How can I redirect old URLs to new ones?
-
We are trying to optimize our website for search engines and one of the things we have noticed that needs to be changed are the URLs. I know how to modify the URLs but have no idea how I can get the old redirected to the new ones using 301. We have some pages ranking pretty high on Google and we can't loose this traffic.
Our website is hosted on Plesk and it was coded using Cold Fusion. I do have access to the .htaccess file.
Any help would be highly appreciated.
-
Don't forget to escape your hyphens (all of them!) with backslashes:
^pvc-cosmetic-bag-1.html
You will need to escape them before white too:
---white
-
As this URL in particular had a .html extension I thought it was easier to just create a html file and redirect it, so this one is working. But I still would like to know if i had done anything wrong because it didn't work. As most of our URLs don't have a .html extension it would be helpful to create the redirects on .htaccess
-
I just created a .html file for one of the URLs that had this extension thought the system doesn't generate htmls and it worked! Now I need to find a solution to the URLs that don't have an extension...
-
Hi, thanks for your help. The problem with this is that I don't have access to individual pages, the system will load it from the database. I think a .htaccess redirect would be the best solution, the problem is that I don't really know how to do it and how to write a redirect that would work.
Best regards
-
I have tried it but still no luck, I might have done something wrong though.
I need to urgently redirect http://www.personal-products.co.uk/pvc-cosmetic-bag-1.html to http://personal-products.co.uk/resealable-cosmetic-bags---white (I will change this URL in the future too but need it working now...)
I have tried it like this:
RewriteRule ^pvc-cosmetic-bag-1.html /resealable-cosmetic-bags---white [R=301,L]
Is there anything wrong?
Thanks!
-
Hi
maybe this article can help: http://www.quackit.com/coldfusion/tutorial/coldfusion_redirect.cfm
In ColdFusion, redirects can be done via one of two methods. The method you use will depend on the reason for the redirect.
Temporary Redirects (cflocation)
This is the most commonly used of the two - you will probably find yourself using the cflocation tag often.
A temporary redirect is typically used when you need to redirect the user to another page based on some logical rule in your program. For example, straight after they submit a form, the browser might redirect to another page.
ColdFusion includes the cflocation tag for performing temporary redirects. This actually sends HTTP headers to the user's browser indicating a 302 status code, which means "Moved Temporarily".
<cflocation url="/new_location.cfm"></cflocation>
Permanent Redirects
A permanent redirect should be used when a page no longer exists.
Permanent redirects use the 301 HTTP status code, which means, "Moved Permanently". In ColdFusion, a permanent redirect can be achieved using the cfheader tag.
<cfheader statuscode="301" statustext="Moved Permanently"><cfheader name="Location" value="http://www.quackit.com/coldfusion/tutorial"><cfabort></cfabort></cfheader></cfheader>
In case you're thinking, "but users can't see the status code anyway", that's only partially true. The 301 status code can be very useful for search engines. They will actually take notice of your 301 status code and index the correct file.
-
You could try something like this:
RewriteRule ^overnight-toiletry-packs.html /toiletry-travel-bags [R=301,L]
You need to escape the hyphens and periods... and include the switches for the 301 and specify that it's the Last rule.
Let me know how that goes - certainly share some code if you still get stuck.
-John
-
Thanks for your help!
The example would be the same as the one above, do you know what is the best way to do it??
http://personal-products.co.uk/overnight-toiletry-packs.html -> our current url
we have optimized this page to "toiletry travel bags" so i want the url to look something like this:
-
Thanks.. I got that far, but I tried few different 301 redirects and it didn't work.
One example would be this:
http://personal-products.co.uk/overnight-toiletry-packs.html -> our current url
we have optimized this page to "toiletry travel bags" so i want the url to look something like this:
http://personal-products.co.uk/toiletry-travel-bags
I can change the URL manually but I need to create a 301 redirect. Do you have any idea how I can do it? As we use a coldfusion website, the pages don't actually exist, they are all on the database.
i had tried few methods I found on google but no luck =[
-
Hey Flavia-
Check out this article on htaccess magic
http://www.askapache.com/htaccess/list-of-methods-to-redirect-users-to-different-page.html
There is a section on 301 redirects that will get you started. If you want to share any specific examples I'd be happy to help you further.
-John
-
You can do 301 redirects from the old page to the new page using .htaccess..however I would suggest you test the impact by doing it for 1-2 urls first and see if it does indeed help. The reason I am suggesting this is because when you do 301 redirects or canonical urls which also act like 301s, there's a little bit of link juice loss from the old URL. S if you have lots of websites linking to that page, you may loose a little bit of that link juice. Again, you have to do more of a risk/reward analysis and see what makes sense.
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
-
URL too long. Shorten and redirect, or leave alone?
MOZ is indicating that i have several URLs that are too long. Should I shorten the URLs and redirect the long URLs to the new, shorter, URL? Or should i leave them alone, as I've been reading to avoid redirects.
Technical SEO | | Hanover4401 -
301 redirected all my pages to my new domain, now I have a problem with Google Search Console
Hi guys! I bought a new domain name and redirected all my URLs from the old domain to the new one. Everything worked perfectly but now I have a little problem. I want to use the option 'Address Change' in google search console. Step 1 Works (Select new website in the list) Step 2 Works (Confirm that the 301 are working) Step 3 Asks me to Verify the old domain (huh!?) in order to complete the request. Obviously that doesn't work because my 301s WORKS! So if I try to verify the old website by putting a google file in the root of my domain Google tries to access it and it automatically redirects to the new domain. I must be missing something lol help!
Technical SEO | | benoit_20180 -
Advice for rapidly declining ranking-- can an old indexed sitemap cause this?
Hi Everyone, Today, I woke up to a dramatic page rank decline (nearly 20 positions) for a client's website (eacoe.org). When I looked in Webmaster tools, I noticed that the site was just indexed yesterday by Google (a request that the webmaster had submitted back in April of this year). Would this re-indexing event have caused the sharp decline? In Webmaster Tools, I don't see many errors (one 404 error that we are planning on fixing). I likewise see no Manual Actions/ penalties brought up by Google about our site. My first concern is that the re-indexing led to rank decline, but I'm not entirely sure if I should be focusing on something else. And if it is the re-indexing, what are there any recommended steps of attack? Thanks for your help! -Bruce
Technical SEO | | dynedge0 -
Redirecting a Few URLS from One Domain to Another
Hello, I have two websites within a similar niche...some of the top organic traffic driving pages on Website B I'd like to redirect to a similar page on Website A. The reason is Website A is a bigger and better and is monetized much better as well. I only want to redirect a few of the main URLS on Website A and also only those that I have similar content on my main Website B. Is this process safe for SEO? What is the best way to go about this process. I am not really concerned with Website B and what happens to it's rankings, but in the meantime, I'd like to redirect the traffic from some of it's main organic traffic driving pages to my main website A and to it's similar pages. I am also concerned with making sure my main website A stays white hat and doesn't receive any negativity from these redirects. Thanks.
Technical SEO | | juicyresults0 -
Why are my URL's with a trailing slash still getting indexed even though they are redirected in the .htaccess file?
My .htaccess file is set up to redirect a URL with a trailing / to the URL without the /. However, my SEOmoz crawl diagnostics report is showing both URL's. I took a look at my Google Webmaster account and saw some duplicate META title issues. Same thing, Google Webmaster is showing the URL with the trailing /. My website was live for about 3 days before I added the code to the .htaccess file to remove the trailing /. Is it possible that in those 3 days that both versions were indexed and haven't been removed even though the .htaccess file has been updated?
Technical SEO | | mkhGT0 -
OSE says URL redirects to URL with trailing slash but it doesn't.
Site is www.example.com/folder/us and OSE says this URL redirects to www.example.com/folder/us/, but it does not. When I look at the OSE report for the latter version with the "/" it says "No Data Available For This URL". Why would that be? The original URL is www.example.com and it redirects to www.example.com/folder/us. Is this anything I need to worry about? I thought that the trailing / doesn't really mean much anymore but nonetheless, why does it think it redirects there?
Technical SEO | | rock220 -
Trailing Slashes In Url use Canonical Url or 301 Redirect?
I was thinking of using 301 redirects for trailing slahes to no trailing slashes for my urls. EG: www.url.com/page1/ 301 redirect to www.url.com/page1 Already got a redirect for non-www to www already. Just wondering in my case would it be best to continue using htacces for the trailing slash redirect or just go with Canonical URLs?
Technical SEO | | upick-1623910 -
Delete old site but redirect domain to a new domain and site
I just have a quick query and I have a feeling about what the answer is so just wanted to see what you guys thought... Basically I am working on a client site. This client has a few other websites that are divisions of their company. However these divisions/websites are no longer used. They are wanting to delete the websites but redirect the domains to their name main website. They believe this will pass on SEO benefits as these old division sites are old and have a good PR and history. I'm unsure for DEFINITE, which way is correct?
Technical SEO | | Weerdboil0