Hope this isn't a completely silly question (some folks say there's no such thing as a stupid question, but I don't know about that).
I've asked for assistance regarding this site before. It's a medical information site, which was created by someone else using tables. I'm helping the doctor clean up the site and organize it. We're leaving it as a tables site because I'm volunteering my time and I don't have the expertise to convert the whole thing to CSS. Anyway, instead of creating HTML pages for every topic, the original designer/webmaster created a number HTML pages with links to .doc, .rtf, and .pdf files.
I received from the doctor an updated article in .doc form to replace the original. The .doc is accessed via a link on this page:
Hazardous Substances|Chemical Injury/Sensitivity. The link has this address:
http://www.chemicalinjury.net/HS/Per...tes)%20REV.doc
The original .doc had a different address/filename, so I thought I should redirect the old .doc to the new one because Google has indexed all of the .docs on this particular HTML page.
Here's the redirect I put into the .htaccess file:
redirect 301 /public_html/HS/Perfume Scented Products Website.doc
http://www.chemicalinjury.com/public_html/HS/Perfume scented products and chemical injury ( phthalates) REV.doc
The redirect didn't work when I used a redirect checker I located on an
SEO page I located through a search.
My question is: do 301 redirects work for .docs or only for HTML pages? If they do, what am I doing wrong?
Thanks!