Redirecting Blog WITHOUT .htaccess

[okatieo]

Hello Mozzers!

I currently have a WordPress blog on a subdomain that I'd like to redirect to a subdirectory. Unfortunately, the CMS that I am on will not allow me implement a rewrite rule because we do not have access to the server (It's on Shopify, which is a fully hosted solution).

If we set up a 301 from blog.domain.com to domain.com/blog, will all my link juice be preserved? Or is it better just to keep it on the subdomain for now? I'd like to avoid importing all my content into Shopify's native blog, if I can, just because we may be moving to another CMS shortly.

Thank you in advance!

-Alima Team

[MoosaHemani]

Sub domains are considered as unique domains in Google so at the moment your subdomain is not passing any link juice to your main domain. 301redirect from sub domain to subfolder might not pass all the link juice but still a better option for you as currently you are not getting any juice from your blog.

[FedeEinhorn]

Link juice is diluted over 301s just like any other backlink. There's a recent Cutts video that tells us exactly that.

However, I always considered better to have a blog on a subfolder instead of a subdomain as subdomains are considered different domains, therefore ranking from one doesn't affect the other (something you can avoid by having it on a subfolder).

Considering now you have it on a subdomain, it isn't flowing pagerank to your main domain, so I would highly consider moving it to a subfolder and redirect everything (even with the loss on the 301s you will still do better).

But if you don't have access to files it would be almost impossible to redirect users. If you do, but just the htaccess is un-accessible, use a PHP redirect.