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.

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
      Moz Pro

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

      Try it free!
    • 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. Can an incorrect 301 redirect or .htaccess code cause 500 errors?

    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?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4
    10
    4020
    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.
    • kimmiedawn
      kimmiedawn last edited by

      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

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • ThompsonPaul
        ThompsonPaul @kimmiedawn last edited by

        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

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

          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.

          ThompsonPaul 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • ThompsonPaul
            ThompsonPaul @ThompsonPaul last edited by

            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

            1. become aware as soon as there is a problem
            2. fix the problem asap to minimize impact on users
            3. 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

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • RobertFisher
              RobertFisher @ThompsonPaul last edited by

              Great answer Paul.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • ThompsonPaul
                ThompsonPaul @kimmiedawn last edited by

                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.

                ThompsonPaul 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • kimmiedawn
                  kimmiedawn last edited by

                  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.

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

                    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

                    RobertFisher 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                    • RobertFisher
                      RobertFisher last edited by

                      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,

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • Andy.Drinkwater
                        Andy.Drinkwater last edited by

                        Hi Kimberly,

                        Yes, an incorrect 301 or bad code can cause a 500 internal error. Unfortunately, I am not too hot with writing re-write code, so can't tell you if everything you have there is perfect. That said, you might find some help here and here.

                        -Andy

                        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

                        • jgoehring-troy

                          Is domain authority lost if you create a 301 redirect but mark it as noindex, nofollow?

                          Hi everyone, Our company sells products in various divisions. While we've been selling Product A and Product B under our original brand, we've recently created a new division with a new domain to focus on a Product B. The new domain has virtually no domain authority (3) while the original domain has some (37). We want customers to arrive on the new domain when they search for key search terms related to Product B instead of the pages that previously existed on our main website. If we create 301 redirects for the pages and content on the main site and add noindex, nofollow tags, will we lose the domain authority that we have from our original domain because the pages now have the noindex, nofollow tags? I read a few blog posts from Moz that said there isn't any domain authority lost with 301 redirects but I'm not sure if that is true if the pages are noindex, nonofollow.   Do you follow?  🙂 Apologies for the lengthy post. Love this community and the great Moz team. Thanks, Joe

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jgoehring-troy
                          0
                        • kirbyf

                          Website Redesign, 301 Redirects, and Link Juice

                          I want to change my client’s ecommerce site to Shopify. The only problem is that Shopify doesn’t let you customize domains. I plan to: keep each page’s content exactly the same keep the same domain name 301 redirect all of the pages to their new url The ONLY thing that will change is each page’s url. Again, each page will have the exact same content. The only source of traffic to this site is via Google organic search and sales depend on the traffic. There are about 10 pages that have excellent link juice, 20 pages that have medium link juice, and the rest is small link juice. Many of our links that have significant link juice are on message boards written by people that like our product. I plan to change these urls and 301 redirect them to their new urls. I’ve read tons of pages online about this topic. Some people that say it won’t effect link juice at all, some say it will might effect link juice temporarily, and others are uncertain. Most answers tend to be “You should be good. You might lose some traffic temporarily. You might want to switch some of your urls to the new structure to see how it affects it first.” Here’s my question: 1) Has anyone ever done changed a url structure for an existing website with link juice? What were your results and do you have a definitive answer on the topic? 2) How much link juice (if any) will be lost if I keep all of the exact content the same but only change each page’s url? 3) If link juice is temporarily lost and then regained, how long will it be temporarily lost? 1 week? 1 month? 6 months? Thanks.

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kirbyf
                          0
                        • Angelos_Savvaidis

                          Multilingual Site and 301 redirection

                          Hey there awesome people of Moz I have this site that has many languages in it. The main language is English and my developer did the following www.example.com ( is the main site ) which redirects with a 301 to www.example.com/en if your geo location is supported by our languages then you will automatically be redirected to whatever language you have in your country but does the first language with is english have to 301 redirect to www.example.com/en ? I thought that the right way is to just leave /en at the root file. Thanks in advance

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Angelos_Savvaidis
                          0
                        • shloy23-294584

                          SEO impact difference between a URL Rewrite and 301 redirect

                          Hi guys and girls! Just putting a new site live, we changed the URL from one thing to another and I created a 301 file redirecting the urls like for like. The developer installing it has created a different file with columns like: RewriteRule ^page/ http://www.site/page [R=301,L] RewriteRule ^/page/ http://www.site/page [R=301,L] What's the difference? The page redirects but is there a difference between the 301 redirect and this URL rewrite in terms of SEO and link value?

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | shloy23-294584
                          0
                        • Stew222

                          Too many 301 redirects?

                          Hey, My company currently has one chief website with about 500-600 other domains that all feature the same material as the chief website.  These domains have been around for about 5 years and have actually picked up some link traffic. I have all of these identical web-pages utilizing rel=canonical but I was wondering if I would be better served, from SEO purposes, to 301 redirect all of these sites to their respective pages on our chief website?  If I add 500 301 redirects, will the major search engines consider this to be black-hat link-building even though the sites are related and technically already feature the same content? For an example, the chief website is www.1099pro.com and I would 301 redirect the below sites to the chief site: 1099softwarepro.com 1099softwarepro.info 1099softwarepro.net 1099softwarepro.biz 1099softwareprofessionals.com 1099softwareprofessionals.info ...you get the point

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Stew222
                          0
                        • BeytzNet

                          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).
                          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? Thanks

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet
                          0
                        • Travis-W

                          Multiple 301 Redirects for the Same Page

                          Hi Mozzers, What happens if I have a trail of 301 redirects for the same page? For example,
                          SiteA.com/10 --> SiteA.com/11 --> SiteA.com/13 --> SiteA.com/14 I know I lose a little bit of link juice by 301 redirecting.
                          The question is, would the link juice look like this for the example above? 100% --> 90% --> 81% -->72.9%
                          Or just 100% -----------------------------------------> 90% Does this link juice refer to juice from inbound links or links between internal pages on my site? Thanks!

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Travis-W
                          0
                        • MyNet

                          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 | | MyNet
                          0

                        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.