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.
Can an incorrect 301 redirect or .htaccess code cause 500 errors?
-
Google Webmaster Tools is showing the following message:
_Googlebot couldn't access the contents of this URL because the server had an internal error when trying to process the request. These errors tend to be with the server itself, not with the request. _
Before I contact the person who manages the server and hosting (essentially asking if the error is on his end) is there a chance I could have created an issue with an incorrect 301 redirect or other code added to .htaccess incorrectly?
Here is the 301 redirect code I am using in .htaccess:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^/.]+/)*(index.html|default.asp)\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(([^/.]+/)*)(index|default) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www.example.com)?$ [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Could adding the following code after that in the .htaccess potentially cause any issues?
BEGIN EXPIRES
<ifmodule mod_expires.c="">ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault "access plus 10 days"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType text/plain "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType application/x-icon "access plus 1 year"</ifmodule>END EXPIRES
(Edit) I'd like to add that there is a Wordpress blog on the site too at www.example.com/blog with the following code in it's .htaccess:
BEGIN WordPress
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /blog/
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]</ifmodule>END WordPress
Thanks
-
Just to follow up on your last question about 404s, Kim...
No, having a bunch of 404s like that will be no more work for the server than if they were landing on actual blog pages - in fact somewhat less work as the 404 page generally has less content and far fewer database calls.
Also, a page timing out due to server load (server working too hard) doesn't generally result in a 500 error, it just returns a timed-out error. 500 errors are delivered when something actually breaks the server's ability to deliver the correct page content.
Paul
-
Wow, you are very quickly and easily making me much better at what I do:) Thanks for that.
I actually just updated the code a couple days ago by adding the Expires code and fixing the redirect. Maybe the previous double 301 redirect could be the culprit? Or - something I mentioned in another question - there were a ton of 404s because of a blog that wasn't redirected to the /blog subdirectory correctly, which I fixed recently. Could something like that cause the server to work to hard and return a 500 server error?
I'll definitely check out the logs and Pingdom.
Great information and advice.
-
Sorry - and to be clear about your htaccess testing question - no there's no "tool" I've ever heard of. You test it by doing exactly as you've done - ensuring that pages respond correctly and with correct headers. Then you implement a monitoring system to ensure that you know every time that correct behaviour fails. That way you can get the site back up quickly, and have a record of when & how often it happened so you can properly troubleshoot if you have an issue.
Three troubleshooting steps
- become aware as soon as there is a problem
- fix the problem asap to minimize impact on users
- investigate and fix the root cause so it doesn't happen again.
All of these steps depend on a monitoring/alerting system, otherwise you'll always be behind the curve and/or working in the dark.
Hope that helps?
Paul
-
Great answer Paul.
-
As far as I understand, Kimberly, you've only changed the htaccess in the last day or 2? in which case the server error would have been from before your updates.
As far as monitoring - you can check the server error logs (via FTP or in cPanel if that's what the hosting account uses) to check for frequent 500-level server errors.
In addition, I strongly recommend that all commercial sites must have uptime monitoring in place. I like to use Pingdom's paid basic plan which allows monitoring of up to 10 pages. I then select a number of relevant pages and set the tool to test each page, and to check for an actual text snippet on each page (using their custom settings). I monitor things like the home page, the blog home page, a blog post, a blog category page, and critical call-to-action pages. Basically different types of page templates that might respond differently to server issues. plus critical money-making pages.
This way, Pingdom will alert you immediately any time those pages don't respond normally (like when a server gives back a 500 error, or the server goes unresponsive due to overload etc). Monitoring these pages every minute is the ONLY way to really know whether your server and website software are performing properly and consistently. This is a critical component of any professionally run website, in my opinion.
Often Pingdom confirms that things are running fine, but I literally can't count the number of times I've instituting uptime monitoring for new clients, only to find the site has huge downtime no one was really aware of, because they just aren't on their own site often enough to know when it's down. (And you certainly shouldn't be relying on customers to inform you the site has issues. By then it's FAR too late.)
Paul
P.S There are certainly other uptime monitoring systems out there, some are even free. I recommend Pingdom because I've used it for years and it's been consistently excellent. Also, it allows for per-minute checks instead of every 5 minutes, and can check for actual page content, not just server response. In addition, when it finds an outage, it runs a root cause analysis. So it would actually tell you that a 500 error caused the check failure (as opposed to server timing out, which is a different problem). No other affiliation.
-
Paul - Thanks for a new way to check and understand all this.
So, if I was able to visit the page just fine normally, and after setting the user agent to Googlebot, then I should be good? I never saw a 500 server error while visiting the page, just in Webmaster Tools. It was dated 2 days ago, but there have been other server error warnings over the past month or two in GWT, so maybe it is a resolved issue.
Can you suggest a method to confirm the overall proper functioning of the .htaccess code? Is there a tool you use to validate your .htaccess code? I checked response headers in Firebug and found all 200 OKs and 304s for images (from the expires header I assume) so to my amateur viewpoint, it looks good. I just don't want to tank the site unwittingly. Obviously not.
-
To note, Kimberly - Webmaster tools keeps a historical record of issues. It may be showing you server error that occurred in the past, but is no longer a problem. Easiest way is to test the URL it is reporting as having problems.
First test by visiting the URL using a regular browser. Then revisit using a regular browser, but with the user-agent set to imitate the Googlebot crawler since it's Googlebot that's reporting the error. (You can do this using the Set User Agent tool built into the Moz Firefox toolbar, or others. It's a critical capability to have for many purposes.) It's possible for the Googlebot to have issues even if a regular visitor sees none, so you want to test for both.
Assuming these tests return the 500 server error, just briefly rename the pertinent htaccess file for a minute, then go back and rerun the tests. If the error goes away with the htaccess disabled, you know the source of the problem lies in the htaccess rules. If the problem persists, you can be pretty certain it's not the htaccess causing it.
Make sense?
Paul
-
Kimberly,
It can, but without which 5XX it is, it is harder to diagnose. (Is it an endless loop, or something else)
I would suggest (based on you trying to redirect what appears to be homepage whether or not the request is for asp or html) this help from Apache. It is a bit deep, but you appear to want to do it yourself and this is a resource I would suggest.
If you look about a third down the page there is a content box that covers tons of variables.
Best,
-
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
-
For URLs that require login, should our redirect be 301 or 302?
We have a login required section of our website that is being crawled and reporting as potential issues in Webmaster Tools. I'm not sure what the best solution to this is - is it to make URLs requiring a login noindex/nocrawl? Right now, we have them 302 redirecting to the login page, since it's a temporary redirect, it seems like it isn't the right solution. Is a 301 better?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | alecfwilson0 -
Multiple 301 redirects for a HTTPS URL. Good or bad?
I'm working on an ecommerce website that has a few snags and issues with it's coding. They're using https, and when you access the website through domain.com, theres a 301 redirect to http://www.domain.com and then this, in turn, redirected to https://www.domain.com. Would this have a deterimental effect or is that considered the best way to do it. Have the website redirect to http and then all http access is redirected to the https URL? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jasondexter0 -
How to 301 redirect old wordpress category?
Hi All, In order to avoid duplication errors we've decided to redirect old categories (merge some categories).
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet
In the past we have been very generous with the number of categories we assigned each post. One category needs to be redirected back to blog home (removed completely) while a couple others should be merged. Afterwords we will re-categorize some of the old posts. What is the proper way to do so?
We are not technical, Is there a plugin that can assist? Thanks0 -
301 doesn't redirect a page that ends in %20, and others being appended with ?q=
I have a product page that ends /product-name**%20** that I'm trying to redirect in this way: Redirect 301 /products/product-name%20 http://www.site.com/products/product-name And it doesn't redirect at all. The others, those with %20, are being redirected to a url hybrid of old and new: http://www.site.com/products/product-name**?q=old-url** I'm using Drupal CMS, and it may be creating rules that counter my entries.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Brocberry0 -
Splitting one Website into 2 Different New Websites with 301 redirects, help?
Here's the deal. My website stbands.com does fairly well. The only issue it is facing a long term branding crisis. It sells custom products and sporting goods. We decided that we want to make a sporting goods website for the retail stuff and then a custom site only focusing on the custom stuff. One website transformed and broken into 2 new ones, with two new brand names. The way we are thinking about doing this is doing a lot of 301 redirects, but what do we do with the homepage (stbands.com) and what is the best practice to make sure we don't lose traffic to the categories, etc.? Which new website do we 301 the homepage to? It's rough because for some keywords we rank 3 or 4 times on the first page. Scary times, but something must be done for the long term. Any advise is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. We are set for a busy next few months 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Hyrule0 -
How to stop Google crawling after 301 redirect?
I have removed all pages from my old website and set 301 redirect to new website. But, I have verified old website with Google webmaster tools' HTML verification file which enable me to track all data and existence of pages in Google search for my old website. I was assumed that, Google will stop crawling and DE-indexed all pages after 301 redirect. Because, I have set 301 redirect before 3 months. Now, I'm able to see Google bot activity on my website with help of Google webmaster tools. You can find out attachment to know more about it. How can it possible & How Google can crawl removed pages? You can see following image to know more about it. First & Second
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CommercePundit0 -
Reverse Proxy better than 301 redirect?
Are reverse proxies that much better than 301 redirects? Should I invest the time in doing this? I found out about reverse proxies here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-is-a-reverse-proxy-and-how-can-it-help-my-seo
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | brianmcc0 -
How To 301 Redirect .html pages
I need to redirect a page/URL that is purely .html to a new location. I don't know how to do this. All the redirects I can find are for server side code pages .php/.aspx etc. From my understanding I can't put a server side redirect in a .html file. I am hosting on a microsoft server, however the new page I am redirecting to is .php. I am running some WordPress (.php) files on the server. I need to make it redirect before the old page loads so visitors don't start reading something that is about to get redirected Can someone please help me?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MyNet0