Changed a URL and Now Google Shows 404? How to Set Up Redirects in WordPress (SEO-Safe)

You tidied up a post's URL, renamed a category, deleted an old page or rebuilt your site with a new structure. A few days later, Google Search Console reports "Not found (404)" errors, visitors from old links land on an error page, and a page that used to rank has vanished. The fix is a 301 redirect: a permanent forwarding address from the old URL to the new one.

This guide shows how to find broken URLs, choose the right redirect, set it up in WordPress and protect your rankings.

Why changing URLs breaks things

Every URL is an address that Google, other websites, social posts, emails and bookmarks point to. When you change it, all of those still point to the old address. Without a redirect, they hit a 404 error, visitors leave, and the ranking signals the old page earned are lost.

Step 1: Find the broken URLs

• Google Search Console: open Indexing > Pages and look for Not found (404). Click it to see the URLs.
• Your own 404 log: the free SWS Site Fixer plugin (download below) has a Redirects & 404 tab. Turn on Log 404 errors and it records every broken URL visitors hit, with a hit counter, so you fix the ones that matter first.
• Your old sitemap or a crawl: if you are planning a redesign, list all current URLs before you change anything. The redirect map spreadsheet below is built for this.

Step 2: Decide what each old URL should do

• The page moved: 301 redirect to the new URL.
• The page was merged into another: 301 redirect to the page that now covers that topic.
• The page was deleted with no replacement: let it return 404 (or 410 "gone"). Do not send it to the homepage.
• The move is temporary (a seasonal page, a short maintenance swap): use a 302 redirect.

Step 3: Add the redirects in WordPress

With a plugin (easiest)

In SWS Site Fixer, open Redirects & 404, turn on Enable redirects, then add the old path and the new URL. From the 404 log you can click Redirect this next to a broken URL to create the redirect in one step. Any reputable redirect plugin works similarly.

With .htaccess (Apache and LiteSpeed hosts)

For a few permanent redirects you can add lines to .htaccess, above the WordPress block. Back up the file first:

Redirect 301 /old-page/ https://yourdomain.com/new-page/
Redirect 301 /blog/old-post-slug/ https://yourdomain.com/blog/new-post-slug/

A typo in .htaccess can take the whole site down, so a plugin is safer for most people.

Changing your whole permalink structure

If you change Settings > Permalinks (for example from dated URLs to "Post name"), every post URL changes at once. A single pattern-based redirect rule can handle it; ask your developer or use a redirect plugin that supports regular expressions, and test thoroughly.

Step 4: Test every redirect

1. Type each old URL into a private browser window and confirm it lands on the right page.
2. Check the redirect is a 301, not a 302, with a free redirect checker or your browser's developer tools (Network tab).
3. Make sure there are no chains (A to B to C). Point old URLs straight at the final destination.
4. Make sure nothing loops back on itself. A loop causes "too many redirects"; see how to fix redirect loops.

Step 5: Update your own links and tell Google

• Update internal links in menus, posts and buttons to point directly to the new URLs.
• Submit your updated sitemap in Search Console.
• Use URL Inspection on a few important new URLs and request indexing.
• Watch the Pages report for a few weeks; old 404s should drop away as Google follows the redirects.

Redirect mistakes that cost rankings

• Changing URLs that already rank, just to make them "prettier". If a URL works, leave it.
• Redirecting everything to the homepage.
• Using 302 redirects for permanent moves.
• Deleting redirects a few months later.
• Long redirect chains after several redesigns.

Planning a redesign?

Build your redirect map before launch, not after the traffic drops. Our guide to redesigning a website without losing SEO walks through the full process, and the redirect map spreadsheet below has an automatic "redirect needed" column.

Download the free plugin to log 404 errors and add redirects in one click.