Help:How to use redirect pages

How to create a redirect page

If you want to redirect traffic going to one page to another page (with a better title, for example), then use the command #REDIRECT [[pagename]] at the top of the page. See Richard Berman for an example. Do not use trailing text in redirect pages.

How to create a disambiguation page

To enable the reader to pick several options for a name, then a disambiguation page is required. For example:

The Bermans are nice chaps, pick one:

#[[Rick A. Berman]]

#[[Rick B. Berman]]

It is possible to add trailing text to the disambiguation page, e.g.,

The Bermans are nice chaps, pick one:

#[[Rick A. Berman]] lives in Ann Arbor

#[[Rick B. Berman]] lives in Boston

When to create a redirect page

• So that links to common synonyms and expansions of unique acronyms will all end up at the same place, such as ACSH and American Council on Science and Health
• Redirecting to one article after consolidating two closely related articles. If you do this, you should do a little cleaning up by checking the links to the redirected article and making them go straight to the article that is the target of the redirection.

When not to create a redirect page

If you simply want to rename an article to a new title, please don't just paste it under the new name and make a redirect. This breaks the history of previous edits, and if there's a talk page it won't get moved automatically. Instead, use the Move page function, which keeps these things intact and makes a redirect for you.

How to edit a redirect page

When you click on a link to a redirect page, you will be redirected automatically to the new page. But what if you want to edit the redirect page, for example, to redirect it somewhere else? To do this, click on the "(redirected from OldPageName)" link at the top of the new page.

Points to bear in mind

Follow the "principle of least astonishment": make it clear to the reader that they have arrived in the right place. Otherwise, the reader will think "hang on ... I wanted to read about this. Why has the link taken me to that?" Note that in many cases, a redirect is a temporary measure: For example, John Doyle currently redirects to Berman & Co., but someone may want to eventually create a separate article about John Doyle at some point; in this case, see "how to edit a redirect page" above.

Don't create "loop links": don't link alternative names of an article on the article page itself. So, if "Industry-funded organizations" is a redirect to "Industry-sponsored organizations", don't do this on Industry-sponsored organizations:

'''Industry-sponsored organizations''' (or [[Industry-funded organizations]]) ...

Seeing the above makes the reader think that clicking on the "Industry-funded organizations" link leads to more information -- but it doesn't, it leads right back to the very same page!

Multiple links: Don't link several terms that all go to the same place:

Think tanks and other [[Industry-sponsored organizations]] or [[Industry-funded organizations]] ...

Doing the above makes the reader click two links, only to find that she has loaded the same page twice!

See also:

• How to edit a page
• How to rename a page
• Practice editing pages in our SourceWatch sandbox!

Acknowledgement: the content of many of the help pages in SourceWatch have been adapted from Wikipedia.