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Redirects on Wikipedia: How They Work and How to Use Them

November 11, 2026

Redirects on Wikipedia: How They Work and How to Use Them

Redirects on Wikipedia: How They Work and How to Use Them

A Wikipedia redirect is a page that automatically sends readers from one title to another. You create one by starting a page with #REDIRECT followed by a link to the target. Per Wikipedia’s redirect guideline, the target is usually an article or a section of an article. Redirects are how Wikipedia makes sure that “IBM,” “International Business Machines” and a common misspelling all land on the same place. They are also how duplicate pages are retired after a merge, and they are one of the most overlooked parts of a company’s Wikipedia footprint.

This guide covers what redirects do, when to create one, the exact syntax, how to find every redirect pointing at a page, how to repair broken ones, and what happens to a duplicate article once it is merged.

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TL;DR

  • A redirect is a page whose only content is #REDIRECT [[Target page]]. Readers who open the old title arrive at the target automatically.
  • Add redirects for alternative names, abbreviations, spellings and likely misspellings, so every way people search for a subject lands on one article.
  • To point a redirect at a section, add a hash and the section heading, for example #REDIRECT [[Article name#Section]].
  • Redirects do not chain. Each one should point straight at the final page, and bots usually clean up double redirects after a move or merge.
  • To merge duplicate articles, copy the content across, credit the source in the edit summary, and replace the old article with a redirect. Do not delete it.

Table of Contents

What a Wikipedia redirect actually does

A redirect is a short page that forwards a title to another page. According to Wikipedia:Redirect, it sends readers to an article or a section of an article, and its wikitext begins with #REDIRECT and a link to the target. The reader never sees the redirect page itself. They land on the destination, with a small line under the title reading “Redirected from …” that shows where they came from.

That small line matters for editing. As the Wikipedia editing FAQ explains, the easiest way to edit a redirect page is to click that “redirected from” link at the top of the target. It opens the redirect itself instead of forwarding you on again.

Redirects are cheap to create, open to review by any editor, and invisible to most readers. That is exactly why they do so much work. They keep internal links alive when pages are renamed, catch searches that use informal wording, and let one article answer several different queries.

When a title should redirect to another article

Not every variation deserves its own redirect, but Wikipedia’s guidance is generous. The redirect guideline lists several legitimate reasons to create and keep one:

  • Alternative names, including former names and nicknames
  • Plurals and closely related words
  • Adjectives or adverbs pointing to the noun form
  • Abbreviations and initialisms
  • Alternative spellings and ASCII versions of names with accents
  • Likely misspellings
  • Preserving edit history when the history is relevant to copyright or contains nontrivial edits

For a company, a founder or a nonprofit, the practical translation is straightforward. If the subject has a legal name, a brand name, a ticker, an acronym, a former name after a rebrand or a name that is commonly misspelled, each is a candidate for a redirect to the one article.

The last bullet is the one people miss. A redirect is not only a convenience. When an article is merged or renamed, the redirect left behind keeps the revision history attached, which is what preserves attribution for the original authors.

A few examples

The pattern is easy to recognize once you have seen it:

Redirect title Points to Why it exists
Acme Inc Acme Corporation Alternative legal form
Acme Corp. Acme Corporation Abbreviation
Acme Coproration Acme Corporation Likely misspelling
Old Brand Name Acme Corporation#History Former name explained in a section

The company names above are placeholders. The point is that a single, well-sourced article can sit behind four or five entry points.

How to create a redirect on Wikipedia

The mechanics are simple. Help:Redirect states that a redirect is created with wikitext that begins with #REDIRECT followed by a valid wikilink to the target.

  1. Search for the title you want to redirect. If no page exists, the search results offer a red link to create it. If a page already exists, open it and choose to edit it.
  2. In the empty editing box, type #REDIRECT [[Target article]], using the exact title of the destination.
  3. Add a short edit summary, such as “Redirect alternate name to main article.”
  4. Preview the page, check that the link is blue, then save.
  5. Open the new title in a fresh tab and confirm that it forwards to the right place.

The destination must be an existing, normal page on the same project. Help:Redirect notes that a redirect works as intended only when it links to such a page. If you need to point elsewhere, for example to another Wikimedia project, editors use a “soft redirect” instead, which shows a notice and a link rather than forwarding automatically.

New accounts may find that some actions are restricted. Creating pages directly can require an account that is a few days old and has a handful of edits, and some pages are protected. If you hit that wall, the cleaner path is to propose the redirect on the talk page of the target article.

Redirecting to a specific section

To send readers to part of an article, add a hash sign and the exact section heading to the link:

#REDIRECT [[Article name#Section heading]]

This is the right tool when a subject is too small for its own article but is covered in a section of a larger one, such as a subsidiary, a product line or a past name. The same principle works for ordinary links, too. Help:Link gives the example that if Danzig redirects to Gdańsk, then a link to Danzig#History opens the History section of the Gdańsk article.

Two cautions apply. Section names are case sensitive, and headings get renamed. Per Help:Redirect, if the target section does not exist, the reader is taken to the top of the target page instead. That is not a disaster, but it does mean a section redirect needs a quick check whenever the article is reorganized.

How to find every redirect pointing to a page

If you manage a company or personal article, you want to know which titles feed into it. The built-in tool is “What links here,” found in the Tools menu on the left or the sidebar of any article.

According to Help:What links here, the tool lists the pages that link to, redirect to or transclude a given page, and it marks pages that redirect there with the word “redirect.” Links that reach the target through a redirect appear indented underneath that redirect. A double indent signals a double redirect, and a triple indent shows incoming links passing through two intervening redirects.

To get a clean list of redirects only, use the filters at the top of the page to hide transclusions and links. What remains is the complete set of alternative titles that currently resolve to your article. Reviewing that list once a quarter is a sensible habit: you will see whether a former name or a misspelling has appeared, and whether any redirect has been pointed somewhere unexpected.

How to find every redirect pointing to a page

Fixing broken, double and circular redirects

Redirects fail in predictable ways, and each has a clear remedy.

Four Wikipedia redirect problems and their remedies

Broken redirects. Help:Redirect says that if the target is a non-existent page, a special page, a direct file link or a page in another project, the redirect is not followed and the reader sees the redirect page instead. The fix is to retarget it to a page that exists, or to nominate it for deletion if it no longer serves a purpose.

Double redirects. Help:Redirect also says that chains of redirects are not followed. If A points to B and B points to C, a reader who opens A stops at B. Bots usually repair these so that each redirect points straight to the final target. After any page move, it is still good practice to check What links here yourself.

Circular redirects. A points to B, which points back to A. Nobody can reach any content, so one of the two must be turned into a real page or pointed somewhere useful.

Wrong section targets. As covered above, the reader lands at the top of the page. Update the redirect to the renamed heading.

When you need to edit any of these, use the “redirected from” link on the target page described earlier, and make the change with a clear edit summary. If a fix is disputed, take it to the talk page rather than reverting back and forth. Our guide to how edit wars on Wikipedia start and how to avoid one explains why.

Merging duplicate Wikipedia pages

Duplicate articles are a common reason redirects come up. Two pages about the same company, usually created under different names, split sources, confuse readers and weaken both pages.

Wikipedia has a clear standard. Wikipedia:Merging gives reasons to merge, including duplicate articles on the same subject and scope, substantial overlap between related articles and short articles that are unlikely to be expanded soon. The merge project’s guide summarizes the same thinking: unnecessary duplication, significant overlap, or minimal content that reads better inside a broader page.

What a merge actually is

Wikipedia:Merging defines a merge as uniting two or more articles into one by copying some or all content from the source into the destination, then replacing the source with a redirect to the destination. The redirect is the last step, and it is what retains the old title.

Step by step

  1. Confirm that the pages cover the same subject. Compare the lead sections and the sources. If they describe genuinely different subjects, a merge is wrong.
  2. Choose the destination. Usually this is the older page, the better-sourced page or the one at the most commonly used name.
  3. Copy over content that is verifiable. Move only material backed by reliable sources. Do not paste duplicated passages twice.
  4. Credit the source in your edit summary. Name the page you copied from, so that attribution is visible in the history.
  5. Replace the source page with a redirect using #REDIRECT [[Destination]]. Do not blank it or delete it.
  6. Check What links here on the old title and repair any double redirects. Wikipedia:Merging says to do this and notes that bots may handle it, though it can take a few hours.

Why you should not delete the old page

Wikipedia’s licensing requires that the people who wrote the text be credited. The page on merging and deleting explains that when one article is merged into another, the history of the merged text must be preserved or the authors’ names recorded. In its words, merged pages should almost never be deleted. A redirect keeps the history in place, so attribution survives. That is the answer to the common question of how to retain a redirect after a merge: leave the old title as a redirect and never remove it afterward.

Do you need permission?

Usually not. Wikipedia:Merging states that when a merge is obviously needed and not controversial, editors are encouraged to be bold and do not need anyone’s permission or prior discussion, although an open deletion discussion should be allowed to finish first. Help:Merging repeats that any editor can do it and sets out the steps. Where the merge is contested, the better route is a proposal on the talk page. The merge project’s guide notes that proposals with no discussion after a reasonable time can be treated as stale, and it gives an example of a six-month cutoff for delisting in certain cases.

A merge that involves a company with a conflict of interest is a case for caution. If you work for, or are paid by, the subject, Wikipedia expects you to disclose that and to propose changes on the talk page rather than making sensitive edits directly. Our walkthrough on how to edit a Wikipedia page, with the rules and process covers this in detail.

Redirects are a quiet part of how a name resolves to an entity. When a person searches for your former brand name, a nickname or an acronym, a redirect is what delivers them to the page about you. The same consistency helps machines. Search engines and AI answer tools lean on a single, well-defined entity, and one clean article with the right alternate titles is easier to interpret than several fragments. The principle of consistent naming across a knowledge base is also central to knowledge graph SEO, where a brand’s names, attributes and relationships need to resolve to one recognizable entity.

On Wikipedia itself, that entity record is paired with Wikidata, where aliases and identifiers live. We explain what the structured side does in our Wikidata page creation service, and how the encyclopedia relates to search in Wikipedia for SEO.

Our perspective

Most of the problems we see with a company’s Wikipedia footprint are not dramatic. They are small, structural and easy to miss: a former name that goes nowhere, a duplicate stub created years ago by a well-meaning employee, a section redirect that broke when a heading changed.

We focus exclusively on Wikipedia and Wikidata, and redirects are part of how we think about a page’s integrity. A strong article is not just well-sourced and neutral. It is reachable under every name your audience uses, and it has no loose ends that an anonymous editor can turn into a dispute.

That is why our work does not stop at publication. Page creation, editing, Wikidata and ongoing monitoring are designed to work together, so the alternate titles, the history and the sourcing stay coherent as your company changes. Trust is the currency of modern business, and an encyclopedia entry that is consistent and verifiable is a third-party endorsement that never sleeps.

Amaury

Getting redirects right for your company

If your company has a Wikipedia article, review its incoming redirects, and confirm that former names, abbreviations and common misspellings are covered. If duplicates exist, plan a merge that preserves history and resolves the old title into a redirect.

If you do not have an article yet, start with eligibility. Our Notability and Eligibility Audit is $700 and tells you whether the independent coverage you have meets Wikipedia’s standards before any drafting begins. Our Wikipedia page creation service starts at $2,000 and is built around Wikipedia’s notability, neutrality and verifiability guidelines, with redirects and Wikidata entries planned from the start. For an existing page, content editing and optimization starts at $700.

Wikirepublic

When something on your page is wrong rather than merely messy, see our guide to fixing misinformation on Wikipedia, or learn how Wikipedia reputation management keeps a page accurate over time.

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Deleting instead of redirecting. Removing a merged page erases the history that licensing requires you to keep.
  • Pointing redirects at redirects. Always use the final destination.
  • Using a redirect to hide a subject. A redirect should help readers find content, not obscure it. Redirects are reviewable by anyone, and misleading ones can be nominated for deletion.
  • Forgetting section names. When someone renames a heading, the redirect that targeted it silently sends readers to the top of the page.
  • Creating a redirect for every conceivable phrase. Stay with names people actually use.
  • Editing without disclosure. If you have a connection to the subject, declare it and use the talk page for anything contested.

FAQ

How do I create a redirect on Wikipedia?

Open the title you want to redirect and edit it, then enter #REDIRECT [[Target page]] as the only content. Add an edit summary, preview to confirm the link is blue and save. Then open the old title to check that it forwards correctly.

Can a Wikipedia redirect point to a section of an article?

Yes. Add a hash and the exact heading, such as #REDIRECT [[Article#Section]]. If the section is later renamed or removed, readers are sent to the top of the target article instead, so check section redirects after major edits.

How do I find all the pages that redirect to a given article?

Use “What links here” in the Tools menu of the article. Pages that redirect to it are labeled “redirect,” and you can filter out ordinary links to see only redirects. Indented entries show links passing through a redirect.

What happens to a Wikipedia page after it is merged?

The content is copied into the destination article, and the old page is turned into a redirect to it. The old title keeps its edit history, which preserves attribution for the original authors. Any double redirects should then be repaired.

Can I merge two Wikipedia articles myself?

Any editor can, and obvious, uncontroversial merges do not require prior discussion. If the merge could be disputed, or if you have a connection to the subject, propose it on the talk page and let independent editors decide.

Sources

Redirects on Wikipedia: How They Work and How to Use Them | Wiki Republic