Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Stefanos:

Hi! Did you ever find an answer to this question? I have a Magento install as well and need some advanced technical SEO. Are you working with a Magento consultant at all?

Thanks!

Lynn

Hi!!

Yeah strange. Here is the code the hosting guys came up with:

############################################

enable rewrites

Options +FollowSymLinks
    RewriteEngine ON

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.(.)$ [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.)$ http://%1/$1 [L,R=301]

RedirectMatch 301 ^/shop/(.*)$ http://hiphound.com/$1

############################################

The first rule is for www to non-www redirection and the second rule is for my URL structure change.

Thanks so much for your help!

Lynn

Hi!

Tried that and same issue. 404. Ugh!!!

What the heck am I doing wrong? Thanks for the feedback. It is appreciated.

Lynn

Hi!

I just launched our newly coded site and just realized the installed 301 is NOT working. The URL string is the same EXCEPT for the removal of /shop/. Here is the code in .htaccess:

############################################

enable rewrites

Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

#RedirectMatch 301 ^/shop?/$ http://hiphound.com/

RedirectMatch 301 ^/shop?/$ http://hiphound.com

###########################################

When I go to Google and click on an old link I get a 404. No bueno!! Here is an example:

http://hiphound.com/shop/rubit-dog-tag-clip

I thought (and was told) that the installed 301 would send this page to:

http://hiphound.com/rubit-dog-tag-clip

It's not. Please HELP!! What am I doing wrong???

Lynn

Hello!

Yes - that is correct. The home page should only be found via HTTP not HTTPS (HTTPS only for shop and account pages).

I do have canonical setup on the site but it looks like it is only applying to the shop pages. I will have it implemented on the home and CMS pages as well. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

Do you know why one would use canonical over a 301 and vice versa? I know there are always 10 ways to accomplish the same thing but am wondering if one is better than another.

Thanks so much for your help and insight!

Lynn

Hi!!

Okay - weird tech question.

Domain is http://hiphound.com. I have SSL attaching to checkout and my account pages. Tested and works well.

Issue - I am able to reach the home page at https://hiphound.com AND http://hiphound.com. If I access the home page via HTTPS and click on a link (any link) then the site is redirected to HTTP again which is good.

My concern is the home page displaying via HTTPS and HTTP. Is this is an issue that can be resolved or is it expected behavior I have to live with.? I am being told by DEV there is nothing they can do about it but want to understand why and if they are correct.

Thoughts? Thank you!!

Lynn

Hi!! Thanks Mike! I didn't realize I was passing the SIDs (as not in the URL) but it makes sense I am. Will take this to a private question and let you know what I hear back.

Thanks for your help!

Lynn

Thank you James!! I really appreciate the insight and your patience.

Lynn

Hi! I am in Google Webmaster Tools but haven't played with it extensively since I set it up and added my domain.

Looking at it seeing some crawl errors. Most of them have SID in them. Why would it be trying to crawl a session ID?

That brings up another question. The shopper is able to narrow down a category by manufacturer and price. These links will be crawled and indexed as well. Do I want them to be???

Anything you can offer would be appreciated. If it's too in-depth (meaning will take you too much time) can take this to a private question.

Thank you!

Lynn

Hi!! The only thing that has changed is the removal of /shop/ from the product pages URLs. Here is the 301 installed. I was told all was well with it. Would love another set of eyeballs if you can confirm it looks good. I am actually ranking for some things so am paranoid I am going to mess the site move up. Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it.

############################################

enable rewrites

Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

#RedirectMatch 301 ^/shop?/$ http://hiphound.com/

RedirectMatch 301 ^/shop?/$ http://hiphound.com

###########################################

On my site the only things that are accessible via HTTPS are the checkout pages and the my account pages (or so I am told - still testing). So for these I could mark "noindex, nofollow" correct as don't really want Google to crawl these? And robots.txt can accomplish the same thing (robots.txt may be easier for me as requires no dev time; I can't control this tag via the CMS)?

Thanks for the input!

Lynn

Thank you!! Great article!

Follow-up - how long does it take for the URLs to be rewriten in the Google index? Is that done on the next crawl?

Thanks! I really appreciate the help.

Lynn

Hi!!

I am launching a newly recoded site this week and had a another noobie question.

The URL structure has changed slightly and I have installed a 301 redirect to take care of that. I am wondering how Google will handle my "old" pages? Will they just fall out of the index? Or does the 301 redirect tell Google to rewrite the URLs in the index?

I am just concerned I may see an "old" page and a "new" page with the same content in the index. Just want to make sure I have covered all my bases.

Thanks!!

Lynn

Hello!

Thank you both for taking the time to answer. A follow-up question just so I understand:

1. "noindex, follow" will allow SEs to crawl a page but NOT put it in the index correct?

2. Can't I also stop SE access to certain directories/pages by putting an entry in the robots.txt? This would stop crawling AND indexing correct?

Why would one use one over the other? Just want to understand the idea behind it.

Thank you so much guys!!

Lynn

Hi!!

Another noob question:

Should I be nofollowing my site's cart and checkout pages? Or as SEs can't get to the checkout pages without either logging in or completing the form is it something I shouldn't worry about? Have read things saying both. Not sure which is correct.

Thank you! Appreciate the help.

Lynn

Thank you!! I appreciate the direction!

Lynn

Hello!

I am getting ready to launch my freshly coded site in the next week or so. My product URLs are changing SLIGHTLY and want to confirm I am going about things the right way:

A. My LIVE site store URLs look like http://hiphound.com/shop/dog-collars . My DEV site store URLs look like http://hiphound.com/dog-collars . No /shop directory.

B. The dev firm installed the rewrite rule below:

############################################

enable rewrites

Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

#RedirectMatch 301 ^/shop?/$ http://hiphound.com/

RedirectMatch 301 ^/shop?/$ http://hiphound.com

###########################################

C. When I manually enter a URL with /shop in the address the website redirects to the correct page which is good.

QUESTIONS I HAVE

1. Is the above redirect correct? I need them to permanent. Don't think the above is right...

2. Will links in the Google index be redirected as well? I am assuming yes but just want to confirm.

3. For each page indexed in Google will its pagerank, etc. be passed to the new page using just the 301 above?

4. Do I need to create addtional 301s for each page? So mapping the old page to the new page?

Please advise. The goal here is to of course preserve the rankings of the pages already in the Google index. THANK YOU!!!

Lynn