How can I redirect incoming links from an old version of my site ending in .ctlg and .ivnu?

[featherman]

My original site was published in 2001 using "version 2" software from Ivenue, the hosting company that I signed up with at that time. The site's structure was built in such a way that the primary category pages ended in the extension .ivnu. Product or item pages on the shopping cart side ended in the extension .ctlg.  My site's name was and is [Lamplight Feather, Inc.](<a class="webkit-html-attribute-value webkit-html-external-link" href="http://www.tonyhill.net/" target="_blank">http://www.tonyhill.net/</a>). We built our business between 2001 and 2011 and by the last three years (2009 - 2011) of using their version two were averaging a million dollars per year in gross sales.

We decided to "upgrade" to Ivenue's "version 3" in 2011 to take advantage of some more modern options and because their newer software created web pages ending in .html which we thought more desirable. We made the switch in late 2011. But it was a disaster. Traffic and sales dropped precipitously. For the past two years (2012-2013) our annual gross sales average dropped to $400,000. (Two other factors were involved beside losing the many incoming links and link juice we had built up over the years: Panda came in that fall and my little niche market (decorative feathers) was flooded with competitors.)

However as I try to rebuild our traffic and business little by little, I am stumped as to how to redirect the many incoming links that went to our first site's .ivnu and .ctlg pages. I have constructed redirects for some of our current but changed .html pages like this and put them in the file cabinet and they work:

For (example):  http://www.tonyhill.net/feathers_c384589.html then

But trying the same thing for (example)  http://www.tonyhill.net/craftfeathers.ivnu still returns a 404. Is there something I am missing. Ivenue is useless in this matter by the way. Their "technicians" are no help. I plan to be migrating my site once again to a new hosting company and hope to solve this problem before then. Thanks for the attention,

Tony Hill

This is an example from Google Webmaster of the type of links that show up as 404's that I would like to redirect:

| URL: | http://www.tonyhill.net/productCat96521.ctlg |

|

| Error details | Linked from | |

<colgroup><col></colgroup>
| http://www.tonyhill.net/productCat43986.ctlg |
| http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=21416&page=2 |
| http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?p=3832751 |
| http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=21416&page=2&highlight=fur |
| http://www.muppetcentral.com/forum/threads/puppeteers-resources-links.19330/page-2 |
| http://www.muppetcentral.com/forum/threads/how-do-you-like-my-puppets.18549/page-2 |

|   |   |

|

[featherman]

Dear Caitlin,

Thanks for pointing out that the redirects DID work.  Duh.  Not sure what happened when I checked and determined they were not working.  However they are all Meta_Refresh redirects. It seems that Ivenue cannot install 301's on the server side.  At least no one there I have talked to seems to know how. Presume there is a problem with the original proprietary software (.ctlg, .ivnu).  I have another inquiry in with them today.  So we shall see.

I do have a concern that the Meta_Refresh redirects are hurting my link juice. We are talking about several hundred (or more) incoming links that reference those .ivnu and .ctlg pages.

[DragonSearch]

Hello Tony,

I wish I could be of more help. Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with this platform. One thing that I noticed is that that you said the following link 404'd: http://www.tonyhill.net/craftfeathers.ivnu. However, for me, it loads just fine.

One recommendation I have would be to download the following redirect checker http://www.ayima.com/seo-knowledge/redirect-checker.html. Once in your dashboard it will notify you if a redirect that you implemented is properly resolving.

Remember to create 301 redirect not 302. 302 redirects are meant to be temporary and, as a result, link equity will not flow through them. 301 redirects are considered permanent.

I hope this provides some help! ^Caitlin