EffortLess Smart Page Redirects

EffortLess Smart Page Redirects lets you send visitors of a specific WordPress page to another URL. Each redirect is stored as its own “Redirect Rule”, so you can add, edit, disable (by moving the rule to draft) or delete redirects without touching theme files or the .htaccess file.

Two redirect modes are available per rule:

• Immediate redirect (default). The page never renders; WordPress sends a 301 Moved Permanently response to the destination URL.
• Delayed redirect (“Analytics-Safe Redirect”). The page starts loading, a full-screen overlay with a loading spinner is shown, and the browser is sent to the destination after a delay you choose (0.5 to 10 seconds). Because the page is actually loaded, analytics scripts that run on it — such as Matomo, Google Analytics 4 or Google Tag Manager — have time to fire and record the pageview before the visitor leaves.

The delayed mode can use either a <meta http-equiv="refresh"> tag or a JavaScript setTimeout() call, selectable per rule.

What each setting does

Every Redirect Rule has the following fields:

• Page to Redirect — the published page whose visitors will be redirected. The dropdown lists your pages with their IDs.
• Destination URL — the full target URL, including the https:// scheme. It may point to another page on your site or to an external address.
• Network Wide (multisite only) — when checked, the rule is also evaluated on the other sites of the network. On those sites it applies to the content whose slug matches the slug of the selected page (see “How a rule is matched” below).
• Analytics-Safe Redirect — unchecked means an immediate 301; checked switches the rule to the delayed mode and reveals the two settings below.
• Delay Method — Meta Refresh (works without JavaScript) or JavaScript.
• Delay (seconds) — how long to wait before leaving the page, between 0.5 and 10 seconds. Between 1.5 and 3 seconds is usually enough for a tracking script to send its request.

How a rule is matched

How a rule is matched depends on where it was created, because page IDs are per site: every site of a network has its own set of pages numbered from 1, so the ID 42 refers to different content on every site.

• On the site where the rule was created, the rule applies to the content that has the page ID selected in the rule. This is exact and is unaffected by slugs.
• On the other sites of a network (only for rules with Network Wide checked), the rule applies to the content whose slug matches the slug of the page selected in the rule. The rule’s page ID is ignored on those sites, because it does not identify the same content there.

A site’s own rules are checked first, so a rule created on a site always wins over a network-wide rule inherited from another site for the same content.

A rule stops applying on its own site if its target page is deleted and recreated, because the new page receives a new ID. Re-select the page in the rule when that happens.

Notes and limitations

• A rule only takes effect once it is published. Rules kept as drafts are ignored, which is a convenient way to switch a redirect off temporarily.
• Only one rule is applied per page; if several published rules point at the same page, the first one found is used.
• On multisite, a network-wide rule reaches another site only if that site has content with the same slug as the rule’s target page. If the slug differs there, the rule does not apply on that site.
• A rule whose destination is the page it redirects is ignored, so a rule cannot send visitors back to where they already are.
• Rules are cached for one hour per site to avoid a database query on every page view. The cache is refreshed when a rule is saved, trashed, restored or deleted — on multisite this applies to every site of the network, so a network-wide rule takes effect everywhere immediately.
• On multisite, the network-wide rules of every site are kept in a network option that is rebuilt whenever a rule changes, so displaying a page never queries the other sites of the network.
• Redirects are not applied in the admin area or in the block/theme editor preview.
• The plugin adds no tracking of its own and sends no data anywhere.

Donate

If this plugin is useful to you and you would like to support its maintenance, donations are welcome at https://id7.dev/donate/ , including in Bitcoin (BTC): bc1q8a9a5khvfyxlptfyyrpn2x44a4hq40qxql6tx4