Frequently Asked Questions

Shouldn’t I just use the Safe Redirect Manager for redirects?

The Safe Redirect Manager allows you to create and update up to 300 redirects via your Dashboard. Above that number the redirect management becomes too slow for optimal performance, and so for redirect creation above that amount, you should use this plugin, which can handle as many redirects as needed.

Can I create redirects for only a certain post type?

At this time, the redirector plugin operates on all post types. But, in the case of adding redirects from post meta fields, it will only create redirects where it detects the existence of the specified meta key.

Are there performance implications when running the import on a production site?

When we create a redirect for an existing URL, we clear the cache of any content that existed at that address. Importing thousands of redirects can temporarily decrease the performance of your site while that caching is cleared and then rebuilt. In general, creating redirects has a small performance impact on your site.

Will the redirector automatically detect “from” URLs with and without trailing slashes?

No – you will need to add a redirect for each version of a “from” URL that you want to redirect, e.g. one with and one without a trailing slash.

Will the redirector handle domains/URLs not mapped to my site?

The redirector can only handle “from” URLs that use one of the domains mapped to your site. If you want to set up redirects on domains hosted elsewhere, that would be configured where those domains are hosted. Alternatively, you can point and map the domain to your site and then set up redirects for it.

Can I use the plugin to dynamically create redirects (e.g. for a custom promotional URLs, link shortening, etc)?

Yes. The plugin has a basic API with two functions you can use: WPCOM_Legacy_Redirector::insert_legacy_redirect( $from_url, $redirect_to ) and WPCOM_Legacy_Redirector::get_redirect_post_id( $id )### .