How To Redirect Website Users And Viewers To A Random Post On WordPress

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How To Redirect Website Users To A Random Post

This is written for instances where you want to redirect your WordPress website users and viewers to a random post, via menu item, page, plain ol’ text link, button, etc using SEO friendly redirect codes.

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Step 1: Create a php file

Creating a PHP file can be done many different ways. (Beginner examples: Use Microsoft Notepad and paste the code below, then save your extension as PHP. Or change an existent PHP file and paste the code below. )

// set arguments for get_posts()
 $args = array(
 'numberposts' => 1,
 'orderby' => 'rand'
 );

// get a random post from the database
 $my_random_post = get_posts ( $args );

// process the database request through a foreach loop
 foreach ( $my_random_post as $post ) {
 // redirect the user to the random post
 wp_redirect ( get_permalink ( $post->ID ), 307 );
 exit;
 }

Step 2: Upload page-random.php into your theme’s directory

Your theme’s directory can be found in your FTP manager under wp-content>Themes>Your Theme.

Step 3: Create a page titled “random” on WordPress

Login to your WordPress dashboard, create a new page and title it random.

Once you have created the random page in your WordPress interface users who visit http://yourwebsite.com/random will be directed to a random post.

307 HTTP redirect codes

Adapted into the code above is a 307 status code. Using 307 codes for redirecting users to random posts will allow search engine bots to understand this is just a temporary redirect, otherwise redirects are not considered SEO friendly.[/Normal_Box]
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