WordPress Redirect Manager — 301, 302, and 404 Tracker
Rank Forge includes a redirect manager that handles 301s, 302s and 307s for exact paths, automatic redirects when you rename a post, and a list of 404 URLs that shows which missing addresses visitors are hitting. Everything in one place — no separate plugin needed.
Why redirect management matters
Every time you rename a post, change your URL structure, delete a page, or migrate from another site, you risk breaking existing links — internal links, external backlinks, bookmarks, search results. Broken links mean 404 errors, lost traffic, and damaged SEO authority.
A good redirect manager prevents all of this.
Redirect types
301 — Permanent (default)
Tells Google the URL has permanently moved. Google transfers the old URL’s ranking signals to the new one. Use for content that has moved permanently.
302 — Temporary
Tells Google the move is temporary. Ranking signals stay with the original URL. Use when you’re temporarily redirecting to a sale page, a maintenance notice, or a beta version.
307 — Temporary, method-preserving
Like a 302 but guarantees the HTTP method is preserved on redirect (GET stays GET, POST stays POST). Relevant for form submissions and API endpoints.
Rank Forge supports all three. Pick one per redirect.
Auto-301 on slug change
This is the feature nobody talks about but everyone needs. When you rename a post — say, “my-first-blog-post” to “how-to-start-a-blog” — Rank Forge automatically creates a 301 redirect from the old slug to the new one. No manual action. No broken bookmarks. No 404 on the old URL.
This happens transparently in the background. You rename the post, you click save, and the old URL now redirects to the new one permanently. Visitors who had bookmarked the old URL land on the new one. A 301 tells Google that the page has moved for good.
Rank Forge does it by default.
404 list
Rank Forge records the missing URLs that visitors request and lists the ones with the most hits on the Redirects screen (Rank Forge > Tools, tab Redirects), up to 20, each with its number of hits. It is a short-term log: it holds at most 50 URLs and is cleared after a week in which no new missing URL is recorded. It does not record the referrer or the browser.
To fix a missing URL, add a redirect for it with the form on the same screen.
Exact paths only
A redirect matches one exact path. Rank Forge has no wildcard rules, no regex rules and no CSV import or export, so each old URL gets its own redirect. The Type menu offers 301, 302 and 307 and has no 410 choice. A stored rule of type 410 is answered with status 410 Gone and your theme’s 404 page (the theme’s index template when it has no 404 template); its To URL is not used. The SEOPress import brings a redirect in only when it has a destination, so a 410 rule with an empty destination is not imported. A redirect to an external domain needs the checkbox “Allow redirect to external domain (off-site)”.
Redirect chains
Rank Forge does not detect redirect chains (URL A to URL B to URL C) and has no Flatten button. When you add a redirect, point the old URL straight at its final destination.
Redirect performance
Redirects are stored in the database table rankforge_redirects, which has a unique index on the source URL. To answer a visit, Rank Forge keeps a map of the redirects in the object cache and in a transient that lasts a day, and it clears the map when you add, change or delete a redirect and builds it again at the next visit. The map is read from the table with a limit of 5,000 rows. Rank Forge has no .htaccess export.
Broken links
The Broken Links Checker scans your posts for broken links and lists each broken URL next to the post it is in. For a URL that has moved, add a redirect for it in the Redirect Manager.
vs dedicated redirect plugins
Redirection is a free standalone WordPress redirect plugin; WordPress.org lists 2+ million active installations for it (October 2026). Rank Forge’s redirect manager is part of the SEO plugin and has:
- Auto-301 on slug change (built-in)
- Integration with the 404 log
- Included in an SEO plugin you were going to install anyway
If you already use Rank Forge, you can keep your redirects there instead of in a separate plugin.
Ready to manage WordPress redirects properly?
The Redirect Manager is included in every version of Rank Forge, including the free one.