Wikipedia:How to make a redirect

A redirect is a special type of page that sends the reader to another page. They are used when there are different names for the same subject.

For example, the United Kingdom is often referred to as the "UK". The article on Wikipedia entitled UK is a redirect to the United Kingdom article, as it is the same topic as the United Kingdom article.

Redirects ensure that different articles about the same subject are not created, and that visitors who may only know one way of referring to a topic are able to find the article they wish to, even if they are unfamiliar with its title.

Criteria for redirects

To make redirects on Wikipedia, you need to make an account. However, if you don't have an account, you can still request a redirect here.

If you do have an autoconfirmed account, you can create a redirect without having to request one first. There are guidelines governing the reasons for and against the creation of redirects, which you should familiarise yourself with.

If the redirect you create potentially violates these guidelines, it may be brought up at Redirects for Discussion, which may result in its deletion.

However, some redirects break guidelines so obviously that their deletion is likely to be uncontested and uncontroversial within the Wikipedia community; as such, if the redirect you create is a clear violation of Wikipedia's guidelines, it may be speedily deleted without prior debate instead.

Creating a redirect

To create a redirect, enter the title you wish to redirect away from into the box below. This will create a new page, but it will not be published to Wikipedia proper until you hit 'Publish'.

Enter the title you want to create here, and click Create redirect:

Note that creating a redirect on mobile browser can cause issues; you may wish to switch to desktop view. To do this, scroll to the bottom of this article and click the 'desktop view' link.

If the article already exists, creating a redirect from that title will remove the existing article, which is usually a bad idea. The article may also exist already as a redirect.

If the article doesn't exist already, you'll see the following text:

#REDIRECT [[Name of article]]

Replace "Name of article" with the article you want it to point to, and click "Publish page".

For example, entering 'UK' into the above box would create a new page with the title 'UK'; a redirect from this page to the United Kingdom article would be formatted like this:

#REDIRECT [[United Kingdom]]

Publishing this page would create the UK to United Kingdom redirect.