Redirect 404 Matcher (1.4.0)

Lightweight automatic 404 fixer with no logs or tracking — the alternative to heavy managers and homepage-dump plugins.

How it resolves a 404 (in order):

1. Manual overrides (/old-path /new-path, max 50, exact match)
2. Renamed posts (old slug auto-tracked → 301, max 200)
3. Removed content (trashed slug → 410 Gone, opt-out available)
4. Smart match (similar-text + typo score ≥55 → 301)
5. Custom 404 fallback (same-site 302) or native 404

Free features in WordPress.org version:

• Smart slug + typo matching (301, same-site only)
• Renamed-post auto-redirects + 410 handling
• Manual overrides + custom fallback 404 URL
• Default image replacement for missing media (same-site only)
• No license key, no logs, no tracking required

🚀 Features

• Redirect 404s to the closest matching content by URL similarity + typo tolerance (301).
• Renamed-post tracking and 410 Gone for trashed content (SEO-correct, no soft-404s).
• Manual overrides for migrations without building a full rule table.
• Excludes admin / feeds / sitemaps / wp-json / probes — scanners never get redirected.
• Configurable post types (e.g. post, page, custom types).
• Custom fallback 404 page (302, same-site only).
• Default image URL replacement for broken <img> links (same-site only).
• Settings under Settings → 404 Redirect Matcher, accessible only to admins (manage_options).
• Per-site settings, compatible with multisite environments.
• No external requests, no tracking, no bundled third-party libraries.
• Built with security best practices.

🛠 Installation

1. Upload the plugin to your WordPress /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the “Plugins” menu in WordPress.
3. Go to Settings → 404 Redirect Matcher to configure.

🔧 Usage

• Enable redirect matching.
• Select the post types to match against.
• Optionally enter a same-site fallback 404 page URL and default image URL.

🧪 Multisite Support

Each site stores its own configuration via standard options. Network activation is supported; settings remain per-site so the Settings API save/load always matches.

🔐 Security

This plugin uses:

• current_user_can('manage_options') to restrict settings to administrators (menu + page callback).
• Proper sanitization of all inputs via register_setting() (absint, whitelisted sanitize_key post types, esc_url_raw).
• Output escaping (esc_attr, esc_html, esc_url) and wp_json_encode for inline JS.
• wp_safe_redirect() + same-site checks to prevent open redirects.
• Fully prepared SQL with $wpdb->prepare() + $wpdb->esc_like().
• Redirect loop prevention.
• Limited redirect match scope (3 path segments max, 10 results per fragment).
• Enqueued inline script via wp_add_inline_script() instead of raw echo.

📄 See SECURITY.md for full details.

👨‍💻 Author

Developed by ZHR Venture 🔗 https://zhrventure.com/404-redirect-matcher/

📬 Feedback

We’d love to hear your thoughts!

💡 Have ideas or issues? 📧 Email: dev@zhrventure.com

Appreciate any feedback or ideas for improvements!

📄 License

GPL v2.0 or later See LICENSE for full terms.