At some point in creating webpages for your site, you may find yourself with the need to redirect a URL to another page, post, error page, or even another site when a page has moved or its information is no longer hosted by your site.  You can easily create and manage these redirections inside of your WordPress administrator dashboard.  

Step-By-Step Instructions

1. In the Wordpress dashboard, on the far left, hover over Yoast SEO and click on the “Redirects" link.  In most instances, access to this menu item is restricted to site administrators.  This can be adjusted by the site administrator.
2. You will see "Plain redirects" and you will be given the opportunity to add a 301 redirect here. Simply add the full old URL in the space designated for it, and the full URL that you wish the page to point to, and then click on the "Add Redirect" button.
3. Test that the redirect is working by typing in the old URL and verifying that it takes you to the new URL that you added.

Using Yoast SEO Redirects is mainly used for internal subsites or to direct an old page to a new URL, but it has other uses as well. For example, if you have a page set up for a conference that your department will be hosting, and the URL is too long for a user to type out (something like: https://yoursite.gsu.edu/conferences/new-conference-october-2020/registration/), you can create a short “vanity link” in Yoast SEO Redirects. Simply follow the instructions above and make a new, shorter, vanity URL the old address (something like “yoursite.gsu.edu/conference-2020”, and then place the long actual URL in the new address field. Now you can use “yoursite.gsu.edu/conference-2020” in links and published materials, making it much easier for people to read and type in to access.

Another great use of Yoast SEO Redirects is if you would like to give out a URL that has your site’s address in it, but you want people to be able to access a Localist page, NetCommunity, or a Youtube library. Simply follow the instructions above and make a new vanity URL the old address (something like “yoursite.gsu.edu/calendar/”, and then the outside link the new address. Now you can use “yoursite.gsu.edu/calendar” in links and published materials, but still direct users to the outside source that you need to send them to.

IMPORTANT

Once you have made and saved your Yoast SEO Redirects, go to the left-side menu and find Hummingbird Pro > Caching. Go to that page and click on the “CLEAR CACHE” button. Any new Yoast SEO Redirects you made will not be active to users if you don’t clear your site’s cache.