Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Let your business shine with Listings AI
      Moz Local

      Let your business shine with Listings AI

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4. Infinite Redirect Loop without trailing slash, please help

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Infinite Redirect Loop without trailing slash, please help

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    3
    11
    3846
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • debc
      debc last edited by

      I've been searching for an answer all day, I can't seem to figure this out.

      When I Fetch my blog as Google(http://www.mysite.com/blog) WITHOUT a trailing slash at the end, I get this error:

      The page seems to redirect to itself. This may result in an infinite redirect loop

      **HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently**

      When I Fetch my blog as Google WITH the trailing slash at the end(http://www.mysite.com/blog/), it is fine without errors.

      When I pull it up in a browser comes up fine both with and without the trailing slash.

      My .htaccess file in the root directory contains this:

      RewriteEngine On
      RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index.htm\ HTTP/
      RewriteRule ^index.htm$ http://www.mysite.com/ [R=301,L]
      RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mysite.com$
      RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

      My .htaccess file in the blog directory contains this:

      BEGIN WordPress

      <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
       RewriteBase /blog/
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^./index.php/. [NC]
       RewriteRule ^index.php/(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/blog/$1 [R=301,L]
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
      RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]</ifmodule>

      END WordPress

      Do I have something incorrectly coded in these .htaccess files that could be causing this? Or is there something else I should look at? Thank you for any help!!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • debc
        debc @debc last edited by

        I combined the htaccess files (putting the blog rewrite rule to the bottom of the file) now having just one htacess in the root directory and unfortunately it did not work. When I tried it, all the links on the blog would not work, they were all "page not found" so I reverted it back to what I originally had... Here is what the combined htaccess file looked like:

        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index.htm\ HTTP/
        RewriteRule ^index.htm$ http://www.example.com/ [R=301,L]
        RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com$
        RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

        <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
         RewriteBase /blog/
         RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^./index.php/. [NC]
         RewriteRule ^index.php/(.*)$ http://www.example.com/blog/$1 [R=301,L]
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
        RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]</ifmodule>

        Thanks again for any insight!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • SEOKeith
          SEOKeith @debc last edited by

          Hey Debora,

          Any luck?

          Keith

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • GeorgeAndrews
            GeorgeAndrews @debc last edited by

            Hello Debora,

            Make sure you keep copies of your .htaccess files before you make changes and, if you can, use a test site to test your changes first before you make changes on your live website.

            I'm not sure how your website is set up so I don't know if combining the two files will accomplish what you are looking for.

            Whatever you do, make sure you have backups.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • SEOKeith
              SEOKeith @debc last edited by

              Yes as I said above 🙂

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • debc
                debc @debc last edited by

                Thanks for your response Keith, I'll give it a try and let you know!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • debc
                  debc @GeorgeAndrews last edited by

                  Thanks George.  Please forgive me, I am a newbie at this!  I took a look at the link you provided, and I don't fully understand what they are explaining.  What I did understand is that having 2 htaccess files in different directories caused a problem with their code.  Do you think combining the two files into one on the root directory will make a difference for me?

                  SEOKeith GeorgeAndrews 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • SEOKeith
                    SEOKeith @debc last edited by

                    Sorry, I completely misread this question (I missed the part where you said you had to .htaccess files!).

                    Yes put one .htaccess file in the root dir, add the blog rewrite rule to the bottom of the file.

                    Let me know how it goes.

                    Keith

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • debc
                      debc @SEOKeith last edited by

                      Thanks Keith.  I tried it and it is still looping.  Do you think it has something to do with having 2 different .htaccess files?  Should I combine them into just one in the root directory?

                      SEOKeith debc 4 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • SEOKeith
                        SEOKeith last edited by

                        Yuk mod_rewrite...

                        Try:

                        RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index.php\ HTTP/
                        RewriteRule ^index.php$ http://www.example.com/blog/ [R=301,L]

                        You may wish to add $1 on the end

                        RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index.php\ HTTP/
                        RewriteRule ^index.php$ http://www.example.com/blog/$1 [R=301,L]

                        Let me know if that stops it looping...

                        Keith

                        debc 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • GeorgeAndrews
                          GeorgeAndrews last edited by

                          Try here. Maybe that will help.

                          Edit: Pretty sure it's your root directory .htaccess file that is causing the looping. I'd start with that.

                          debc 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • 1 / 1
                          • First post
                            Last post

                          Got a burning SEO question?

                          Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                          Start my free trial


                          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.

                          • See all categories

                          Related Questions

                          • vtmoz

                            Does removal of internal redirects(301) help in SEO

                            I am planning to completely remove 301 redirects manually by replacing such links with actual live pages/links. So there will be no redirects internally in the website. Will this boost our SEO efforts? Auto redirects will be there for incoming links to non-existing pages. Thanks, Satish

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vtmoz
                            0
                          • sofla_seo

                            Domain Redirect and SSL Cert

                            Hi, When redirecting an entire site to another domain, do you have to maintain the SSL certificate? The SSL expires 3 days before the planned redirect. Thanks in advance.

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sofla_seo
                            0
                          • ArchMedia

                            Should I redirect images when I migrate my site

                            We are about to migrate a large website with a fair few images (20,000). At the moment we include images in the sitemap.xml so they are indexed by Google and drive traffic (not sure how I can find out how much though). Current image slugs are like:
                            http://website.com/assets/images/a2/65680/thumbnails/638x425-crop.jpg?1402460458 Like on the old site, images on the new website will also have unreadable cache slugs, like:
                            http://website.com/site_media/media/cache/ce/7a/ce7aeffb1e5bdfc8d4288885c52de8e3.jpg All content pages on the new site will have the same slugs as on the old site. Should I go through the trouble of redirecting all these images?

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ArchMedia
                            0
                          • MattBarker

                            Does a 302 redirect pass penalties?

                            I'm having problems finding a definitive answer to this question, there is a lot of rumour and gossip out there but nothing I can rely on. I'm working with a site that received an unnatural links notice followed by a massive drop in search traffic. Looking at the link profile it's pretty much jacked beyond repair and I have recommended that we move over to a fresh domain. However, it's an established brand with many more sources of traffic than organic search. There's no way we can burn all their repeat visits, loyal customers, brand recognition that they've built up over the years so I want to redirect from the old domain to the new.  This is not to try and make any SEO gain from the previous site, frankly we don't give a crap about that. We just want to maintain the brand. A 302 is a temporary redirect, this will be a permanent move BUT a 301 will pass on the penalty.  So can we safely use a 302 redirect in this situation or is there a better alternative (meta refresh?) Thanks for your help! MB.

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MattBarker
                            0
                          • BrianAlpert78

                            Can I make 301 redirects on a Windows server (without access to IIS)?

                            Hey everyone, I've been trying to figure out a way to set up some 301 redirects to handle the broken links left behind after a site restructuring, but I can only ever find information on 2 methods that I can't use (as far as I can tell). The first method is to do some stuff with an htaccess file, but that looks like it only works on Linux-based servers. The method described for Windows servers is generally to install this IIS rewrite/redirect module and run that, but I don't think our web hosting company allows users to log directly into the server, so I wouldn't be able to use the IIS thing. Is there any other way to get a 301 redirect set up? And is this uncommon for a web hosting company to do, or do you all just run your sites on Linux-based servers or your own Windows machines? Thanks!

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BrianAlpert78
                            0
                          • MaartenvandenBos

                            Google penguin penalty(s), please help

                            Hi MozFans, I have got a question out of the field about www.coloringpagesabc.com.
                            Question is why the rankings and traffic are going down down down the last 4 months. Costumer thinks he got hit by google penguin update(s). The site has about 600 page’s/posts al ‘optimized’ for old seo:
                            - Almost all posts are superb optimized for one keyword combination (like … coloring pages) there is a high keyword density on the keyword titles and descriptions are all the same like: <keyword>and this is the rest of my title, This is my description <keyword>and i like it internal linking is all with a ‘perfect’  keyword anchor text there is a ok backlink profile, not much links to inner pages
                            -  there are social signals the content quality is low The site to me looks like a seo over optimized content farm Competition:
                            When I look at the competition. The most coloring pages websites don’t offer a lot of content (text) on there page. The offer a small text and the coloring pages (What it is about :-)) How to get the rankings back:
                            What I was thinking to do. rewrite the content to a smaller text. Low keyword density on the keyword and put the coloring pages up front. rewrite all titles and descriptions to unique titles and descriptions Make some internal links to related posts with a other anchor text. get linkbuilding going on inner pages get more social signals Am I on the right track? I can use some advise what to do, and where to start. Thanks!!</keyword></keyword> Maarten

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MaartenvandenBos
                            0
                          • AndyMacLean

                            Subdomains and SEO - Should we redirect to subfolder?

                            A new client has mainsite.com and a large numer of city specific sub domains i.e. albany.mainsite.com. I think that these subdomains would actually work better as subfolders i.e mainsite.com/albany rather than albany.mainsite.com. The majority of links on the subdomains link to the main site anyway i.e. mainsite.com/contactus rather than albany.mainsite.com/contactus. Having mostly main domain links on a subdomain doesnt seem like clever link architecture to me and maybe even spammy. Im not overly familiar with redirecting subdomains to subfolders. If we go the route of 301'ing subdomains to subfolders any advice/warnings?

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AndyMacLean
                            0
                          • pbhatt

                            301 Redirects After Company Acquisition

                            We recently acquired a company, and now we are going to redirect all of the pages on their site to their respective pages on our site. Do we need to keep the original pages on their site active? For how long? Ideally, we would like to redirect everything and remove the old site entirely so we don't have to pay to keep hosting it. Is this possible? Thanks!

                            Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pbhatt
                            1

                          Get started with Moz Pro!

                          Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                          Start my free trial
                          Products
                          • Moz Pro
                          • Moz Local
                          • Moz API
                          • Moz Data
                          • STAT
                          • Product Updates
                          Moz Solutions
                          • SMB Solutions
                          • Agency Solutions
                          • Enterprise Solutions
                          • Digital Marketers
                          Free SEO Tools
                          • Domain Authority Checker
                          • Link Explorer
                          • Keyword Explorer
                          • Competitive Research
                          • Brand Authority Checker
                          • Local Citation Checker
                          • MozBar Extension
                          • MozCast
                          Resources
                          • Blog
                          • SEO Learning Center
                          • Help Hub
                          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                          • How-to Guides
                          • Moz Academy
                          • API Docs
                          About Moz
                          • About
                          • Team
                          • Careers
                          • Contact
                          Why Moz
                          • Case Studies
                          • Testimonials
                          Get Involved
                          • Become an Affiliate
                          • MozCon
                          • Webinars
                          • Practical Marketer Series
                          • MozPod
                          Connect with us

                          Contact the Help team

                          Join our newsletter
                          Moz logo
                          © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                          • Accessibility
                          • Terms of Use
                          • Privacy

                          Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.