For those using WordPress as their website platform, it is important to understand how to properly replace URLs. This is especially true if you are migrating from an old domain name to a new one, moving from http:// to https://, or switching from www. to a non-www. URL. Without proper implementation, the transition can damage your website SEO and user experience.
While most good hosting providers offer migration tools to help move your site, you may still come across media files in your WordPress media library using the old URL, or links that were added manually and were not updated. The result is broken links on your site that can negatively impact your SERP rankings.
Finding and replacing these URLs can be a tedious and time-consuming task, especially on a large website. With the Nexter Extension, you can manage this task without any additional plugins.
The Nexter Extension (free) plugin gives you an option to find and replace links on your WordPress website.
Best Used For:
- Sites migrating from a staging domain to a live production domain
- WordPress websites switching from http to https after installing an SSL certificate
- Blogs and content sites with hundreds of internal links that need to be updated in bulk
Learn via Video Tutorial
To replace URLs on your WordPress website, go to Nexter > Extensions > Utilities.
Then go to the Replace URL & Text section and enable the toggle, then click on the gear icon (⚙).
It will open the Replace URL & Text popup where you can replace your URL.
Note: Before replacing the URL of your site, you should back up your database as a safety measure just in case anything goes wrong, as these tasks directly affect the database.
In the Old URL field, add the URL you want to replace. In the New URL field, add the URL you want to replace it with.
Check the Case Sensitive checkbox if the search needs to match case exactly.
To change data from the 'guid' column of the table, check the Replace GUIDs checkbox.
Limit the number of search query rows from the Search Limit field. Set a lower value if you experience server timeout issues during the search and replace.
From the Select Tables field, select a specific database table or select multiple tables where the search and replace will run.
For example, to change all the URLs of your website from http:// to https://, in the Old URL field write http://yoursite.com and in the New URL field write https://yoursite.com.
Select the database table from the Select Tables field where you want to run the query.
Click the Dry Run button to see how many URLs it finds with http://yoursite.com.
Finally, click the Confirm button to replace the old URL with the new URL.
All links from the old URL, for example http://yoursite.com, are now replaced with the new URL https://yoursite.com in that specific table.
When changing URLs, set up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones. See How to Redirect 404 Error Page in WordPress for the full redirect setup.
We have listed some popular use cases below:
Replace the Staging domain with the Production WordPress domain during migration
When setting up and maintaining websites, replacing staging website URLs with live site URLs in WordPress is an important step. This ensures that visitors to the website only access the live site and not the staging version.
With the Replace URL feature of the Nexter Extension, replace the staging domain URL with your production site domain URL.
Replacing Interlinks in Blog content to Fix broken Links
When producing content for your blog, links are a vital part of the structure. They provide additional information for readers and connect pages through internal linking. Links can sometimes become broken due to URL changes or other issues.
Quickly fix broken links by using the Replace URL feature of the Nexter Extension.
Updating Old Affiliate Links with New Links in WordPress
Affiliate marketing is a great way to monetize your website. Companies often change their affiliate platforms, which means you need to update affiliate links across your site. If you have affiliate links throughout your website, updating them manually can be frustrating and can hurt you financially.
With the Replace URL feature of the Nexter Extension, update old affiliate links with new ones across your entire site at once.
Updating 3rd Party Links in WordPress
Maintaining the accuracy and relevance of third-party links on your website is important for providing visitors with the best experience. As the web changes, new resources replace old ones, and links on your website must be regularly reviewed and updated. Manually updating hundreds of third-party links is a tedious task.
Use the Replace URL feature of the Nexter Extension to make the process manageable.
Replace Old Images with New Updated Images
One of the ways to keep your website looking fresh is to replace old images with updated ones. If you have many images on your WordPress website, replacing them manually is time-consuming.
Upload the new images in the WordPress media library and then use the Replace URL feature of the Nexter Extension to replace the old image URL with the new image URL across the entire site.
