WordPress Forces 302 Redirect

9th December 2009

I love WordPress, I really do, but i just screwed up a site by changing a bunch of permalinks to 302’s.

Worse, WP won’t allow me to change it back without digging into the database, so I effectively rendered my child page permalinks (URLs) useless.

In this short video I’ll show you exactly what not to do -( besides assume that WordPress will work the way it’s supposed to).

I’ve written about WP hurting search rankings before,  and while changing the LAST part of a permalink does now seem to 301 correctly,  in this case, changing the permalink of a parent page causes a 302  temporary redirect of all the child pages.

This, of course, kills your PageRank and effectively removes any inbound link equity that those pages may have obtained.  Nice, huh?

*Update 12/15 – We are now using this redirection plugin on all new or upgraded WP installations until they fix it…

Other stuff I've written:

1. Changing Wordpress Permalink Structure
2. 10 Commandments of WordPress
3. WordPress Checklist Now a Plug-In
4. WordPress 2.82 – Changing URL is Bad
5. Wordpress 2.82 May Hurt Rankings