How to Keep WordPress From Redirecting to Your Live Website
WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. It is a flexible platform that is easy to use and has a large community of developers who are constantly improving and adding features to the software. It is also one of the most popular open source projects, available to download and use for free. This all makes WordPress a valuable tool for web designers and marketers who want to build their own websites but don’t have the coding knowledge or time to do it themselves.
There are many ways in which WordPress can be used to create a redirect loop – a chain that leads back to the same page or location. When this happens, you will see a “Redirected…” message below the post headings. This is usually caused by someone either adding a code snippet to the WordPress config file or using a plugin that is redirecting every page to another address.
If you discover that WordPress is redirecting to your live site after you upload it to your server, there are simple steps you can take to fix the problem. In this article, we will discuss some of the most popular ways in which WordPress can get in a redirect loop and how you can prevent it from happening to your site.
Redirecting After Login
One of the simplest and most common ways for a site to get in a redirect loop is via the login page. Once a user logs in, they will be automatically redirected to the site’s homepage. This is usually the result of a plugin or a config file that is redirecting everything after a login. To prevent this, you can disable the plugin or config file that is redirecting the login page and replace it with this bit of code:
location.replace('your-login-page')
This code will ensure that the user stays on the page they were originally trying to access.
Redirecting After Posting A New Article
When a user submits a new article to WordPress, it usually goes through a process of moderation before it is published. During this process, the post is checked for grammar and spelling errors, and it is often subject to some content re-writing. While this is going on, the user’s IP address and browser information is recorded so that the blog owner can see how many people are reading the article and whether or not they are sharing it on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook.
This recorded information is then compared to the user’s access logs, which list the page(s) the user has visited. Sometimes this comparison will reveal that the user has navigated to a blog post after they have posted it, leading to a redirect loop. If you discover that this is the case, you can fix it by adding this code to the bottom of the relevant blog post:
wp_redirect('http://www.your-site.com/', 302)
This code will tell WordPress to redirect the user back to the homepage of your website.
If you choose to have your site’s homepage be the landing page for your blog, this is the perfect place for a redirect. Just make sure that you don’t have any links or calls to action on your homepage that will take the user somewhere else. This could result in a duplicate content issue, which is something you want to avoid.
Redirecting From A Category To Itself
One of the more complex but also more effective ways for a site to get in a redirect loop is from a category to itself. When a user clicks on a category, say Travel, they will be automatically redirected to the Travel category profile. The redirect loop happens because the profile for the Travel category was created first and includes a link to the homepage of the site. This link was then used to create the category profile.
If you discover that this is the case, you can prevent it by adding this code to the bottom of the category’s individual profile page:
wp_redirect('your-homepage', 302)
This code will tell WordPress to redirect the user back to your site’s homepage.
Redirecting From One Category To Another
Sometimes more than one category on a blog will link to one another, with one acting as a parent or master category of the other. When a user clicks on a child category, say Travel, they will be automatically redirected to the parent category, say Travel Blogs. This happens because the parent category includes a link to the homepage of the blog.
If you discover that this is the case, you can prevent it by adding this code to the bottom of the child category’s individual profile page:
wp_redirect('your-parent-category', 302)
This code will tell WordPress to redirect the user back to the homepage of your parent category.
Avoiding Redirect Loops With Hacks
WordPress itself is a pretty resourceful software, which is why it is so popular. The developers are always looking for ways to extend the functionality of the program and make it better. One of the more popular ways to prevent redirect loops is with the use of hacks. WordPress hackers use a variety of methods to prevent these loops from happening, such as using no-redirect tags or short codes.
These are basically simple codes that websites can put in their webpages to prevent other websites from automatically redirecting them. If you want to learn more, you can read this blog post by Googling “[your-site] redirects to itself” or “[your-site] gets in a redirect loop”.
The Bottom Line
WordPress is a very popular and powerful tool for websites and blogs, which is why it gets hacked – or used in ways it wasn’t originally intended to be used. Regardless, once you know how, it’s just a matter of finding the right plugin or code snippet to prevent any unwanted redirection to your site. Make sure to backup your WordPress database and config files regularly and keep your WordPress security updated – this way you’ll be sure to stay protected.
As a web designer or marketer, you may think you need to know how to code in order to build a website; however, design and development are two entirely different things. If you find that you lack the talent or time to become a great developer, then perhaps you should consider becoming a WordPress designer – the skills are out there and the demand is high.