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301 Redirects for Multiple Language Sites in htaccess File
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Hi everyone,
I have a site on a subdomain that has multiple languages set up at the domain level:
https://mysite.site.com, https://mysite.site.fr , https://mysite.site.es , https://mysite.site.de , etc.
We are migrating to a new subdomain and I am trying to create 301 redirects within the htaccess file, but I am a bit lost on how to do this as it seems you have to go from a relative url to an absolute - which would be fine if I was only doing this for the english site, but I'm not.
It doesn't seem like I can go from absolute url to an absolute url - but I could be wrong.
I am new to editing the htaccess file - so I could definitely use some advice here.
Thanks.
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You might be able to do this using the "RewriteCond" condition to specify the new subdomain paths. This guide should give you the basic template: https://www.hostwinds.com/guide/redirect-subdomain-using-htaccess/
Let me know if you have any other questions!
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