How to redirect a post or page

How to redirect a post or page

The redirect functionality is available in Yoast SEO Premium. We created it to solve problems with redirects in your WordPress site. To do this, we use relative input for redirecting. Consequently, you do not need to enter your site address in the old URL. We already add it for you using the WordPress site address found under Settings → General → Site Address in your WordPress admin.

To learn more about redirect and which one you should use read this article.

Table of contents

Valid examples
Redirect manager
Redirect within WordPress
Regex redirects
Redirect outside of WordPress
Import redirects
Deleting redirects
Redirecting with UTMs
Troubleshooting

Valid examples

The following examples will use http://example.com as WordPress site address.

The Old URL has to be your WordPress site address. You can enter the Old URL as http://example.com/redirect_url or as redirect_url. Both will point to the same URL.

The target URL can be both as well, but can also contain an external URL, for example: https://www.google.com.

Redirect manager

Yoast SEO for WordPress Premium includes a redirect manager. Follow the steps below to access the redirect manager screen. Log in to your WordPress website. When you』re logged in, you will be in your 『Dashboard』. Click on 『SEO』. On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. In that menu, click on 『SEO』. Click on 『Redirects』. The 『SEO』 settings will expand providing you additional options. Click on 『Redirects』.

Please keep the following in mind when creating a redirect, as most problems with redirects are due to a faulty input.

Redirect within your WordPress site

For this example, we redirected some broken URLs to the homepage, or to another page on the site.

In the above example you see the following:

A redirect from http://example.com/third-broken/ to http://example.com/not-broken/A redirect from http://example.com/another-broken/ to http://example.com/not-broken/A redirect from http://example.com/broken to http://example.com/

Redirect outside of your WordPress site

For this example, we redirected a broken URL to another domain. For instance, you can enter /broken-link/ to be redirected to any URL (e.g. http://example.org/). This would result in the absolute URL http://example.com/broken/ being redirected to http://example.org/.

Old URLs are relative!

Since we only handle relative input we cannot redirect you from the one (sub)domain to another. So, if your blog is installed on http://blog.example.com, you cannot redirect your visitors from:

http://otherblog.example.com,http://example.com orhttp://example.com/blog.

To redirect people from those URLs, you』d need a WordPress install with WordPress SEO Premium activated on those URLs.

Import redirects

In Yoast SEO Premium, it is possible to import redirects. To learn how, go to this article.

Deleting a redirect

Delete an Individual Redirect

To delete an individual redirect go to SEO-Redirects and find the redirect. Then, hover your mouse over it and a delete option will appear. Finally, click on Delete, and the redirect is removed.

Delete Redirect

Deleting Redirects in Bulk

The other option is to bulk delete redirects. You can delete redirects in bulk by clicking on Type which will mark all the redirects on the page. Then select Delete in the Bulk Action Drop-down Menu. Finally, click Apply.

Select Type

Select Delete in the Bulk Action Drop-down Menu

Select Apply

Redirecting with UTMs

When you have the UTM parameters in the URL, you』ll need to use the Regular Expression Redirects (RegEx) method. Otherwise, they may get stripped out. If you』re using UTM with a ?, it truly is a parameter, so it shouldn』t be redirected. We suggest using the # based UTM links or creating RegEx redirects.

Troubleshooting

If your redirects are not working, please try clearing all your cache. For example, clean the cache from your theme, plugin, server, CDN like CloudFlare or browser.

If you are not sure how to clear the cache from a theme or a plugin, please speak to the authors or CDNs of those applications. Alternatively, if you want to clear cache from the server, we advise you to speak to your host provider.

To clear the cache from a browser use this guide: https://yoast.com/help/how-to-clear-my-browsers-cache/.

How to reset the Yoast indexables

How to reset the Yoast indexables

In Yoast 14.0, we introduced the so-called 『indexables.』 It』s a new, fast and efficient way that lets us gather data about your pages, optimize them and present the information to search engines. Unfortunately, sometimes, due to your site』s configuration, the indexing may run into errors. That can have an effect on your site, so you』ll need to fix it. Luckily, there is a quick and easy solution for this. You can reset the Yoast indexables with the Yoast Test Helper plugin.

Using the Yoast Test Helper plugin to reset the Yoast indexables

Follow the steps below to install and use the Yoast Test Helper to reset the Yoast indexables. Download, install and activate the Yoast Test Helper plugin. You can find the plugin in the WordPress database, or on the wordpress.org site. Go to the WordPress Tools menu item and select Yoast Test. In the Yoast Test Helper screen click the 『Reset indexables tables & migrations』 button The button is located in the box titled Yoast SEO (the bottom right screen in the image below, the button is outlined). Go to the Yoast Tools settings. To restart the SEO optimization, click the Start data optimization button. The process of optimizing your data will begin, and you will be informed when it has finished successfully. Ran into errors? Consult this guide.

How to use the list assessment in our analysis

How to use the list assessment in our analysis

The goal of product pages and product descriptions is to convince people to buy your product. Of course, there are many things you need to do to create successful product pages that sell. One simple way to really highlight the benefits and features of your product and make them stand out is using lists. That is why we have a list assessment check in WooCommerce SEO for Product pages.

Lists enable your customers to scan the content on the page and quickly discover if you can offer them what they need. In addition, lists improve the accessibility of your product page since they enable screen readers to make sense of the different points you are trying to make.

The list assessment in WooCommerce SEO

The list assessment is part of the Readability tab in the Yoast SEO meta box. The check is quite simple. If you have at least one list (ordered or unordered) in your product description, you will get a green bullet. If you don』t, you』ll get the feedback that reminds you to add one.

Note that it is important to use the right tags when creating lists. For instance, the plugin will recognize this list if you use the tags as they are displayed in the following examples:

Example 1

  1. Coffee
  2. Tea
  3. Milk

Example 2

  • Coffee
  • Tea
  • Milk

If you omit the

    or

      tags, the plugin will not recognize the list, and you will get a red bullet. This is because, without those tags, screen readers can』t figure out the content, which makes it less accessible.

How to use RSS variables in Yoast SEO

How to use RSS variables in Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO allows you to automatically add content to your RSS feed. In the video below, Joost explains how this works and why it is important. In short, these RSS settings exist because, unfortunately, there are scraper sites that republish content from other sites without their permission. If they republish your content, they usually don』t link back to your site. This leads to duplicate content problems in the search results, and because of this, a scraper site with a bit more authority than your blog would simply outrank you with your own content.

In this article, we』ll discuss the variables you can use to customize your RSS content. What makes the variables so powerful is that they allow you to automatically add a link to each and every post that is added to your RSS feed.

RSS variables

There are four RSS variables that you can put into the text boxes on the RSS tab in Yoast SEO. The variables start and end with %%, with a description of the variable in between. Let』s go through them one by one to see what they do and when you should use them.

Available variables on the RSS tab under Search Appearance in Yoast SEO

%%AUTHORLINK%%

The %%AUTHORLINK%% variable adds a link to the author archive for the post author. The author』s name is the anchor text of the link. It』s not part of the out-of-the-box setting for the RSS content in Yoast SEO, because we』re primarily focused on getting the post ranked. But still, it』s a link that you may get out of the scraper sites.

%%POSTLINK%%

The %%POSTLINK%% variable is part of the out-of-the-box setting for the RSS content in Yoast SEO. It adds a link to your post, with the post title as an anchor text. Because the post link variable allows you to build many more links than your scraper competitors, it provides a strong signal that your post is the original one that should rank in the search engines.  

%%BLOGLINK%%

The %%BLOGLINK%% variable is part of the out-of-the-box setting for the RSS content in Yoast SEO. It adds a link to your blog, with the blog name as an anchor text. This is a strong signal that this post was originally posted on your blog.

%%BLOGDESCLINK%%

The %%BLOGDESCLINK%% variable is very similar to the %%BLOGLINK%% variable. The only difference is that with this variable, the anchor text will include a description of your site, rather than just the site name. So why use this one rather than the %%BLOGLINK%% one? It simply adds a little bit more context. It』s not crucial (or it would have been the default variable), but it can』t hurt either!

Using the variables

Using the variables is as simple as adding them to the text box on the RSS tab in Yoast SEO. It』s easiest to just copy paste them from the list that we provide there. But if that』s a problem for you, they』re fairly easy to type as well! Let』s go through the steps one by one now. Log in to your WordPress website. When you』re logged in, you will be in your 『Dashboard』. Click on 『SEO』. On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. In that menu, click on 『SEO』. Click on 『Search Appearance』. The 『SEO』 settings will expand providing you additional options. Click on 『Search Appearance』. Click on the 『RSS』 tab. Click the text box and start editing your content using the variables listed below.  Click 『Save Changes』.

How to translate the Yoast SEO academy courses into your language

How to translate the Yoast SEO academy courses into your language

The Yoast SEO academy courses are all written and spoken in English. However, we understand non-English speakers also want to follow our online training courses. We want to make our content accessible for everyone, so in this article, we』ll explain how you can translate videos, reading materials (pdfs), and page content into different languages.

Table of contentsVideosCourse reading materials (pdfs)Page content

Videos

In our free courses, we』ve embedded YouTube videos. YouTube can auto-translate our subtitles into another language (if you』re on desktop). Here』s how you go about that:

Click the settings icon in the video player. Select the settings cogwheel in the bottom menu of the YouTube video player. Click 『Subtitles/CC』. Click 『Auto-translate』. Select the language you prefer. A list of languages will open. Select your language from the list and the subtitles will be automatically translated!

Course reading materials (pdfs)

There』s a very convenient way to translate the course reading materials (pdf files) as well. We suggest you use the 『Documents』 functionality in Google Translate. This translating tool by Google allows you to translate text into over a 100 languages.

How does this work? Select 『Documents』 at the top of Google Translate, upload your pdf file, select the language you prefer on the right, and click 『Translate』. Google Translate will present you with a translated document in just a few clicks!

Page content

To translate our other page content, like the course introduction, the learning objectives, and the quizzes, we also suggest you use Google Translate. To translate the content, simply select it, copy it, and paste it into the 『Text』 functionality of Google Translate. Then, select the language you prefer on the right-hand side. The tool will then automatically translate the content for you.

Error: We』re unable to save the file .redirects

Error: We』re unable to save the file .redirects

The Yoast SEO Premium plugin is not allowed to write to the custom redirect file located at /wp-content/uploads/wpseo-redirects/.redirects

Please make sure that the path and file are writeable by checking it over FTP. If the .redirects file is only writeable to the owner and you still get that error, you might need to change permissions on the file.

If you don』t know how to change permissions, please contact your web host for assistance.

How to clear your WordPress cache

How to clear your WordPress cache

Sometimes you can』t see the changes you』ve made to your WordPress site immediately. This could be caused by outdated cache. To help you solve this, we』ll show you how to clear your WordPress cache. In this article, we』ll cover browser cache, WordPress caching plugins, and server cache. But first, let』s dive into what cache is and how it works.

Related articles

How to clear my browser』s cacheDIY: Optimize your browser cacheImproving site speed: tools and suggestions

What is cache and how does it work?

The cache is the place where pages, files, images, and other elements of your site are stored in memory so they can be retrieved quickly. There are different kinds of cache. For example, there』s browser cache (the elements stored in your browser), site cache (also called page cache or HTTP cache), but also server cache (the elements stored on the server hosting your website or on your CDN『s server).

Every time you visit a website, your browser will download some of the site』s elements and store them as cache files in your local storage. Because of that, when you visit that website again, it will load much faster as you already have parts of the content stored.

However, this also means that when you try to make changes to your website, you might not be able to see them immediately. In that case, you』ll need to clear the cache to see your changes live.

How to clear your WordPress cache

If you have a WordPress site, follow the steps below to clear the cache. Clear your browser cache. Firstly, follow the steps described in this article about clearing your browser』s cache. Clear cache using a WordPress caching plugin. Secondly, if you』re using a WordPress plugin caching plugin on your site, you need to clear your plugin cache. Examples of WordPress plugin caching plugins are WP Rocket, WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache. We』ve described how to go about this for each of these plugins. Find out how to clear cache with:– WP Rocket– WP Super Cache– W3 Total Cache Clear the server cache. Some hosts use cache plugins on their server. The control you have over server-side caching depends on your host. Check your host』s options settings to see if there is an option to clear cache. If you can』t find it, contact your host to ask how to clear the server cache. To illustrate this, we』ll explain how to go about this with the WordPress host SiteGround.Example: SiteGroundIf your site is hosted by SiteGround, you can clear cache from your hosting account control panel as well as the WordPress admin area. 1. Hosting dashboardThe first option is to log in to your hosting account dashboard and go to Speed > Caching under site tools. From here, switch to the 『Dynamic cache』 tab. Click on the menu icon next to your domain name and then select 『Flush cache』.2. WordPress DashboardThe second option is to install and activate the SG Optimizer plugin. Then, on the 『Super cacher settings』 tab, click 『Purge cache』 under 『Dynamic caching』.

Clearing your cache with WordPress plugins

Below, we』ve described how to clear your cache for some of the most used caching WordPress plugins in more detail. We cover WP Rocket, WP Super Cache, and W3 Total Cache. If you use another caching plugin, please check out their plugin documentation.

Clearing your cache with WP Rocket

Make sure you have the WP Rocket plugin installed and activated. Go to Settings > WP Rocket > Dashboard tab and click the 『Clear cache』 button. All cached files will be removed.

Image by WP Rocket

Clearing your cache with WP Super Cache

Make sure you have the WP Super Cache plugin installed and activated. Then, head over to Settings > WP Super Cache and click 『Delete cache』. This will remove all cached files on your WordPress site.

Clearing your cache with W3 Total Cache

Make sure you have the W3 Total Cache plugin installed and activated. Go to Performance > Dashboard and hit the 『Empty all caches』 button. This will delete all cached content from your WordPress site.

How can I uninstall my plugin?

How can I uninstall my plugin?

Looking to uninstall a plugin by Yoast? This guide will tell you how!

Uninstalling the plugin does not remove Yoast SEO data from your database so you can safely remove and reinstall the plugin without losing any of your hard work.

For the health and safety of your site, we recommend making a complete backup of your website, including the database file, before removing a plugin.

Table of Contents

Using WordPress Dashboard
Complete Data Removal
Manually Using FTP

Using the WordPress Dashboard

Log in to your WordPress website. When you』re logged in, you will be in your 『Dashboard』. Click on 『Plugins』. On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. In that menu, click on 『Plugins』. Click 『Deactivate』. 『Plugins』 will be highlighted in the menu and you will be shown the plugins you have installed. Locate the plugin you want to uninstall and click deactivate. If the plugin is not active, you can skip this step. The page will reload after the deactivation process completes. If you plan to use the plugin at a later time, you can stop here! Click 『Delete』. (optional) If you do not plan on using the plugin again, you can delete it. Click 『Yes, Delete these files』. After clicking delete, you will see a confirmation screen. You must click 『Yes, Delete these files』 or the plugin will not be deleted. If you would like to see the list of files to be deleted, click the link below titled 『Click to view entire list of files which will be deleted』

Manually using FTP

In some situations you may need to use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to log into your site and manually delete the plugin and the files. You would need to delete the plugin folder(s) for the specific plugin you want to remove in /wp-content/plugins/ from your site using an FTP program such as FileZilla and your FTP details.

If you are not sure about how to use FTP, where the plugin directory exists, or your FTP details, please speak with your host provider.

PluginFolderYoast SEO for WordPresswordpress-seoYoast SEO for WordPress Premiumwordpress-seo-premiumYoast SEO: Localwpseo-localYoast SEO: Local SEO for WooCommercewpseo-local-woocommerceYoast SEO: Newswpseo-newsYoast SEO: Videowpseo-videoYoast SEO: WooCommercewpseo-woocommerce

Complete data removal

If you want to remove all traces of our plugins, you』ll need to do the following:

Please search the database for entries containing wpseo and manually remove the data.Please search the database for entries containing wp_yoast and manually remove the data. Those entries are:

wp_yoast_indexablewp_yoast_indexable_hierarchywp_yoast_migrationswp_yoast_primary_termwp_yoast_prominent_words (note: only available in Yoast SEO Premium)wp_yoast_seo_linkswp_yoast_seo_meta

If you are not sure how to remove these terms, we suggest contacting your host provider for more information.

Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP

Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP

The Yoast SEO AMP plugin is no longer needed. Through good collaboration with Google the functionality of this plugin is now part of both Yoast SEO and the official AMP plugin. If you still have this plugin running we』d suggest updating both the Yoast SEO and AMP plugin and removing the glue plugin.

Does Yoast SEO Work With Custom Post Types?

Does Yoast SEO Work With Custom Post Types?

Yoast SEO works with public custom post types which is the default option when creating a custom post type.

If the custom post type is defined with no public statement or 'public' => true, then Yoast SEO functionality will also be available.

If the custom post type is defined with 'public' => false, the Yoast SEO functionality will not be available.