your blog. But, you can do it easily with the help of a WordPress plugin called “Advanced Permalinks” which will automatically redirect the links with the old permalink structure to the new URL’s using 301 redirection (tells Search Engines that the old URL has been permanently moved to a new location)
Let’s say; your old URL structure is something like
http://www.example.com/2001/03/postname.html
and you would like to change it to
http://www.example.com/postname/12/
This could be easily accomplished without breaking the links using the plugin mentioned above. Let’s see how to setup the Advanced Permalinks plugin properly.
Change WordPress Permalink Structure without Losing Traffic & SEO Juice
Download, Install and activate the Advanced Permalinks plugin.
Go to Settings Menu > Click on ‘Permalinks’ Section.
Do note your existing permalink structure (copy & paste in a notepad). You’ll need it in the next steps.
You’ll notice 4 new tabs at the top of the ‘Permalinks’ page such as ‘Advanced, Posts, Migration and Debug’.
WordPress Permalink Migration Steps
- Go to the ‘Migration’ tab and enter your old URL structure (copied) in the ‘Old Permalink’ text box and click ‘Add’.
- Next, go to the main or default ‘Permalinks’ section (step 2) and give your new URL structure in the Defaults tab.
- Save ‘settings’.
That’s it! The plugin will now take care of the rest. It will create a dynamic 301 redirect that redirects all the traffic arriving at your old syntax’s to the current or new Permalink structure (chosen by you).
Just re-submit your site to search engines to make them crawl your new URL structure ASAP.
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