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    Wildcard Redirects & Canonical Tags

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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    • NakulGoyal
      NakulGoyal last edited by

      I have an interesting situation.

      Current URLs Example1:

      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234.html
      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234-1.html
      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234-1-1.html

      Canonical on All Above URLs:
      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234.html

      New URL:
      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-4567.html

      Current URLs Example2:

      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234+10.html
      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234+10-1.html
      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234+10-1-1.html

      Canonical on All Above URLs:
      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234+10.html

      New URL:
      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-6789.html

      Current URLs Example3:

      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234+10+5.html
      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234+10+5-1.html
      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234+10+5-1-1.html

      Canonical on All Above URLs:
      www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234+10+5.html

      New URL:
      www.domain.com/american-red-widgets-cid-6789+5.html

      I want to make sure all variations of the above URL redirect to the new URLs.  However, as you see in Example 3, we are dealing with variables that are passed on. (+5 in this case).

      Question 1: What wildcard 301 redirect / regular expression can I use to tackle these ?

      Question 2: If we redirect www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-1234+10+5.html to www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-6789+5.html and www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-6789+5.html contains the canonical tag www.domain.com/american-red-widgets-cid-6789+5.html, any concerns or red flags here ?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • donford
        donford last edited by

        Hi Nakul

        Here is my stab at question 1, my methodology is trial and error so if any guru's want to take another shot at it please do so. Here is a nice 301 reference page lots of examples

        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteRule ^(.)_red-widgets-cid-1234.html$ www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-4567.html [R=301]
        #Example 2
        RewriteRule ^(.
        )_red-widgets-cid-1234+10.html$ www.domain.com/red-widgets-cid-6789.html [R=301]
        #Example 3
        RewriteRule ^(.*)_red-widgets-cid-1234+10+5.html$ www.domain.com/american-red-widgets-cid-6789+5.html [R=301,L]

        We use ^ to denote start of string

        We use $ to denote end of string

        We use (.*)_ to look for a keyword. In the examples above we are looking for what each page name has in common

        We use [R=301,L] for the Last rewrite, previous rules just use [R=301]

        One thing that (maybe) needed is escaping the +signs in the string so like example 3 would be

        ^(.*)_red-widgets-cid-1234+10+5.html$ www.domain.com/american-red-widgets-cid-6789+5.html

        Also I may missed a wildcard on some of these....

        ^(.)_red-widgets-cid-1234+10+5(.).html$ www.domain.com/american-red-widgets-cid-6789+5.html

        Question 2:

        Canonical to self canonical tag is okay.
        This = That and That = That ..........Okay
        This = That and That = The ..........Not Okay

        Hope that puts you on track

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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