When users don’t find a particular post or web page that they came looking for on your site, they feel cheated. They may get the 404 error, which means Page Not Found, or the page no longer exists on the server.
In other cases, they may have landed on a totally different content page, which was not what they were seeking. It could also be that the page took very long to load or timed out, and could not load at all. Those users will instantly leave your site, possibly never to return.
Such scenarios kept the visitors from finding what they needed, which leaves a bad impression on their minds regarding the websites they are trying to connect with. Fortunately, redirects can help to solve those page issues. If you are not tech-savvy, you can use plugins for managing users more efficiently across your WordPress pages.
WP 301 Redirects is the best WordPress redirect plugin that allows you move your users to the right pages, without them having to face any kind of unnecessary delays. However, you must make sure that you use redirects properly, because errors in implementing of redirects can make things go from bad to worse.
Use of wrong redirect type
Redirect is a great option to direct visitors from an outdated URL to a fresh and updated one. For permanent changes choose the 301 status codes. It is necessary to use the 301 redirects properly, while migrating to a new site, while updating URL structure, etc. It ensures that the traffic, ranking, and authority of the old webpages get transferred to the new destination pages.
Avoid using 302, when the change is for long-term, because 302 redirects are meant for short-term or temporary changes. If you use it wrongly, it can make you lose site authority, traffic, and online visibility. Another point to note here is that, never redirect to unrelated pages. If there is no relevant URL, then just avoid redirect. Here you can show a 404 page not found status.
Creating redirect chains or loops
Redirect chains or loops dent your SEO goals. Redirect chains get created when more than a single redirect leads a journey to the final location. For example, redirect from July to August to September. There should be just a single redirect created – July redirects to August.
The short route to the intended content is crucial, or else the additional time taken to reach the final location can frustrate users. It even dilutes the link equity passed to the new destination. The worst case is when the page times out, and fails to load!
Redirect loops popup due to incorrect codes, spelling errors, weird integration, faulty plugin, etc. The redirect loop ends redirecting users to other pages and brings them back to the first page, which prompts the loop to go on endlessly.
It is a stuck cycle of consistent redirection, server times out, and the page may never load. Visitors get irritated and leave! Therefore monitor your current redirects to ensure you are not pushing your visitors into a redirect chains or loops.
Do not skip the step of testing redirects
Test the new redirects to ensure that they perform as intended. You can fix it, if there is an issue right at the start. If you ignore the testing part, some pages may not get indexed and mess up with other redirected pages.
Trying to fix this in the later stages can be challenging! If that is the case with many pages on your WordPress blog, then it might make better sense to reset your WP site. You can learn more about it on https://wpreset.com/