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.
301 Redirects in subfolders
-
Hi, we're making our site into a static site but I would like to transfer the Google juice. Most of the links and database exist on subfolders though. Could I simply do 301 redirects on the subfolders and retain the value or does it have to be on the full domain?
-
As I said before, if you are changing just the domain, then you can do the whole site in one redirect, but if you have a different page structure and thousands of pages, it would be a waste of time to do any pages that does not have a external link.
-
I'm with you Jane. It's not that much effort and it avoids any confusion or 404s.
-
Honestly, doing site-wide redirects can be very simple if done correctly in .htaccess, avoiding anyone (bot or browser) encountering 404s. Redirecting properly avoids a 404 bloat in Webmaster Tools, allowing the webmaster to identify "real" 404s and fix them as well. I'd go with redirecting anything you plan to move.
-
In this very rare case, they would get a 404, with a link to the home page.
to 301 every page in case it has a bookmark is a waste of effort
-
what if someone bookmarked a page that you changed the URL for? That page might not have any links but it can still receive traffic.
It is my recommendation that if one is doing a massive redirect that all pages should have a rule written for it. Why risk a 404?
-
Hi Matt,
If you 301 one URL to another, the majority of the metrics previously afforded to the old URL will be transferred to the new URL. Various evidence, some of it quite anecdotal, says that not all the authority passes from the old to the new, but it's certainly the best option you have if you want to change URLs.
If you are moving to a new domain, you can write a rule in your .htaccess file (if using an Apache server) or in your control panel (if using an IIS server) that transfers every URL to its new location. Even if URLs have no external links, this will simply direct any traffic to the old URLs to their new locations.
-
Because google will drop that url and crawl the new one by itself.
If all you are doing is changing domain then one 301 will do all anyhow.
but if you are 301'ing page by page, then just do the ones that have external links.
-
Alan, there is no value in redirecting pages without external links?
I am in the process of implementing a massive 301 redirect project as we are changing the URL structure of our site. Our site has been indexed fully by Google for quite some time but most pages do not have external links pointing to them. So if someone searches a KW that triggers a deep linked page, why would I not redirect that page to its new URL?
-
You can 301 any page to anywhere, that not a problem, but before you waste any time, only 301 the pages that have external links, there is no value in 301'ing pages unless they do.
-
As long as the url is accessible, it doesnt matter. You can redirect from a subfolder, or using root domain.
One thing to remember, make sure you redirect both www, and non-www versions. Are you using cpanel? It makes this a super easy process. If not, let me know, and I can supply you with some htaccess rules to get you started.
*Keep in mind, all link juice is not always transferred. Generally most will be passed through, but I just wanted to make you aware.
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
-
301 redirect from dynamic url to static page
Hi, i want to redirect from this old link http://www.g-store.gr/product_info.php?products_id=1735/ to this one https://www.g-store.gr/golf-toualetas.html I have done several attempts but with no result. I anyone can help i will appreciate. My website runs in an Apache server with cpanel. Thank you
Technical SEO | | alstam0 -
Can I use a 301 redirect to pass 'back link' juice to a different domain?
Hi, I have a backlink from a high DA/PA Government Website pointing to www.domainA.com which I own and can setup 301 redirects on if necessary. However my www.domainA.com is not used and has no active website (but has hosting available which can 301 redirect). www.domainA.com is also contextually irrelevant to the backlink. I want the Government Website link to go to www.domainB.com - which is both the relevant site and which also should be benefiting from from the seo juice from the backlink. So far I have had no luck to get the Government Website's administrators to change the URL on the link to point to www.domainB.com. Q1: If i use a 301 redirect on www.domainA.com to redirect to www.domainB.com will most of the backlink's SEO juice still be passed on to www.domainB.com? Q2: If the answer to the above is yes - would there be benefit to taking this a step further and redirect www.domainA.com to a deeper directory on www.domianB.com which is even more relevant?
Technical SEO | | DGAU
ie. redirect www.domainA.com to www.domainB.com/categoryB - passing the link juice deeper.0 -
301 redirects don't work properly
Hello all, I've been working on 301 redirects for a bit and normally it's no problem but some seem to be going wrong. Redirect 301 /3-zits.html http://www.bankstellenshop.com/banken/3-zits.html This one works properly but the following one gives a very strange result as it goes to http://www.bankstellenshop.com/bankstellen.html/u (no idea where the .html comes from) Redirect 301 /bankstellen/u http://www.bankstellenshop.com/bankstellen/u.html Any idea what I'm doing wrong or what should change? Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | Kapottefietsband0 -
Crawl errors: 301 (permanent redirect)
Hi, here are some questions about SEO Crawl Diagnostics. We've recently found out this 301 (permanent redirect) errors in our website and we concluded that the two factors below are the causes. 1. Some of our URLs that has no / at the end is automatically redirected to the same URL but with / at the end. 2. For SEO reasons we have designed our website in a way that when we type in a URL it will automatically redirect to a more SEO friendly URL. For example, if one of the URLs is www.example.com/b1002/, it will automatically redirect to www.example.com/banana juice/. The question is, are these so significant for our SEO and needs to be modified? One of the errors in our blog was having too many on-page links. Is this also a significant error and if so, how many on-page links are recommended from the SEO perspective? Thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | Glassworks0 -
Simple 301 redirect a subfolder to another subfolder
Hi, I have a number of sub-folders that I have to move, each of which contains a number of files. subfolder A has files a, b & c subfolder B has files d, e & f
Technical SEO | | aactive
subfolder C has files g, h & i A, B & C folders need to be X, Y & Z Will the following work? RewriteRule ^subfolder-A/* http://www.domain.com/subfolder-X/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^subfolder-B/* http://www.domain.com/subfolder-Y/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^subfolder-C/* http://www.domain.com/subfolder-Z/ [R=301,L] will this result in visitors to http://www.domain.com/subfolder-B/f.html being redirected to http://www.domain.com/subfolder-Y/f.html? All on the same domain. in reality we are talking hundreds of sub folders and thousands of files so we don't want to have to reference every file individually in the htaccess. Thanks0 -
What if my host doesn't have the 301 redirect feature?
Ok, So i need to do a 301 redirect but my host doesn't have the feature with htaccess. I currently use yahoo. What are my options?
Technical SEO | | bronxpad0 -
301 Redirect Question
I'm working on a site that has a lot of indexed pages and backlinks to both domain.com and www.domain.com. Will using a 301 redirect to send domain.com to www.domain.com merge all of the indexed pages and links over to www.domain.com, thereby strengthening the www?
Technical SEO | | Yo_Adrian0 -
Redirect and ranking
Wehave 2 websites for the same keyword Website 1 is indexed on place 2 but we do not like that name any longer it does not fit our long term marketing Website 2 is indexed on place 5 and this domain fits better What will happen if we redirect website 1 to website 2? Fall down to postion 5 Fall down to position 5 and after a certain period we get back at position 2 or 3 thanx in advance for your reply
Technical SEO | | turnon0