How to Create a Redirect Page Template in WordPress

19th Jun 2010 | Posted by Eko S. | 29 Comments

You may have noticed a theme that has completely different looking pages, like archive page, contact page, redirect page, fullwidth-no sidebar page, homepage, etc. A custom page is helpful if you want to have a page that looks completely different than rest of your blog but still runs on the WordPress CMS.
In this tutorial we will show you how you can create a redirect page template in WordPress using the custom page template snippet.

Redirect page is a page for URL redirection, this page is very useful if you want to shorten your link address or it can also be used to hide your affiliate link.
This page template also we use in our premium wordpress theme : DTimes and Gudeg Theme

How To?

Step 1 Give the template name
You will begin creating a custom page by opening a blank file in your text editor and paste the following code at the very top:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Redirect
*/
?>

Save the page as : redirect.php or you can name it any other structure you like as long as it is a php file.
The above code is simply giving your template a name that you will later see that WordPress recognize, so we are calling our template ‘redirect’.

Step 2 Redirect function
Now directly below, add this code

<?php if (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<?php $URL = get_the_excerpt(); if (!preg_match('/http//index.html', $URL)) $URL = 'http://' . $URL; ?>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0; url=<?php echo $URL; ?&lgt;"> 
</head>

<body>
</body>
</html>

<?php endif; ?>

Here is an explanation for the code above :

```
<?php if (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
```
This code is to check whether or not there is content post.
```
<?php $URL = get_the_excerpt();
```
This code is to call the actual link address in redirect page.
```
if (!preg_match('/http//index.html', $URL)) $URL = 'http://' . $URL; ?>
```
Then this code will check, if the address link already have ‘http://’? if not it will automatically be added.
```
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0; url=<?php echo $URL; ?>">
```
This code as the waiting time to go to actual link address, if the greater its value it will be the longer time required.

Below the complete code for redirect page template:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Redirect
*/
?>

<?php if (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<?php $URL = get_the_excerpt(); if (!preg_match('/http//index.html', $URL)) $URL = 'http://' . $URL; ?>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0; url=<?php echo $URL; ?&lgt;"> 
</head>

<body>
</body>
</html>

<?php endif; ?>

Step 3 Save it!
Once you have completed editing this file save it and upload it in your theme directory (/wp-content/themes/yourthemedirectory/) where files like single.php and index.php are located.

[updated (07/19/2010) : For the other way without have to worry about SEO, please check the comment below]
Thanks to kucrut.

Using The Redirect Page

Now, login to your admin panel, write a new page. On the Page Template dropdown, select Redirect
Add a title to the page (e.g. Free Themes)
Add an URL to the content of the page (e.g. http://www.dynamicwp.net OR dynamicwp.net OR www.dynamicwp.net)
Publish!
Now the new link for http://www.dynamicwp.net (for example) will be http://yoursite.com/free-themes

Hope you liked this tutorial! Please let us know what you think, and make sure to either leave a comment below. We’d love to see it in action!

15 Comments to “How to Create a Redirect Page Template in WordPress”

Add Comments (+)

Lee says:

June 22, 2010 at 07:14

Really like this idea but what impact will this have on search engines?

Reply
Timber Door Manufacturer says:

June 23, 2010 at 06:41

@Lee – it uses a HTML meta refresh, so not SEO friendly. Would be better to use a PHP header() redirect.

LIke the idea, but when you have many redirect pages (which we all do for all our affiliate links!), could potentially clog up the number of pages to administer in the wordpress admin page though.

Reply
make a website says:

June 25, 2010 at 22:14

I stumbled on your blog by accident while searching in Google. Im glad I did because I ended up reading many of your posts. The information is very good. I may not agree with every post, but the information is very good. Keep up the good work.

Reply
Jennifer R says:

June 30, 2010 at 17:59

It’s a simple trick :), thankyou but I think I can do it with Htaccess

Reply
- Eko S. says:
  
  July 1, 2010 at 01:19
  
  Hi Jennifer, maybe you can share with us how to do that or give us some resources?
  Thanks…
  
  Reply
kucrut says:

July 17, 2010 at 14:12

Why not use the wp_redirect() function? This way you won’t have to worry about SEO. You can just use the URL from the excerpt as the wp_redirect argument. No need to do anything past that

Reply
- Eko S. says:
  
  July 19, 2010 at 01:20
  
  Hi, thanks for your input.
  Can you share with us more details how to use wp_redirect() function? Or give some resources?
  
  Regards
  
  Reply
  - kucrut says:
    
    July 19, 2010 at 19:59
    
    It’s pretty simple, really. Just give the function a URL, and it will redirect you there. One thing to remember is, you need to call this function before the wp_head finishes loading or it’ll give you a PHP header error.
    
    More here.
getsixpacks says:

October 8, 2010 at 05:11

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Reply
Pixelbits says:

January 9, 2011 at 13:28

What about this:
ID, ‘redirect’, true);
wp_redirect($location);
?>

Now create a custom field name “redirect” and in the value put the desired url and publish your page

Reply
Pixelbits says:

January 12, 2011 at 14:18

I see the example code in my comment dit not work very well…
Here is the page with full info on an alternative:
http://www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/create-redirection-page-tamplate-for-wordpress

Reply
metas says:

July 10, 2011 at 19:17

please can somebody give a idea or a script how is gplus.to created i want to creat one for my country and i dont know how but i know somebody can help me please?

Best Regards, please my email is aljapaco@gmail.com

Please????

Reply
Jenny Shih says:

July 13, 2011 at 17:35

Thank you for this. I had a redirect template already but had no idea how to use it. Your instructions were PERFECT and easy to follow a. I’m so happy that I think this calls for a happy dance. Seriously, you made my day. Thank you!

Reply
Fontanalorenz says:

June 26, 2012 at 15:36

Hi! Here there’s a list of 9 WordPress template pages including this
http://fontanalorenzo.it/wordpress/code/9-useful-wordpress-template-pages.html

Reply
zhongxiaoge says:

February 15, 2013 at 02:53

This is my WordPress Redirect page code as blew:
<pre ><?php /** * Template Name: Redirect Page */ $url=$_GET["url"]; ?> <?php if ($url) : ?> <?php if (!preg_match(‘/^http:///’, $url)) $url = ‘http://’ . $url; ?> <?php wp_redirect($url); ?> <?php else : ?> <?php header(“HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently”); header(“Location: “.get_bloginfo(‘url’).”#301-redirect-from-redirect-without-url-page”); ?> <?php endif; ?></pre>

Reply