Regex, prefix, 410 and 451 redirects

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The free redirect manager matches one exact path per rule. That's fine for a few moved pages, but not when you restructure a site: moving /blog/ to /articles/, changing a date-based permalink structure, or retiring a whole product line. RankKit SEO Pro adds two match types and three status codes for those jobs.

You set them in the same form: RankKit SEO → Redirects → Add redirect, using the Match and Type fields.

Match types

Match	What it does	Example
Exact path	One path, ignoring case and a trailing slash.	/old-page
Starts with	The path and everything below it.	/old matches /old and /old/page, but not /older-post
Regular expression	A PCRE pattern, case-insensitive. "Use $1, $2 for captured groups."	^/blog/(\d+)/(.*)$

When more than one rule could match a request, exact rules win over Starts with rules, and Starts with rules win over regular expressions.

Starts with: move a whole folder

From	To	Result
/blog	/articles/	/blog/my-post goes to /articles/my-post
/blog	/articles	Every URL under /blog goes to /articles

If the To URL ends with a slash, the rest of the requested path is added to it. Without the trailing slash, everything goes to the one target.

Regular expression: rewrite URLs

Use parentheses to capture parts of the old path and $1, $2 to place them in the target.

From	To	Result
^/blog/(\d+)/(.*)$	/articles/$2	/blog/2021/my-post goes to /articles/my-post
^/product/(.*)-old$	/shop/$1	/product/blue-mug-old goes to /shop/blue-mug
^/category/(.*)$	/topics/$1	Every category URL moves to /topics/

The pattern is tested against the path only, without the domain or query string. Anchor it with ^ and $: without them it can match in the middle of a path, and only the matched part is replaced. An invalid pattern is rejected with "The regular expression is not valid."

Important A broad pattern can catch more URLs than you meant, including your own pages. Test a new regex rule on a few real URLs right after saving. An AI agent can do this for you with the test_url tool, which shows which rule matches a URL.

Status codes

Type	When to use it
308 Permanent redirect (keeps method)	A permanent move where the request method must be kept, for example an endpoint that receives form posts.
410 Gone	The page was removed on purpose and won't come back. Search engines drop a 410 faster than a 404. Needs no target.
451 Unavailable for legal reasons	The page was removed because of a legal demand. Needs no target.

410 and 451 rules return the status code with an empty page instead of redirecting. Combine them with Starts with or a regular expression to retire a whole section at once, for example From /discontinued/, Match Starts with, Type 410 Gone.

Imported rules

When you import redirects from Redirection, Rank Math or Yoast SEO Premium, prefix and regex rules come across on Pro. The free plugin imports exact-match rules only.

FAQ

What happens to my regex and 410 rules if Pro expires?

They stay in your list and keep running, but you can't create or edit rules of these kinds without Pro. Exact-match 301, 302 and 307 rules work as before.

Should I use 410 or a redirect for deleted pages?

Redirect when there's a close replacement, such as a newer version of the product or article. Use 410 when there's nothing relevant to send people to. Redirecting everything to the home page is treated by Google as a soft 404.

Do regex rules slow the site down?

Each request first checks exact rules in one lookup, then Starts with rules, then regular expressions. A few dozen patterns cost very little. If you have hundreds, prefer Starts with rules where they do the job.