Redirects for new website
-
Hi Moz community,
I'm a fairly new SEO Specialist with a brand new website. We initially had a very basic holding website until the fully functional website was completed. I have to do some redirects as we have both .html and .php files & we don't want to lose SEO value for specific pages (like the index, news, etc). I also want to redirect from a www url to a non-www url.I am trying to accomplish redirects with the following code:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.mywebsite.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://mywebsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]RedirectMatch 301 /index.html (.*).(php|html) http://mywebsite.com/index.php
RedirectMatch 301 /cupcakes-slideshow/glutenfree-slideshow.html (.*).(php|html) http://mywebsite.com/gluten-and-glutenfree.php
RedirectMatch 301 /press.html (.*).(php|html) http://mywebsite.com/news-and-reviews.php
Please let me know if I am on the right track. Thanks so much in advance!
-
Thanks so much Jeff. I will try the options you suggested.
-
Yes, there are two main ways to do something like this.
My recommendation would be based on how many actual pages you need to redirect, and if you want to redirect everything, or if you want to redirect only a few pages here and there.
Option 1. Redirect everything using programming.
The first way, is to use a rewrite rule like this:
RewriteRule ^/blog/(.*)$ http://blog.subdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]... that will redirect things programatically. Your syntax seems to be okay, but I'd test it out to make sure it's working properly.
Advantages: One or two lines, and you're done!
Disadvantages: You are redirecting everything, and you can't test each and every line easily.Option 2. Belt and Suspenders Method.
The second way is what I like to call the belt and suspenders method. It is not elegant. But the theory is that if you wear both suspenders and a belt, chances are good that you won't have your pants fall down.
This option creates a rewrite rule for each page on the site that is added to your .htaccess file.
What's nice about this is that you can easily create these redirects, without programming, just using a sitemap page.
I wrote a long article over on this site:
http://www.advancedwebranking.com/blog/how-to-create-301-redirects-from-sitemap/... that shows how to create these redirects quickly, without any programming (just through Excel and a text editor).
Option 3. Use the rewrite rule, but use the method in option 2 to create a list of all of the pages that need to be redirected.
If you'd rather, you could also use the method for creating a list of all of the pages that need to be redirected, and then use a 301 redirect checking script (there are a lot of free ones out there, just Google it), and then test if your method is working properly.
Hope this helps!
- Jeff
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
-
Redirection chain and Javascript Redirect
Hi, A redirection chain is usually defined as a page redirecting to another page which itself is another redirection. URL1 ---(301/302)---> URL2 ---(301/302)---> URL3 But what about Javascript redirect? They seem to be a different beast: URL1 ---(301/302)---> URL2 ---(200 then Javascript redirect)---> URL3 From what I know if the javascript redirect is instant Google counts it as a 301 permanent redirection, but I'm still not sure about if this counts as a redirection chain. Most of the tools (such as moz) only see the first redirection. So is that scenario a redirection chain or no?
Technical SEO | | LouisPortier0 -
Should we handle this redirect differently?
So our question is should we handle page redirection/rewriting in php or in .htaccess (with a specific problem we are running into outlined below). We have an ecommerce store in a subfolder of our site (example.com/store/). In the next folder down we have a group of widgets(www.example.com/store/widget-group1). Recently we put a .htaccess redirect in the top level folder (example.com/store/.htaccess), in order to re-write some URL’s and also 301 a page to another page. This seems to be negatively affecting our /widgets-group1/ subfolder however (organic traffic to example.com/store/widget-group1) took a nose dive 3 days after putting the .htaccess redirect in place on the /store/ folder and it has not recovered 8 days later). *Nothing appears outwardly wrong with the current setup to the eye when viewing the pages or requesting as googlebot (the only issue being the nose dive in organic traffic lol) *both subfolders are setup in apache config file to allow local overrides of .htaccess as follows: <directory store="" widget-group1="">Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
Technical SEO | | altecdesign
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all</directory> <directory store="">Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all</directory>0 -
Hosting Multiple Websites
I want host multiple websites in geo-specific locations, and also have them be unique from each other. Does anyone have suggestions of a software or another method to use for this? Any experience with http://multiplecloud.com?
Technical SEO | | theLotter0 -
301 redirect blog posts from old URL to new one
I moved a wordpress blog from domain.com to domain.com/blog . I want to redirect the links in google from the old domain.com to the new one, but I also want to put a new site/application at domain.com..so I'm thinking an .htaccess 301 redirect at the root wouldn't work. Any tips?
Technical SEO | | callmeed0 -
Is Buying Domains Good For SEO? Can I 301 redirect domains to an Original website?
I have a friend that purchased multiple domains related to their website. Each of these domains have the back ground of the original website and irrelevant content on them. Is is possible to redirect the various domains to certain pages on the original website. For example if the website is www.shoes.com and they purchased domains such as www.leathermensshoes.com and a few others related to the website. Is it SEO friendly to link the domains purchased to the original website?
Technical SEO | | TSpike10 -
Google Webmaster redirect vs 301 redirect
OK assuming a client's website has the right tracking script (hopefully analytics isn't effected by this issue), ... what happens if the htaccess file has a 301 redirect to the www-address, but within Google Webmaster Tools, the address chosen to crawl by Google is the non-www address? How will Google handle and which address takes precedence in this situation? _Cindy
Technical SEO | | CeCeBar0 -
301 Redirect
Hi there, We are re-branding & re-structuring our website, there will be quite a number of 301 re-directs, possibly hundreds. The question is: Should i wait until the re-branding has been completed and do al the 301's in one go?, or should I try and do 301's as i go along? Kind Regards
Technical SEO | | Paul780 -
New website with slightly new urls
Hi we recently designed our website in work and changed some of the urls. the old site used to be http://www.example.ie/contact-us.htm now it's is http://example.ie/get-in-touch The problem we are having is with sitelinks (the ones auto generate in the serp) ie: about, contact us, team etc etc. Once cliked on, these OLD links are all going to 404 pages because of the change of url. Help with this would be greatly appreciated - I was thinking of blocking these old sitelinks in google web master.
Technical SEO | | GlenBOB0