301 redirect - which is best

[groenie]

I need to do a 301 redirect, and being quite new at this, would appreciate some advice.

According to me, there are two ways of doing this;
using IIS to do a permanent redirect,
using .htaccess file

Could someone please tell me what the difference is, and which is best?

[buddhu]

I use htaccess for some of my sites, but then those are on Apache/*nix servers. I think the difference is that the htaccess is specific to that kind of setup. For a windows server I think you'd need to do the 301 in VBscript.

If you do run any Apache/*nix boxes you'll find the htaccess method works just fine - but don't bet your life that Yahoo! will cope with any kind of 301... :(

[groenie]

Hi buddhu

IIS lets me do a permanent redirect without having to create an htaccess file. I need to know if it is physically necessary for me to put that file in the root directory, or if the search engines (excluding Yahoo!) would be fine with the IIS redirect, which is essentially a 301 redirect, without the htaccess file.

[buddhu]

Yr best bet is probably to check out:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...313074&sd=tech

and IIS 301 redirection with ASP/VBscript is described quite comprehensively at:
http://www.seoconsultants.com/tips/asp/301.asp

[buddhu]

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that not only do you not need .htaccess with the WIndows IIS server, it actually isn't an option, as it's a *nix only facility and isn't used by windows servers at all.

Someone please put me right if I'm mistaken there.

[pedstersplanet]

Originally Posted by buddhu

For a windows server I think you'd need to do the 301 in VBscript.

Unless of course you have access to the Apache .conf file, then put it in there.

You can also use php.

[achronister]

htaccess is only used on Apache servers. The easiest way to do a 301 on an IIS server is to open IIS admin console, click permanently redirect domain and tell it where to redirect to. This will give you the correct 301 header code.

There is no need for vb,asp, or any other code.

[groenie]

The easiest way to do a 301 on an IIS server is to open IIS admin console, click permanently redirect domain and tell it where to redirect to. This will give you the correct 301 header code.

I have done this, but wasn't sure if this is a proper 301 redirect. For safety sake I also put the htaccess file in the root of the site.

What would the consequences be of a person having 7 domains and redirecting them in this way to one domain/website? Would this be considered spam?

[buddhu]

As I understand it, the 301 tells the search engines that the target URL of the 301 is the only one that should be crawled, indexed and ranked. Therefore you're not spamming as you're only trying to get them to "see" one domain.