How can I force WordPress to redirect to canonical permalinks?

In WordPress 3.1 a post can be reached a number of ways, for example each one of these takes you to the same post (where /id is the base)

http://myblog.com/id/1008
http://myblog.com/id/1008/my-slug
http://myblog.com/my-slug

How can I tell WordPress to redirect all of these variations to

Read More
http://myblog.com/id/1008/my-slug

?

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5 comments

  1. Check whether the posts not being redirected actually have the correct permalink stored in the DB. There’s a bug in which canonicals can’t be properly guessed because the permalink structure was CHANGED after the post was created.

    Try either creating a new post with your current permalink structure, or editing the post_name DB field for them. (There’s a plugin for updating the permalinks in DB)

    The question remains.
    ASSUMING it is still happening:

    How do we FORCE wordpress to REDIRECT to the canonical url?
    No just adding a link to it, but REDIRECTING to that page.

    I changed the permalinks structure of the site, and added a add_rewrite_rule in functions.php, so now the old /02/20/2008/postname addresses are accepted and canonicalized as /blob/postname correctly… and the page is found successfully.

    But no matter what I do, the canonical just stays as a link in the old URL’d page, still showing the wrong url in the adress bar.

    NO REDIRECT is performed.

    Ive worked with another website before, and I ended up (after days of trying tens of different pieces of code) using .htaccess redirects.

    I know .htaccess redirects will work, but now that I read everywhere that “It should” be doing it… I’m wondering: Should it? and more exactly “how do I FORCE it?

  2. WordPress should do this automatically. Whatever permalink format you have set in Settings > Permalinks should be the URL visitors end up at when they come to a different URL that indicates the same content.

  3. wordpress does it automatically there is no need to do any thing if you have a custom structure defined in the settings->permalinks it will automatically redirect all the incoming structures to your custom structure or the one you have chosen in the settings in wp back end

  4. /**
     * Creates 301 redirects canonical
     */
    
    function bm_redirect_can() {
     
       // Is single Post
       if ( is_single() ) {
            global $wp;
            $wp->parse_request();
             $current_url = trim(home_url($wp->request), "/");
             $redirect = get_permalink();
             $surl = trim($redirect, "/");      
            if($current_url != $surl){
                wp_redirect( $redirect, 301 );
                exit;
            }
       }
        
    }
    add_action( 'template_redirect', 'bm_redirect_can' );
    

    I got multiple emails about canonical issue. If I have 2 categories both category URL was indexed with proper one canonical tag and both pages able to access.

    Example:
    https://www.blandmagazine.com/lifestyle/trendiest-messy-hair-buns/
    https://www.blandmagazine.com/fashion/trendiest-messy-hair-buns/

    This has not been automatically done by WP. Many paid plugins are available but programatically I have done above code and working.