Categorizing redirects

This page explains how and why redirects are categorized on Wikipedia. Redirect categories improve discovery, maintenance, and navigation by grouping redirects by type, target, or editorial purpose.

Why categorize redirects?

Navigation: help readers find alternative names, spellings, or subtopics.
Maintenance: track redirects needing review (e.g., from misspellings, from merges).
Editorial workflow: support processes such as RfD (redirects for discussion) and disambiguation cleanups.
Analytics: understand inbound search terms and naming variants.

Where categories go

Place redirect categories directly on the redirect page, below the redirect line. Example:

#REDIRECT [[Target page]]
{{R from alternative name}}
{{R to section}}
[[Category:Redirects from alternative names]]

Notes:

Keep the #REDIRECT line first.
Use redirect templates (see below) whenever possible; many automatically add the appropriate categories.

Redirect category types

Common families include:

By source name/form:

 * Redirects from alternative names (aliases, stage names)
 * Redirects from alternative spellings (US/UK variants)
 * Redirects from plural, from singular, from punctuation
 * Redirects from initialisms/acronyms, from hyphenation
 * Redirects from misspellings (obvious typos; use sparingly and with care)

By target relationship:

 * Redirects to sections (targeting Target#Section)
 * Redirects to list-entries (list of X → entry anchor)
 * Redirects to disambiguation pages (soft or hard patterns)
 * Redirects to drafts (temporary during moves/merges; generally avoid long-term)

By editorial action:

 * Redirects from merges
 * Redirects from moves (old titles after page moves)
 * Redirects from deletions (salvaged content redirected)

By topic or scope:

 * Redirects related to places/people/organizations when a project maintains specialized tracking
 * WikiProjects may maintain subtrees for their domains

Use templates to categorize

Prefer redirect templates that both label and auto-categorize. Examples:

Advantages:

Consistent wording on documentation pages.
Automatic placement into the correct maintenance and tracking categories.
Easier bulk audits via category listings.

Soft redirects

Soft redirects point to other projects or language editions via a human-visible message rather than a hard redirect. Use a soft-redirect template that:

Clearly indicates the destination (e.g., sister project or language).
Keeps the page out of article readers’ navigation unless intended.
Places the page in appropriate categories (e.g., interwiki soft redirects).

Example:

{{soft redirect|sister=Commons|target=commons:Category:Example}}

Section and anchor redirects

When redirecting to a section or anchor (Target#Section or Target#anchor):

Use {{R to section}} to categorize appropriately.
Ensure the target section/anchor exists and is stable; update if headings change.
Prefer stable anchors (e.g., explicit {{anchor}}) for high-traffic redirects.

Disambiguation and redirects

Do not turn disambiguation pages into redirects unless consensus supports a primary topic outcome.
Redirects to disambiguation pages should use {{R to disambiguation page}}.
If a redirect is from a plausible ambiguous term, consider whether a dab page is more appropriate.

Redirects from merges and moves

After a merge, leave redirects from the merged titles; add {{R from merge}}.
After a page move, the old title redirects to the new one; consider {{R from move}} where relevant to categorize the old title.
These templates facilitate cleanup, attribution tracing, and future reversions if needed.

Misspellings and variants

Only create redirects from common and plausible misspellings; avoid trivial or invented typos.
Use {{R from misspelling}} for categorization.
For regional spelling variants (color/colour), prefer {{R from alternative spelling}}.

Maintenance and auditing

Use category listings to review redirect health and fix broken targets.
Tools:

 * Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:R to section (example of template-based audits)
 * Special:PrefixIndex/Category:Redirects from — browse families of redirect categories
 * Special:DoubleRedirects — find and fix chains
 * Special:BrokenRedirects — update or delete broken redirects
 * Special:RedirectPages — overview of redirects

WikiProjects may maintain task lists for redirects in their scope.

Common mistakes

Placing categories above the #REDIRECT line (breaks the redirect).
Adding article-topic categories to redirects (use redirect-specific cats/templates instead).
Creating redirects to volatile sections without anchors or maintenance.
Over-categorizing with multiple redundant redirect categories.
Using hard redirects for cross-project/language destinations (should be soft redirects).

Best practices

Prefer templates that auto-categorize; minimize manual category edits.
Keep the redirect target stable; monitor watchlist for target moves/section changes.
Use descriptive edit summaries when creating or retargeting redirects.
Consolidate near-duplicate redirects where appropriate; leave the most common forms.
Coordinate with WikiProjects for domain-specific conventions.

Examples

Basic:

#REDIRECT [[New York City]]
{{R from alternative name}}

To a section:

#REDIRECT [[Quantum field theory#Renormalization]]
{{R to section}}

From a misspelling:

#REDIRECT [[Mojang Studios]]
{{R from misspelling}}

From a merge:

#REDIRECT [[Example topic]]
{{R from merge}}

Wikipedia:Categorizing redirects