We have set up 301 redirects for pages from an old domain, but they aren't working and we are having duplicate content problems - Can you help?

[danatanseo]

We have several old domains. One is http://www.ccisound.com  - Our "real" site is http://www.ccisolutions.com  The 301 redirect from the old domain to the new domain works. However, the 301-redirects for interior pages, like:

http://www.ccisolund.com/StoreFront/category/cd-duplicators  do not work. This URL should redirect to http://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/category/cd-duplicators  but as you can see it does not.

Our IT director supplied me with this code from the HT Access file in hopes that someone can help point us in the right direction and suggest how we might fix the problem:

RewriteCond%{HTTP_HOST} ccisound.com$ [NC]

RewriteRule^(.*)$ http://www.ccisolutions.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Any ideas on why the 301 redirect isn't happening? Thanks all!

[cprasad]

Yes, That is the best thing you can do. Because seems there have some other issues in configs. And we can not see from here about your all the configs. Anyway the codes we have given you will successfully work once you solve your other problems.

Best Regards

Prasad

[danatanseo]

Thanks Prasad for all your help. And thank you to Ersin also. We have solved the problem. Apparently, our URL re-write at the TomCat level was taking precedence over the .htaccess file. Once our IT director added the appropriate redirect for these domain pages into the URL re-write file, the problem was fixed and those pages now render with a 301-redirect to the correct page one the correct domain. I have encouraged him to write a blog post about this and put it here because there was very little documentation online about TomCat redirects tasking precedence over an .htaccess file.

[danatanseo]

Thanks Prasad,

We tried your suggestion because there was a lot of stuff [1220 lines of code] in our .htaccess file. We stripped everything out except your code, and still had the same problem. Our IT director is wondering if perhaps there is a conflict between the .htaccess file that operates at the Apache level and the URL rewirte file which operates at the TomCat level. He is wondering, does one of them take precedence over the other? In other words, could our URL re-write file be causing the redirects in the .htaccess file to not work properly?

I am thinking maybe we need to hire someone to look at the code in both files in order to figure out where and why we are having a conflict?

Dana

[cprasad]

Hi,

I think you are doing so many mistakes. First take out all the other codes from your .htaccess file. Then copy only one code from me or from Ersin. While you have some other codes related to this domains redirection there may have conflicts. And your current code work for your root domains mean your .htaccess redirection is working. The problem is you have not used it correctly.

[danatanseo]

Thanks to both Ersin and Prasad. I appreciate your efforts to help very much. My IT director tried both versions of code without success. Here is exactly what he wrote:

" I tried the suggestions without success. I even moved the ccisound
redirects to the top of the file thinking that some other redirect was grabbing
it first, But no go, same results. Top level redirected, lower level not."

Any suggestions as to why neither code succeeded at creating a "catch all." ?

[ersaky]

cprasad's and my purpose are same, so our responses will work. But just some diffrences;

"<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">" line checks wheter Apache's rewrite module is activated or not. If it is then it runs the code after that. The second one is that my rewritecond lines are less than cprasad's, but they all same conditions.By the way, i have just tested it before I wrote it.</ifmodule>

Just do it..

[cprasad]

Hi,

Do not worry about the differences about the code provided by me and by Ersin. Both are same in functioning. He have just added module activation tags in to the code. So you may use any code which you prefer and works for you.

And the answer for your question about the code you were using, it may not be initiate a wildcard redirection.

Are there more codes inside the .htaccess?

If you can post the exact code without hyper-linking any url then I can tell you the exact reason why your code does not do the job.

Prasad

[danatanseo]

Thanks Ersin,

Can you explain how your coding suggestion is different from Prasad's? I am not a coder so am just wondering if there's a different methodology behind the two suggestions?

[danatanseo]

Yes, a catch-all makes sense to me. what is the difference between your code suggestion and the one just below posted by Ersin A. ? Also, just for our own understanding, can you explain why the code we were using wasn't accomplishing what we wanted? (I just want to be able to explain it to our Web team). Thanks!

[cprasad]

Hi,

The supplied url for interior page of old domain which you have mentioned not redirecting seems not correct. Because you have linked that text with the new domain. Anyway I have understand your problem. Your problem is

http://www.ccisound.com

is redirecting to

http://www.ccisolutions.com

but

http://www.ccisound.com/StoreFront/category/cd-duplicators

is not redirecting to

http://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/category/cd-duplicators

If I have understood correctly, the solution for your problem is, Do a wildcard 301 redirection. It will redirects all the inner pages to the new domain's inner pages. But all the inner pages in new site, must have the same paths as the old site. Hope you understand what I mean.

Anyway when look in to the example urls you have provided it seems both sites have the same content. So there is nothing to worry about. Seems you have just changed domain name.

So anyway use the following code in your .htaccess file inside your root folder

RewriteEngine on

Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^ccisound.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.ccisound.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ "http://www.ccisolutions.com/$1" [R=301,L]

First and second line do not write again if those already written inside your .htaccess file.

the above code will initiate a wildcard 301 redirection and will solve your problem. Hope you can improve the code for all the other domains you have. Otherwise post here. I will do it for you.

Regards

Prasad