Redirect deleted post in The SEO Framework

  • karenchristenze

    (@karenchristenze)


    5 months ago

    Yoast SEO makes it easy to add a redirect URL after deleting a post or page. We switched from Yoast to TSF and miss this easy option, and can’t find an equivalent in TSF. But it’s such an obvious thing–are we just missing it?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Plugin Author Sybre Waaijer

    (@cybr)

    4 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hi Karen,

    Sorry for the delay!

    TSF has a per-post Redirect URL field, but not Yoast SEO’s “redirect when deleting” prompt.

    I’ve intentionally kept that out of the plugin until it can be done properly. The way TSF handles redirects now is super performant and foolproof, but there’s definitely a gap in functionality.

    This expanded functionality (and more) is coming as the “Redirect Manager” extension (name pending). I have no ETA yet, but it’s definitely on the way and will be much more advanced than what’s already out there.

    Thread Starter karenchristenze

    (@karenchristenze)

    4 months, 2 weeks ago

    Sybre, where is that redirect field? A screenshot would be great. Does this mean one should unpublish and redirect, rather than delete? It might not matter for a lot of posts, but sometimes I’m making some new arrangement and need to consolidate two posts or pages, and want the old incoming links to get people to the right new place. Thank you.

    Plugin Author Sybre Waaijer

    (@cybr)

    4 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hi Karen,

    For now, you must indeed redirect an existing post or page.

    Don’t unpublish or delete it. Unpublishing makes the URL unreachable on the front end, so visitors hit a 404 and never engage with TSF’s redirect. Deleting removes the post (and its redirect metadata) entirely. There’s a trick to keeping the post hidden below.

    Where to find the redirect field:

    • Posts/pages: “SEO Settings” meta box → “Visibility” tab → “301 Redirect URL”
    • Categories/tags (and other terms): term edit screen → “Visibility SEO Settings” → “301 Redirect URL”
    • Quick Edit: on the post or term overview, hover a row → Quick Edit → redirect field is there too
    • Homepage and post type archives: WP Admin → “SEO”, then “Homepage Settings” or “Post Type Archive Settings”, then “Visibility” tab

    So, for consolidating two posts: put the merged content on the new page, then on the old page set a “301 Redirect URL” to the new URL. Keep it published. Old inbound links will follow the redirect. You can clear the old post’s content if you like. I recommend ticking “Exclude this page from all archive queries” on the same Visibility tab to keep it out of listings. The same goes for excluding it from search queries.

    For large site restructures, I’ve always felt .htaccess (or server config) is the most performant option because it runs before WordPress loads. That’s not practical for most users, which is exactly why the Redirect Manager extension is coming.

    • This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by Sybre Waaijer. Reason: formatting
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.