redirect 404 pages to homepage

[igrizo]

Hello,

I'm puting a new website on a existing domain. In order to not loose the links that point to the varios old url I would like to redirect them to homepage.

The old website was a mess as there was no seo and the pages didn't target any keywords. Thats why I would like to redirect all links to home.

What do you think is the best way to do this ?

I tried  to ad this in the .htaccess but it's not working;

ErrorDocument 404 /index.php

Con you tell me how it exacly look?

Now the hole file is like this:

@package        Joomla

@copyright    Copyright (C) 2005 - 2012 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved.

@license        GNU General Public License version 2 or later; see LICENSE.txt

READ THIS COMPLETELY IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS FILE!

The line just below this section: 'Options +FollowSymLinks' may cause problems

with some server configurations.  It is required for use of mod_rewrite, but may already

be set by your server administrator in a way that dissallows changing it in

your .htaccess file.  If using it causes your server to error out, comment it out (add # to

beginning of line), reload your site in your browser and test your sef url's.  If they work,

it has been set by your server administrator and you do not need it set here.

Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above.

Options +FollowSymLinks

Mod_rewrite in use.

RewriteEngine On

Begin - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits.

If you experience problems on your site block out the operations listed below

This attempts to block the most common type of exploit attempts to Joomla!

Block out any script trying to base64_encode data within the URL.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} base64_encode[^(]([^)]) [OR]

Block out any script that includes a

[Dr-Pete]

I'm very confused about where the 404 fits in - are these dead pages? To re-capture the link-juice, you'll need to 301-redirect (which it seems like you're also putting into play). In some cases, if the pages are gone or never existed, just let them be gone. If you take every single URL everyone could ever visit to the home-page, you may generate so many 301s that Google starts to get suspicious. We've seen some issues with this lately. In many cases, it's also just not a good user experience.

[BlueprintMarketing]

You should have RewriteEngine : RewriteEngine On and you should be able to access the .htaccess

have you tried using any of the tools in the URLs below

http://www.htaccessredirect.net/

&

This site talks about best practices of implementation you really just need to upload it to the FTP once you've made the changes using the tool in the URL above

http://www.ksl-consulting.co.uk/301-redirect-examples.html

Let me know if I can be of more help.

[igrizo]

Ok, what Thomas is saying I will consider for some special pages but how do I technically do  implement the redirects to home in .htaccess

ErrorDocument 404 /index.php is not working for now!

Is it correct?

RewriteEngine : RewriteEngine On

Do I have to ad something else to .htaccess ?

[BlueprintMarketing]

I think I have information that may help you Our little more I have comprised a hope will help you.

this tool will help you quite a bit in the described situation

http://www.htaccessredirect.net/

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-fix-crawl-errors-in-google-webmaster-tools

http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/spiders-301-redirect.htm

404 page should include a link back to the home page or site map of your website so users can quickly get back to what they were searching for. A search box, if you have a site search, is also a good idea to add to a 404 page. Other then that, keep the page minimal, remove distractions and get the user off the 404 error page as quickly as they got on.

Keep in mind most users may not be so savvy when it comes to Internet jargon so simple explanations in English are key! Although, keeping it minimalist does not have to mean "boring". The steps to make a custom 404 page are simple and this site can explain in detail how to create one depending on your server.

301 Redirects

If you have old pages on your website that you want to remove or rename, use a 301 redirect to preserve search engine rankings and pass on backlinks and/or page rank. You can even redirect whole websites into new ones. It is easy to do and is very search engine friendly.

The term "301" stands for "moved permanently". It is created by using a .htaccess file. Follow this guide to learn how to implement many different types of 301 redirects. When pages are deleted instead of redirected with a 301, they turn into 404s (Not Found Pages).

I want to give credit where credit's due this information directly above was referenced from this website http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/301.html

sincerely,

Thomas von Zickell

[BlueprintMarketing]

I would spread the redirects around as much as possible. If you can give link juice to not only your homepage but all pages your page rank and thus Google search rank will increase once the 301 redirects are indexed by Google. I agree strongly with what Sven Witteveen has said below and would be very inclined to agree with him.

I hope I was of some help to you.

Sincerely,

Thomas von Zickell

Blueprint Marketing

[igrizo]

Thanks for advise but the home url is:

mydomain.com/index.php

[DeptAgency]

Hi Igrizio,

I'm not entirely sure but could it be that you're redirecting to //index.php instead of /index.php?

You can use this website to see the the statuscode and any redirect locations of a website.

Best of luck,

Sven Witteveen
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