redirect 404 pages to homepage
-
Hello,
I'm puting a new website on a existing domain. In order to not loose the links that point to the varios old url I would like to redirect them to homepage.
The old website was a mess as there was no seo and the pages didn't target any keywords. Thats why I would like to redirect all links to home.
What do you think is the best way to do this ?
I tried to ad this in the .htaccess but it's not working;
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php
Con you tell me how it exacly look?
Now the hole file is like this:
@package Joomla
@copyright Copyright (C) 2005 - 2012 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved.
@license GNU General Public License version 2 or later; see LICENSE.txt
READ THIS COMPLETELY IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS FILE!
The line just below this section: 'Options +FollowSymLinks' may cause problems
with some server configurations. It is required for use of mod_rewrite, but may already
be set by your server administrator in a way that dissallows changing it in
your .htaccess file. If using it causes your server to error out, comment it out (add # to
beginning of line), reload your site in your browser and test your sef url's. If they work,
it has been set by your server administrator and you do not need it set here.
Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above.
Options +FollowSymLinks
Mod_rewrite in use.
RewriteEngine On
Begin - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits.
If you experience problems on your site block out the operations listed below
This attempts to block the most common type of exploit
attempts
to Joomla!Block out any script trying to base64_encode data within the URL.
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} base64_encode[^(]([^)]) [OR]
Block out any script that includes a
-
I'm very confused about where the 404 fits in - are these dead pages? To re-capture the link-juice, you'll need to 301-redirect (which it seems like you're also putting into play). In some cases, if the pages are gone or never existed, just let them be gone. If you take every single URL everyone could ever visit to the home-page, you may generate so many 301s that Google starts to get suspicious. We've seen some issues with this lately. In many cases, it's also just not a good user experience.
-
You should have RewriteEngine : RewriteEngine On and you should be able to access the .htaccess
have you tried using any of the tools in the URLs below
http://www.htaccessredirect.net/
&
This site talks about best practices of implementation you really just need to upload it to the FTP once you've made the changes using the tool in the URL above
http://www.ksl-consulting.co.uk/301-redirect-examples.html
Let me know if I can be of more help.
-
Ok, what Thomas is saying I will consider for some special pages but how do I technically do implement the redirects to home in .htaccess
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php is not working for now!
Is it correct?
RewriteEngine : RewriteEngine On
Do I have to ad something else to .htaccess ?
-
I think I have information that may help you Our little more I have comprised a hope will help you.
this tool will help you quite a bit in the described situation
http://www.htaccessredirect.net/
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-fix-crawl-errors-in-google-webmaster-tools
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/spiders-301-redirect.htm
404 page should include a link back to the home page or site map of your website so users can quickly get back to what they were searching for. A search box, if you have a site search, is also a good idea to add to a 404 page. Other then that, keep the page minimal, remove distractions and get the user off the 404 error page as quickly as they got on.
Keep in mind most users may not be so savvy when it comes to Internet jargon so simple explanations in English are key! Although, keeping it minimalist does not have to mean "boring". The steps to make a custom 404 page are simple and this site can explain in detail how to create one depending on your server.
301 Redirects
If you have old pages on your website that you want to remove or rename, use a 301 redirect to preserve search engine rankings and pass on backlinks and/or page rank. You can even redirect whole websites into new ones. It is easy to do and is very search engine friendly.
The term "301" stands for "moved permanently". It is created by using a .htaccess file. Follow this guide to learn how to implement many different types of 301 redirects. When pages are deleted instead of redirected with a 301, they turn into 404s (Not Found Pages).
I want to give credit where credit's due this information directly above was referenced from this website http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/301.html
sincerely,
Thomas von Zickell
-
I would spread the redirects around as much as possible. If you can give link juice to not only your homepage but all pages your page rank and thus Google search rank will increase once the 301 redirects are indexed by Google. I agree strongly with what Sven Witteveen has said below and would be very inclined to agree with him.
I hope I was of some help to you.
Sincerely,
Thomas von Zickell
Blueprint Marketing
-
Thanks for advise but the home url is:
-
Hi Igrizio,
I'm not entirely sure but could it be that you're redirecting to //index.php instead of /index.php?
You can use this website to see the the statuscode and any redirect locations of a website.
Best of luck,
Sven Witteveen
Expand Online
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Major Landing page removed from Google SERP and replace homepage URL.How do I fix it?
Hi Major Landing page removed from Google SERP and replace homepage URL.How do I fix it? In an SPA website (angularJS), Why it happens?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cafegardesh0 -
Will 301 Redirects Slow Page Speed?
We have a lot of subdomains that we are switching to subfolders and need to 301 redirect all the pages from those subdomains to the new URL. We have over 1000 that need to be implemented. So, will 301 redirects slow the page speed regardless of which URL the user comes through? Or, as the old urls are dropped from Google's index and bypassed as the new URLs take over in the SERPs, will those redirects then have no effect on page speed? Trying to find a clear answer to this and have yet to find a good answer
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MJTrevens0 -
Shopify Redirects
I work for a company who has a few url issues. One url is www.randomwords.com/random/type:random The other is www.randomwords.com/random/type-random What is the best way to go about this issue?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MasonInteractive0 -
How should I deal with this page?
Hey Mozzers, I was looking for a little guidance and advice regarding a couple of pages on my website. I have used 'shoes' for this example. I have the current structure Parent Category - Shoes Sub Categories - Blue Shoes
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ATP
Hard Shoes
Soft Shoes
Big Shoes etc Supporting Article - Different Types of Shoe and Their Uses There are about 12 subcategories in total - each one links back to the Parent Category with the keyword "Shoes". Every sub category has gone from ranking 50+ to 10-30th for its main keyword which is a good start and as I release supporting articles im sure each one will climb. I am happy with this. The Article ranks no1 for about 20 longtails terms around "different shoes". This page attracts around 60% of my websites traffic but we know this traffic will not convert as most are people and children looking for information only for educational purposes and are not looking to buy. Many are also looking for a type of product we dont sell. My issue is ranking for the primary category "Shoes" keyword. When i first made the changes we went from ranking nowhere to around 28th on the parent category page targeted at "Shoes". Whilst not fantastic this was good as gave us something to work off. However a few weeks later, the article page ranked 40th for this term and the main page dropped off the scale. Then another week some of the sub category pages ranked for it. And now none of my pages rank in the top 50 for it. I am fairly sure this is due to some cannibalisation - simply because of various pages ranking for it at different times.
I also think that additional content added by products on the sub category pages is giving them more content and making them rank better. The Page Itself
The Shoes page itself contains 400 good unique words, with the keyword mentioned 8 times including headings. There is an image at the top of the page with its title and alt text targeted towards the keyword. The 12 sub categories are linked to on the left navigation bar, and then again below the 400 words of content via a picture and text link. This added the keyword to the page another 18 or so times in the form of links to longtail subcaterogies. This could introduce a spam problem i guess but its in the form of nav bars or navigation tables and i understood this to be a necessary evil on eCommerce websites. There are no actual products linked from this page. - a problem? With all the basic SEO covered. All sub pages linking back to the parent category, the only solution I can think of is to add more content by Adding all shoes products to the shoe page as it currently only links out the the sub categories Merging the "Different Type of Shoe and Their Uses" article into the shoe page to make a super page and make the article pages less like to produce cannibalistic problems. However, by doing solution 2, I remove a page bringing in a lot of traffic. The traffic it brings in however is of very little use and inflates the bounce rate and lowers the conversion rate of my whole site by significant figures. It also distorts other useful reports to track my other progress. I hope i have explained well enough, thanks for sticking with me this far, i havn't posted links due to a reluctance by the company so hopefully my example will suffice. As always thanks for any input.0 -
Pagination on a product page with reviews spread out on multiple pages
Our current product pages markup only have the canonical URL on the first page (each page loads more user reviews). Since we don't want to increase load times, we don't currently have a canonical view all product page. Do we need to mark up each subsequent page with its own canonical URL? My understanding was that canonical and rel next prev tags are independent of each other. So that if we mark up the middle pages with a paginated URL, e.g: Product page #1http://www.example.co.uk/Product.aspx?p=2692"/>http://www.example.co.uk/Product.aspx?p=2692&pageid=2" />**Product page #2 **http://www.example.co.uk/Product.aspx?p=2692&pageid=2"/>http://www.example.co.uk/Product.aspx?p=2692" />http://www.example.co.uk/Product.aspx?p=2692&pageid=3" />Would mean that each canonical page would suggest to google another piece of unique content, which this obviously isn't. Is the PREV NEXT able to "override" the canonical and explain to Googlebot that its part of a series? Wouldn't the canonical then be redundant?Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Don340 -
Landing pages "dropping" and being replaced with homepage?
Hi Moz People Happy new year to all, I have an interesting one here. I have recently been making some landing pages and they have all pretty much hit page 1 for the search terms I've focused on (UK Domain). Up until this morning the landing page was the 8th organic result on the UK domain. However I have checked this morning and the landing page has dropped below the top 50 and instead our homepage is now showing as the last organic result on page 1. This is intriguing to me as it has also happened to a couple of other landing pages I have made. Is this due to the relevance being driven higher by the landing pages but overall the homepage is more important to Google? Do you guys think this might start happening to the other pages that I have created? Any input would be appreciated! ( Ill give you links and search terms if you want to take a look for yourselves but I try to refrain from "self advertising" ) Happy Thursday Mozzers ! Jamie
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SanjidaKazi0 -
Add noindex,nofollow prior to removing pages resulting in 404's
We're working with another site that unfortunately due to how their website has been programmed creates a bit of a mess. Whenever an employee removes a page from their site through their homegrown 'content management system', rather than 301'ing to another location on their site, the page is deleted and results in a 404. The interim question until they implement a better solution in managing their website is: Should they first add noindex,nofollow to the pages that are scheduled to be removed. Then once they are removed, they become 404's? Of note, it is possible that some of these pages will be used again in the future, and I would imagine they could submit them to Google through Webmaster Tools and adding the pages to their sitemap.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Prospector-Plastics0 -
Multiple 301 Redirects for the Same Page
Hi Mozzers, What happens if I have a trail of 301 redirects for the same page? For example,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Travis-W
SiteA.com/10 --> SiteA.com/11 --> SiteA.com/13 --> SiteA.com/14 I know I lose a little bit of link juice by 301 redirecting.
The question is, would the link juice look like this for the example above? 100% --> 90% --> 81% -->72.9%
Or just 100% -----------------------------------------> 90% Does this link juice refer to juice from inbound links or links between internal pages on my site? Thanks!0