301 Redirects with .htaccess

May 21, 2013

After I dumped my database and blew up my site, I wanted to resurrect my most popular content. I needed to setup 301 redirects so both users and Google could find my (old) content in its (new) location.

The structure looks like this:

301-redirect-instructions

Redirect an entire website:

Redirect 301 / http://new-url.com

Redirect an old permalink:

Redirect 301 /2011/02/old.html http://new-url.com/same-content-new-permalink/

Redirect WordPress local development uploads, to dev/prod server:

RedirectMatch 301 ^/wp-content/uploads/(.*) http://mylivesite.com/wp-content/uploads/$1

You could also leverage WordPress and a quick function:

/**
 * Force old permalinks to a new page.
 */
function grd_301_redirect() {
    // Get the URL.
    $url = untrailingslashit( 'https://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] );
    // Redirect to the correct page!
    if ( is_404() && ( false !== strpos( $url, 'old-page-url' ) ) ) {
        wp_redirect( 'https://new-url.com/new-page-url', 301 );
    }
}
add_action( 'template_redirect', 'grd_301_redirect' );