Redirects
The Redirects page in wp-admin manages the list of per-URL redirects. Each row tells the plugin: "when a request comes in for this source URL, send the visitor to this destination using this HTTP status."
Custom redirects always win over the global fallback, and they fire for any matching URL — including a page that still exists but you've chosen to retire. Only logging and the global fallback are reserved for genuine 404s.
- This page — the list view, adding/editing rows, bulk actions, and the audit trail.
- Match modes & query handling — how a source is compared to the incoming request (Exact / Prefix / Regex) and how query strings are handled.
Summary cards
A strip of cards above the table shows the aggregate state at a glance: Total, Active, Inactive, and Total hits (the sum of the Hits column across every row). They refresh whenever you create, edit or delete a redirect.
The list view
Each row in the table shows:
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Source URL | The URL (path) that triggers the redirect. |
| Destination | Where matching requests are sent. |
| Type | HTTP status code (301, 302, 307). |
| Match | How Source URL is compared to the request (Exact, Prefix, or Regex). |
| Status | Whether the row is Active or Disabled. Disabled rows are skipped during the lookup. |
| Hits | Number of times this redirect has fired. |
| Last hit | When it last fired. |
| Created | When the row was created. |
Use the search bar above the table to filter by source URL. The list paginates once you have more than a screen's worth of rows.
Adding a redirect
Click Add new to open the editor.
Source URL
The URL (or pattern) the plugin looks for. A site-relative path beginning with / — the host is implicit. A leading slash is added automatically if you omit it, and a pasted full URL is reduced to its path, so old-page, /old-page, and https://example.com/old-page all store the same rule.
Examples:
/old-product— single-URL redirect./blog/2018/— a prefix or regex when paired with the matching mode.
Destination
Where matching requests are sent. Three forms are accepted:
- An absolute URL —
https://example.com/landing— external or internal, scheme required. External hosts are honoured. - A site-relative path —
/new-product— resolved against your site URL. - A page — set the target type to
pageand choose a page; the plugin resolves the permalink at redirect time, so the destination follows the page even if its slug changes later.
Type
HTTP status code used for the redirect.
301Moved Permanently — the default, and the right SEO answer for pages that have moved or been removed.302Found — temporary move, search engines keep the source URL.307Temporary Redirect — like 302 but the request method is preserved. Rarely needed for content redirects.
You can also use the terminal status codes 410 Gone and 451 Unavailable for Legal Reasons: these don't send the visitor anywhere — they return the status with an empty body, telling clients (and search engines) the URL is intentionally dead.
Match
How the source is compared to the request — Exact (default), Prefix, or Regex. See Match modes & query handling for the full behaviour of each mode and the query-string options.
Status
Active rows are evaluated on every request. Disabled rows are skipped — use this to take a redirect out of rotation without deleting it.
Editing and deleting
Click the row's overflow menu (the three dots) to edit, disable, or delete it.
When you edit a redirect that is linked to a 404 log, the Source URL field is locked — changing it would break the link between the redirect and the log. A small info notice under the field explains why. Every other field stays editable. If you really need to change the source, unlink the log first (delete the log, or delete the redirect and recreate it).
Deleting is permanent — the row is removed from the database, and any log rows that referenced it are automatically unlinked: their redirect_id is cleared and the workflow status is reset to Open so the broken URL surfaces again for review.
Audit trail
Every create / update / delete on a redirect records the WordPress user who made the change. To see it in the table, open the DataViews Fields picker (the column toggle in the table header) and enable Last edited by — it's hidden by default so single-author sites don't see an empty column. CLI and cron writes leave the field blank, which is rendered as a dash.
Promoting a log entry to a redirect
The fastest way to fix a known broken URL is to redirect it directly from the Logs page. Open the log row's menu and choose Custom redirect — the source URL is pre-filled (and locked) and you only need to enter the destination. If the log already has a linked redirect, the same action opens it in edit mode instead. See the Logs actions for the full action list.
Linking and the workflow status
When you save the redirect, the linked log's status is set to Fixed only if the redirect is Active. If the redirect is Inactive at save time, or if you later toggle it off, the linked log(s) flip back to Open automatically so the broken URL resurfaces. Re-activating syncs them back to Fixed.
Bulk actions
Select rows with the checkboxes in the leftmost column and a bulk-actions toolbar appears at the bottom of the table. Apply one of these to every selected row in a single round-trip:
- Activate — turn the selected redirects on.
- Deactivate — turn the selected redirects off without deleting them.
- Delete — remove the selected rows permanently.
Activate / Deactivate are useful for staging cutovers — pre-create a batch of redirects in the deactivated state, then flip them all on at go-live.
Bulk importing
To create many redirects at once — from a CSV file or migrated from another redirect plugin (Redirection by John Godley, 301 Redirects – Redirect Manager by WebFactory) — install the Redirects Importer add-on, which adds an import panel to the Tools tab.
REST API
Every action available in the UI maps to a REST endpoint under /wp-json/d404/v1/redirects. The endpoints require the capability returned by the 404_to_301_capability filter (defaults to manage_options).