Redirect a lot of files using a wildcard?

[memaggiem]

Is it possible to redirect a whole bunch of files using a wildcar? For example, I moved about 20 files to a new subdirectory and still need tomove about 50 more to 2 other subdirectories! I don't want to have a huge massive .htaccess with a tone of redirect lines (Google did not like my having 10 different 301s in my .htaccess file at one point)

Each file starts with the same word so using a wildcard would not negatively impact the rest of my site files.

Is it possible?

TIA!
Maggie

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by memaggiem

(Google did not like my having 10 different 301s in my .htaccess file at one point)

Where did you get this idea? Just all all 70 lines you will be fine.

[memaggiem]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Where did you get this idea? Just all all 70 lines you will be fine.

I got this idea from logging into my Google Webmaster Tools and the big red WARNING in the Sitemap area saying "too many redirects"

I really don't want to spend time doing 70 lines of redirect for 70 (or more) different files, so I was hoping for a wildcard solution...you know something like

redirect 301 /xyz*.htm http://122222222.com/newdir/xyz*.htm

or something like that! Is it possible?

Thanks!

[incrediblehelp]

Well that doesnt very normal. I have 1000s of redirects in my htaccess file sometimes and that works fine.

[memaggiem]

Really? You have a ton of 301s? Hmmmm............ I only had 10! It was a big and bold warning too!

If I just submit a new sitemap to Google, would that suffice? Ya know, the time I'm spending looking for a solution is time I could have been doing the 301s! heehee Still, not sure that having all those 301's compacted into a nice wildcard would please the google machine either!