Import SEO plugin redirects

Import exact-match redirects from Rank Math or SEOPress into your Redirects list, and see which rules are skipped and why.

You can import Rank Math redirects and SEOPress redirects into Link Manager Pro from Link Manager › Settings › Integrations. Exact-match redirects with a 301, 302 or 307 type come over as redirects on your Redirects screen. Wildcard and regex rules, 410s and 451s are skipped and stay in the SEO plugin. Redirects from All in One SEO and Yoast SEO can't be imported here.

Which SEO plugins can you import redirects from?

You can import redirects from Rank Math and from SEOPress, while that plugin is active on your site. All in One SEO and Yoast SEO get a row on the Integrations tab too. Link Manager Pro doesn't read their redirects, though, so there's nothing to import from them, with or without their premium versions.

SEO plugin	Its row on the Integrations tab	Import
Rank Math	Active, its version, and how many redirect rules it holds	Import redirects, when it holds at least one rule
SEOPress	Active, its version, and how many redirect rules it holds	Import redirects, when it holds at least one rule
All in One SEO	Active, its version, and "Detected. Its redirect manager is a premium feature, so there are no redirects to import here."	None
Yoast SEO	The same as All in One SEO	None

A plugin that's installed but not active gets no row. With no rules yet, the Rank Math or SEOPress row says "Redirect manager available, but no redirects to import yet." and has no button. What else the Integrations tab holds is on Integrations settings.

The count on the row includes rules that won't be imported, such as regex rules. It leaves out rules in the trash. The import dialog shows the real split before anything is saved.

Before you start

• You need to be an administrator. Only administrators see Settings.
• Rank Math or SEOPress must be active, with at least one redirect.
• Look through the SEO plugin's redirects first. Turned-off rules, and rules with an empty or unrecognized status, come over Paused. Rules in the trash of Rank Math or SEOPress are skipped. Delete for good the rules you don't want back (how each one comes over).

Import Rank Math and SEOPress redirects

The import runs in a dialog that first checks the rules and shows what it can import. Nothing is saved until you select the import button.

Link Manager › Settings › Integrations

1. In the row for Rank Math or SEOPress, select Import redirects. The dialog Import redirects from Rank Math (or from SEOPress) opens and shows Analyzing redirects… while it reads the rules.
2. Read the split. Importable and Skipped count the rules, and Skipped because gives the number for each reason. Preview shows up to 6 importable redirects, each with its old path, its destination and its type.
3. Decide on the box Also clear these URLs from Rank Math’s 404 log (they’re handled now). It shows while Rank Math is active, its 404 Monitor module is on and its 404 Monitor log table exists, also in the SEOPress dialog. Leave it unticked to keep Rank Math's 404 log as it is (what it clears).

WARNING

Each active redirect works the moment it's saved, and an active redirect answers before a page at the same path on your site. If a published page now sits at an old address, it stops showing. To undo, pause that redirect on the Redirects screen, one at a time. Pause rather than delete. A deleted redirect comes back at the next import while its rule is still in the SEO plugin, and deleting also removes its hits. With the 404 log box ticked, the entries it clears are deleted from Rank Math's 404 log, and Link Manager Pro can't bring them back.

4. Select the import button. Its label gives the count, for example Import 12 redirects. After a full import the count is 0 and you can't select the button.
5. Wait while Importing redirects… counts the rules done, like "200 of 340 rules". The dialog stays open until it finishes. To stop early, select Stop: it reads Stopping… while the current batch of 100 rules finishes. Leaving the Integrations tab asks first, and stops the import the same way.
6. Read the result and select Close.

What you see after the import

When the import ends, the dialog shows Import finished, with Imported, Skipped and Failed. It also shows 404 log entries cleared when the box cleared any. When the import ran to the end, a message such as "12 redirects imported." confirms it.

• Import finished with errors: it ran to the end, and Failed is above 0.
• Import stopped: you selected Stop, or a request failed. After a failed request, the reason shows above the numbers, for example "Couldn’t finish the import. Redirects imported before it stopped are kept."

Redirects saved before a stop or an error are kept.

Below the numbers, the result lists up to 25 lines in the form "source: reason". Every skipped or failed rule is named there with its reason, for example "In the trash", "Already in Redirects", a source on another domain, the home page, a bad scheme, or a destination equal to the source. An unexpected error reads "source: This redirect couldn’t be saved." Only the first 25 lines show.

Link Manager Pro asks your cache plugin to clear at most once every 30 seconds during the import. One more clear follows the burst, about 30 seconds after the first, so redirects saved later in the run are covered (Clear page cache when links change).

To check them, go to Link Manager › Link Intelligence › Redirects and search for part of an old path. Open that old address in a private window: you land on the destination. Each imported redirect has:

• Source: the SEO plugin's path on your site, like /old-page.
• Destination URL: the SEO plugin's destination. A path like /new-page becomes an address on your site. So does a destination written without http:// or https://: example.com/page becomes yoursite.com/example.com/page, and it's saved like any other. Check every destination here that should go to another site.
• Redirect type: 301, 302 or 307, as it was in the SEO plugin.
• Status: Active only when the SEO plugin has the rule on. Any other status comes over Paused.
• Hits: 0. The SEO plugin's hit counts don't come over.

Imported redirects aren't marked as imported in the list, so search by path to find them.

Which redirects are imported, and which are skipped?

Link Manager Pro imports each rule that matches one exact path and sends visitors on with 301, 302 or 307. It skips everything else, and the skipped rules stay in your SEO plugin as they are. In Rank Math, a rule with several sources becomes one redirect per source, all to the same destination. So the dialog can count more rules than the row.

The dialog lists these reasons under Skipped because:

Reason	Which rules
The reason that names wildcard, regex or partial matches	A Rank Math source set to anything other than an exact match, and a SEOPress redirect with regex turned on
Empty source URL	A rule with an empty source
Not a 3xx redirect (e.g. 410 Gone)	Any type other than 301, 302 and 307, for example 410 or 451
No destination URL	A Rank Math rule with an empty destination. SEOPress entries without a destination aren't read as redirects at all
In the trash	A rule in the trash of Rank Math or SEOPress
Already in Redirects	A rule whose old path already has a redirect in Link Manager Pro, active or paused. That redirect stays as it is

Each skipped rule counts once, under the first reason in this table that fits.

Some rules pass the check but are rejected while the import saves them. They add to Skipped in the result. Like every skipped or failed rule, each shows in the result list with its reason (up to 25 lines). For example, when:

• The source is on another domain, or it's your home page.
• The destination uses another scheme, like ftp:// or mailto:, or it's the source itself. A destination with no scheme at all isn't skipped: it becomes an address on your site.

Failed counts rules that hit an unexpected error while saving. Each shows in the list as "source: This redirect couldn’t be saved."

How the state comes over: a rule comes over Active only when the SEO plugin has it on. A SEOPress redirect is on when its enabled flag is set. For other plugins, a status of active, enabled, on, yes, 1 or true counts as on. Any other status, including an empty one or one the plugin doesn't recognize, comes over Paused. Rank Math's option to ignore letter case isn't carried over: as with every redirect, letter case counts (which visits a redirect matches).

Rank Math 404 log cleanup

The 404 log box in the import dialog deletes entries from Rank Math's 404 Monitor log. It covers the old addresses the import took on in that run. Only redirects imported as Active in that run clear entries. Skipped rules, paused ones and redirects you already had don't.

The Rank Math 404 log cleanup setting on the same tab decides whether the box starts ticked: unticked with Manual (the default), ticked with Automatic. Automatic also clears entries when you create or edit an active redirect on the Redirects screen. Both are explained on Integrations settings.

The clearing goes through Rank Math's own 404 log functions. If it fails, the redirect is still saved.

After the import: turn off the redirects in your SEO plugin

The note on the Rank Math or SEOPress row tells you to turn the imported redirects off in that plugin. That way only one plugin handles each address. The import itself doesn't change or turn off anything in the SEO plugin. It only reads the rules. During the import, the 404 log box is the only thing that deletes Rank Math data.

• Turn off, in the SEO plugin, the rules that came over. Before you turn one off, check that its path shows Active on the Redirects screen. A rule may have been skipped because a paused redirect already had its path, and then nothing redirects it.
• Keep the skipped rules on in the SEO plugin if you still need them. Link Manager Pro redirects one exact path each, with 301, 302 or 307 only.
• While both plugins hold a redirect for the same path, the plugin that answers first sends the visitor. Link Manager Pro counts a hit only for visits its own redirect answers.
• Imported redirects keep working after you deactivate the SEO plugin, because Link Manager Pro stores them. Its row on the Integrations tab then goes away, and so does Rank Math 404 log cleanup once Rank Math is off. It also goes when you switch off Rank Math's 404 Monitor module.

Import again, stop, or more than 5,000 rules

Running the import again skips every rule whose old path still has a redirect in Link Manager Pro, active or paused. Those redirects aren't duplicated or changed. The dialog counts those rules under Skipped because: Already in Redirects, not as Importable, so the import button then shows 0. A redirect you deleted is created again, though, Active if its rule is still on in the SEO plugin, and the dialog counts its rule as Importable again.

• After Stop or an error, select Import redirects again and import. Rules done before are skipped, and the rest come over.
• To keep an imported redirect from coming back, pause it instead of deleting it, or first delete its rule in the SEO plugin for good, trash included.
• A rule you change in the SEO plugin after the import isn't updated, because the existing redirect blocks it. Edit the redirect on the Redirects screen instead.
• The dialog reads at most 5,000 rules, oldest first. With more, it shows Only the first batch was analyzed and suggests running the import again. A second run reads the same first 5,000, so it doesn't reach the rest. To bring the rest in, delete the imported rules in the SEO plugin for good, then import again. Turning them off or moving them to the trash isn't enough, because those rules are read too. Link Manager Pro can't bring back rules you delete in the SEO plugin, so export them there first if you want a copy.

Details

Rule	Value
Who	Administrators
Sources	Rank Math and SEOPress, while active. All in One SEO and Yoast SEO: detected only
Match	Exact path only. No wildcards, regex or partial matches
Redirect types	301, 302 and 307 are kept. Any other type is skipped
Source	The SEO plugin's path, added to your site address (on a site in a folder, after the folder). A full address must be on your site. Not the home page. A query string is kept
Destination	A path, or an address without http:// or https://, becomes an address on your site. Another scheme, like ftp://, is skipped
Same old path	Skipped when any redirect, active or paused, already uses it. A deleted redirect is created again
Hits	Start at 0
Batch size	100 rules per step
Rules per run	At most 5,000. Rank Math counts each source as one
Preview	Up to 6 importable redirects
Page cache	Asked to clear after redirects are saved, at most once every 30 seconds, plus one more clear after the burst, while Clear page cache when links change is on
Rank Math 404 log	Up to 500 entries cleared per address in a run
Other addresses	An imported redirect takes over a path that a short link has as an other address, with no warning. Conflict counts catch up at the daily check, up to 300 links a day
WP-CLI	No command for this import

Get more out of it

• Plan for the skipped rules. Before you select the import button, note the count for each reason under Skipped because. Those rules work only while the SEO plugin still handles them, so turn off only what came over.
• Check for hidden pages after the import. Open the Redirects screen: a panel like "1 redirect covers a live page" lists active redirects whose old path is a published page (review panels). It lists up to 50. It checks the oldest redirects first and stops after a few seconds, so on a long list your newest, imported ones may not be checked. Open your most important pages yourself too.
• Judge imported redirects by their new hits. They start at 0 Hits, so give them time, then use the report's Health check to find the ones nobody uses (Read a redirect's report).
• Catch old addresses that still 404. Once the SEO plugin's redirects are off, set Track visitor 404s to All URLs for a while, under Link Manager › Settings › Link Intelligence. The default, Smart (sitemap-based), logs only addresses your sitemap lists and addresses visitors reached from a link on your own pages, so old addresses reached from outside aren't logged (Monitor 404 errors from visitors). Visitor 404s then lists them, and Fix with a redirect adds one to the same Redirects list.

If something goes wrong

• If Import redirects is missing, then the SEO plugin isn't active, holds no redirects yet, or is All in One SEO or Yoast SEO. If a SEO plugins row shows Status unavailable, select Retry.
• If the dialog closes with an error, such as "Couldn’t analyze the redirects. Try again.", then reload the Integrations tab and select Import redirects again.
• If Skipped in the result is higher than in the dialog, then some sources or destinations couldn't be used. The reasons are in the result list. Search the Redirects list for those paths.
• If an imported redirect doesn't send you on, then check that its Status is Active and that the letter case matches. Clear your page cache: a page cached before the import can still show. If the path is a live short link's own address, the short link wins. Turn the rule off in the SEO plugin, so only Link Manager Pro answers that path.
• If a page on your site stopped showing after the import, then an active imported redirect uses its path. Pause that redirect on the Redirects screen. A deleted one comes back at the next import.
• If an imported redirect sends visitors to an address on your own site that doesn't exist, like yoursite.com/example.com/page, then its rule had no https://. Edit the redirect's Destination URL.

More fixes are on Troubleshooting.

Related

• Redirects
• Integrations settings
• Redirect an old URL
• Migrate to Link Manager Pro
• Troubleshooting