How to write 301 redirects in WordPress
-
I've successfully migrated new site to new domain (www.cmsearchmarketing.com)
But I cannot get 301 redirects for pages and blog posts to redirect from the old domain (www.creativemindsearchmarketing.com).
And it's my understanding I need to do a 301 for each page to maintain SEO.
Here's what I've tried:
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^p=975$RewriteRule ^index.php$ http://www.cmsearchmarketing.com/top-5-questions-to-ask-an-seo-firm-before-signing-up/? [R=301,L]
BEGIN WordPress<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine OnRewriteBase /RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-fRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-dRewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule># END WordPress
#AND ALSO#
Use PHP5 Single php.ini as defaultAddHandler application/x-httpd-php5s .php
BEGIN WordPress<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine OnRewriteBase /RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-fRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-dRewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule># END WordPress
redirect 301 /top-5-questions-to-ask-an-seo-firm-before-signing-up http://www.cmsearchmarketing.com/top-5-questions-to-ask-an-seo-firm-before-signing-up/
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
_Cindy
P.S. Maybe some other issues are in the way:
--Old site is WP-Remix theme no longer supported, and latest WP version is 2.9.1
-- Old domain (www.creativemindsearchmarketing.com) is the primary account on BlueHost …and the new domain (www.cmsearchmarketing.com) is an addon, so the new domain's directory is within root of old domain.
-- in root domain of old site there are other "handler files" that also have base file rewrites, if this is an issue:
name of this file in root directory is:
.htaccess.addHandlerBak-FrontPage-
<limit get="" post="">order deny,allowdeny from allallow from all</limit><limit put="" delete="">order deny,allowdeny from all</limit>AuthUserFile /home/creatjo7/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.pwdAuthGroupFile /home/creatjo7/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.grp# BEGIN WordPress<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine OnRewriteBase /RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-fRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-dRewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule>
END WordPressAuthName creativemindsearchmarketing.comIndexIgnore .htaccess /.?? *~ *# /HEADER /README /_vti
-
OK, so simple 301 redirects seem to be working out fine.
But having a thing for a puzzle, and thus far learning more about htaccess, I am wondering why a simple rewrite... or "redirect" rule would not work. Like this:
RewriteRule ^(./blog)$ http://cmsearchmarketing.com/blog$1.php [R=301,NC]
or this
RewriteRule ^./blog$ http://www.cmsearchmarketing.com/blog [R=301,NC]
(...and this goes into the old site htaccess with the old domain name, NOT the new site with the new domain name; and the new site basically has all new page names.)
Where in the htaccess file would it go... after the WP permalink rule - considering I am using permalinks on the site and writing the rules with the permalink structure?
Can I write a rule such as this and redirect to another domain all together?
When would I use [L] for last rule?
And what's the difference in a rewrite and a redirect?
OK, if anyone is pursuing and can help I would appreciate.
Thank you very much._Cindy
-
Sorry, try that link again (I've edited it)
-
Didn't understand the link you gave...
-
Hi Cindy,
You can install the plugin on your current setup, and it should work, if by chance it doesnt work, you can download the older versions here which are supported in 2.9.1
This plugin allows you to 301 redirect from anywhere on your site to any external link you want
-
You should be able to do something like this: http://screencast.com/t/1kU7rKwiC
-
So is the redirection plugin installed on the old site (that's a different domain name), and can the target url be an external link?
The source URL cannot be an external link, right?
Cindy
-
Thank you for answering.
None of the pages are the same name on new site as on the old site.
However, the blog posts are the same. And if i could use a redirect for all pages on blog that would help.
But when I use the cpanel wildcard, or rules to the htaccess file, I do not get one page corresponding to the new page, - all old blog posts go to the home page.
_Cindy
-
Cindy as long as your categories and file names are the same, you can just put in 1 (one) wild card redirect that will redirect everything from your old domain to the same file name on your new domain. i.e. olddomain.com/seo/goodseo.html will redirect to newdomian.com/se/goodseo
And, the easiest way to do this is from your servers Cpanel. Go into the cpanel, look for redirect, tell it the old domain and the new domain and tell it to use "wild card" for redirection.
-
Thanks for your reply.
The old site theme isn't supported anymore, cannot update WP beyond 2.9.1.
Does this simple 301 redirect plugin need to be on old site or new?
So if old domain name is different than new domain name, can I use this plugin?
_Cindy
-
I recommend Redirection – it's the most popular plugin out there. I use it on a number of sites and works great.
-
Is the old site in WordPress? Try Simple 301 Redirects or a similar plugin to 301 individual pages/posts.
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
-
Google Deindexing Site, but Reindexing 301 Redirected Version
A bit of a strange one, a client's .com site has recently been losing rankings on a daily basis, but traffic has barely budged. After some investigation, I found that the .co.uk domain (which has been 301 redirected for some years) has recently been indexed by Google. According to Ahrefs the .co.uk domain started gaining some rankings in early September, which has increased daily. All of these rankings are effectively being stolen from the .com site (but due to the 301 redirect, the site loses no traffic), so as one keyword disappears from the .com's ranking, it reappears on the .co.uk's ranking report. Even searching for the brand name now brings up the .co.uk version of the domain whereas less than a week ago the brand name brought up the .com domain. The redirects are all working fine. There's no instance of any URLs on the site or in the sitemaps leading to the .co.uk domain. The .co.uk domain does not have any backlinks except for a single results page on ask.com. The site hasn't recently had any design or development done, the last changes being made in June. Has anyone encountered this before? I'm not entirely sure how or why Google would start indexing 301'd URLs after several years of not indexing these.
Technical SEO | | lyuda550 -
CNAME vs 301 redirect
Hi all, Recently I created a website for a new client and my next job is trying to get them higher in Google. I added them in OSE and noticed some strange backlinks. To my surprise the client has about 20 domain names. All automatically poiting to (showing) the same new mainsite now. www.maindomain.nl www.maindomain.be
Technical SEO | | Houdoe
www.maindomain.eu
www.maindomain.com
www.otherdomain.nl
www.otherdomain.com
... Some of these domains have backlinks too (but not so much). I suggested to 301 redirect them all to the main site. Just to avoid duplicate content. But now the webhoster comes into play: "It's a problem, client has only 1 hosting account, blablabla...". They told me they could CNAME the 20 domains to the main domain. Or A-record them to an IP address. This is too technical stuff for me. So my concrete questions are: Is it smart to do anything at all or am I just harming my client? The main site is ranking pretty well now. And some backlinks are from their copy sites (probably because everywhere the logo links to the full mainsite url). Does the CNAME or A-record solution has the same effect as a 301 redirect, from SEO perspective? Many thanks,
Hans0 -
Creating a Target URL For 301 Redirect in Wordpress
I am confused as to what to put in as the target URL. Is this just a new URL that I must create a name for? I am having trouble finding any answer for this on the internet, just more people asking the same question. I am finally realizing that all the information is found right here at SEOmoz to both learn and ask questions about.
Technical SEO | | lartinos0 -
301 redirect of a subdirectory
Hello! I am working on a website with the following structure: example.com/sub1/sub2/sub3. The page "example.com/sub1" does not exist (I know this is not the optimal architecture to have this be a nonexistent page). But someone might type that address, so I would like it to redirect it to example.com/sub1/sub2/sub3. I tried the following redirect: redirect 301 /sub1 http://example.com/sub1/sub2/sub3. But with this redirect in place, if I go to example.com/sub1, I get redirected to example.com/sub1/sub2/sub3/sub2/sub3 (the redirect just inserts extra subdirectories). If someone types "example.com/sub1" into a browser, I would "example.com/sub1/sub2/sub3" to come up. Is this possible? Thank you!
Technical SEO | | nyc-seo0 -
301 redirects on Windows server
Hi, We are soon moving www.ourumbrellaorganisationwebsite.co.uk/oldsubsidiaryname/index.aspx AND www.differentolddomainname.co.uk to just www.ourumbrellaorganisationwebsite.co.uk (an existing site which will no longer have the old subsidiary name sub section). How do we do the 301 redirects on a Windows server? Helicon has been suggested but I don't know it. I know we need to 301 redirect 'old' pages to the equivalent new ones, but is it a problem to do all of the old pages (there are lots) or should we just just do a few? is there ever a downside to doing individual redirects for an entire old site? Also, once the 301 redirects are in place from the old domain, is it possible to let the old domain expire and if so, at what point? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Houses0 -
Another 301 redirect question - penalty?
Good Morning, We have 2 sites have images and minimal text on them. The images have links that point to a 3<sup>rd</sup> site that facilitates eCommerce. Question: If we 301 redirect these sites permanently to yet a 4<sup>th</sup> site… 1) Does it violate any G’s guidelines 2) Should we delete the links embedded in the images (as they point to the 3<sup>rd</sup> site) Thanks
Technical SEO | | Prime850 -
301 Redirect Question for trailing slash & index.php
1. Can you show me how to do a redirect for forhttp://www.exercisebiology.com to http://www.exercisebiology.com/ I want to add the trailing slash. 2. Also how to redirect from http://www.exercisebiology.com/in... to http://www.exercisebiology.com/. When I tried to redirect the index.php last time, I couldn't login to the forums. Everytime when someone tries to login to my forums, it takes them the to the home page. I did it through the hostgator CP. I am thinking someone could help me here. Thank you so much!
Technical SEO | | anoopbal0 -
Drupal URL Aliases vs 301 Redirects + Do URL Aliases create duplicates?
Hi all! I have just begun work on a Drupal site which heavily uses the URL Aliases feature. I fear that it is creating duplicate links. For example:: we have http://www.URL.com/index.php and http://www.URL.com/ In addition we are about to switch a lot of links and want to keep the search engine benefit. Am I right in thinking URL aliases change the URL, while leaving the old URL live and without creating search engine friendly redirects such as 301s? Thanks for any help! Christian
Technical SEO | | ChristianMKTG0