301 Redirects

[JSeverson]

Hi all,
Since November, I have been working to get a client's site ranked higher in Google. At one point, I was able to move my client's site up to 6th and 10th place for 2 of his most important key phrases.

After Google's update(?) in February, his rankings dropped. For those 2 key phrases, he is now at 13th and 41st place and they appear to be declining.

I have just recently learned that he has additional domain names pointing to his Web site and that he used one of those additional domain names for an AdWords campaign (I have no idea why he did that nor that he was even using AdWords). These domain names are pointing at the site, not a subdirectory, so all of the content is the same. I believe that Google may have discovered these additional domain names and may be penalizing my client's site for duplicate content.

I would like to set up 301 redirects for these additional domain names so if a user goes to one of these domains, they'll automatically be redirected to his main domain name.

How do I set up a 301 redirect? The site is hosted on a Windows server and the files are ASP files. Do I just add a script to the top of each page in the site that says if it's this domain name, redirect to the main domain name? Is there an easier or better way?

Thanks,

[PizdusInc]

I have had a similar thing happen... One day all of a sudden lost all traffic from Google on one site and did not get any for a long while. Later, noticed that we had two domains (there was a dash in one of them) but one of the domains did not redirect. We set up a domain level redirect and not too much later we started getting traffic from Google again.

So, I would set up redirects as soon as possible!!

[apisdesign]

First question to ask - are the other domains getting better rankings? If what you described is in fact what is happening (Google "discovered" the other duplicate websites) then one of these domains should be receiving the previously favourable rankings.

My experience is that when Google discovers multiple domains with the exact (or near exact) same content they will (almost arbitrarily) pick one of the domains and shunt all results to that domain. They won't punish you, though.

For example, a client of ours had 3 domain names. You would do a search for "keyword one" and "domain1.com" would appear. When you clicked on the link Google would actually take you to "domain2.com". Ditto for "domain3.com" and, of course, "domain2.com". Make sense?

This makes sense to me. It appears to be Google preventing people from having multiple domains (with duplicated content) gobbling up extra search engine results.

Setting up a 301 redirect (permanent redirect) is definitely the way to go. This can be done with the help of your hosting company. DO NOT use a javascript or an ASP/PHP redirect or you will be punished. Trust me - I know this from experience.

Good luck.

[PizdusInc]

Like mentioned earlier, the only difference in the domains was a dash (-) in the domain name. What had happend was that Google would index the domain with a dash, it received a PR5 and stayed with it for a while. Nowhere in the index did it have the domain without a dash. Then, on a PR update the dash domain lost a PR (went down to PR4)... that made me think. Did some research and turned out that Google was indexing the non-dash domain now. Some time later, the non-dash domain received a PR2 and other domain stayed at PR4. (Would probably help to mention that Yahoo and MSN indexed the non-dash domain the whole time, never picked up the one with a dash). Anyway, after that it just went downhill and once we did the re-direct the two domains stayed at a PR2...

[danielle v2.1b]

A 301 redirect sits in the .htaccess file at your servers root level, it's real easy and you probably don't need to make yourself feel helpless by asking your webhost. Just add a line using notepad like:

redirect 301 /yourDefaultHomePage.htm  http://www.webAddyYouWantToRedirectTo.com

Then delete the rest of the site and if you want to be a real smarty and do a clean job of it put a 404 redirect on all your other pages that goes to your homepage (which in turn will redirect to the main URL). This way spiders or visitors entering below the root level get nicely transported around and give it a month or two and the whole thing will be but another chapter of net history.

Danielle

[bconley]

Would pointing another domain name without content to a site with content cause the search engines to act the same way as people are experiencing in the above scenarios?

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by bconley

Would pointing another domain name without content to a site with content cause the search engines to act the same way as people are experiencing in the above scenarios?

Yes I have seen it happen here to. If Google knows about the domain(s) with no content from a IBL from another webpage then it could pick that one instead of the primary.

Do a search for 301 redirect on this website or Google for the info that you wish to find. This subject has been discussed many times over here and you probably can find your solutions in previous threads.

[kservik]

You dont use .htaccess on windows hosting?

Kim

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by kservik

You dont use .htaccess on windows hosting?

Kim

No the redirect is done in the IIS management console then.

[JSeverson]

Hi,
Thanks for all of your replys. I think I have to contact the Web hosting company and ask them to set this up since I don't think I have access to the IIS management console (shared hosting account).

Regards,

[Sting25]

I did the same thing last year. My new domain took all my ranking from my primary domain.. You can do this redirect very easy.

Set up new hosting for the domain you would like to remove on an asp server... duplicate your site onto the new hosting. Include this code at the top of each page of the new hosting. Then change your DNS of the domain to point to the new hosting.

<%
Dim NewURL, Referer1
'Replace with the correct address for the page
NewURL = "www.yourdomain.com/landingpage.asp"

'This gets the current page url
Referer1 = Trim(Request.ServerVariables("URL"))

'This sets the response header to 401 and redirects the page
response.status = "401 Object Moved"
response.addheader referer1, "" & NewUrl & ""
Response.redirect(NewURL)
response.end
%>

This will send a 401 (permenant) redirect to the search engines as they spider the pages and tell them to change thier link to the correct location And redirects

This is also easily tied to a database for very large sites.


Hope this helps

Chris

[Tony_V]

why an asp server? couldn't you just do the redirect for any server?

[timmathews.com]

This is definately something to make you think for the future.
This happened to me a couple of years ago, when I was the Network and Web Administrator for a Mobile Computing company in Longboat Key, FL.
We had 120+ domains, all pointing into the main "company name" domain.
Google indexed all of the sites, all 121+ and it was awesome. We had so many visitors, sales, etc. We were high on the hog.
Then one day they stopped.
ALL 121+ domains were dropped TOTALLY from Google.
WOW, this was rough. What I did was stopped ALL redirects from the 120+ sites, and just used the company name as the main site.
Then, I made an individual web for each 120+ "secondary" domains, and made them product specific.
So, you would go to companyname.com, and get the full montey, but if you went to additionalcompanydomains.com, you would get an individual product group website, individual from the main, but still connected to the SQL dbase and cart.
Google loved this "niche" idea that I was doing, and we were re-indexed in 2 months, and all the 120+ other domains were re-indexed as well.
Note: When I set these domains up, I also used an individual IP for each domain.

I hope this helps someone.
Tim

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by Sting25

This will send a 401 (permenant) redirect to the search engines as they spider the pages and tell them to change thier link to the correct location And redirects

Chris

You mean 301 right? 401 = Unauthorized .

[Sting25]

Originally Posted by Tony_V

why an asp server? couldn't you just do the redirect for any server?

Umm because its ASP code ;)

[Sting25]

OK so it was early sorry for the mistake here is the code again

<%
Dim NewURL, Referer1
'Replace with the correct address for the page
NewURL = "www.yourdomain.com/landingpage.asp"

'This gets the current page url
Referer1 = Trim(Request.ServerVariables("URL"))

'This sets the response header to 301 and redirects the page
response.status = "301 Object Moved"
response.addheader referer1, "" & NewUrl & ""
Response.redirect(NewURL)
response.end
%>

[Conficio]

Originally Posted by danielle v2.1b

A 301 redirect sits in the .htaccess file at your servers root level, it's real easy and you probably don't need to make yourself feel helpless by asking your webhost. Just add a line using notepad like:

redirect 301 /yourDefaultHomePage.htm  http://www.webAddyYouWantToRedirectTo.com

Then delete the rest of the site and if you want to be a real smarty and do a clean job of it put a 404 redirect on all your other pages that goes to your homepage (which in turn will redirect to the main URL). This way spiders or visitors entering below the root level get nicely transported around and give it a month or two and the whole thing will be but another chapter of net history.

Danielle

Hi Danielle,
I hate to do this, but I think the better solution would be this (for apache in the .htaccess in docroot or the general virtual host configuration).

redirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com
or
redirectMatch permanent ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com

Because for all the pages that you delete you are sending back a 404, instead of redirecting it to your new domain. This breaks any link that does not go to your home page.

Any decent search engine will forget about the redirected domain soon. And all the ones that can't handle it will continue to be redirected.

Good luck with your sites
K<o>

[Conficio]

Hi all,
I think I just found the definitive answer for IIS at Google Asnwer!

Enjoy the spring, when ever it will arrive!
K<o>

[brianzajac]

Hey everyone, this should totally clear things up (if you're lost by now). I've got a design firm that has a dedicated server. So, after extensive investigation, 301 redirects need to be done by a hosting company. If you can't find one, my company does permanent 301 redirects for a cheap price. Just email me at info@eyemagination.us.

If you need to know if your site is redirecting correctly, go to http://www.webconfs.com/redirect-check.php for a yes/no answer or go to http://www.webconfs.com/http-header-check.php for a detailed check. Now, if you opt for the detailed checker, here's a result from one of my clients:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently =>
Content-Length => 149
Content-Type => text/html
Location => http://lildivahandbags.com
Server => Microsoft-IIS/6.0
Date => Sat, 02 Apr 2005 04:39:30 GMT
Connection => close


That 1st line is what you need to see: HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently =>

This will not only help you with getting back in Google's graces, but it can also list your search engine description. Sometimes they are missing b/c the search engine gets confused with two or more domains pointing to one IP address.

[Faglork]

Originally Posted by brianzajac

So, after extensive investigation, 301 redirects need to be done by a hosting company.

This is just not true. Depending on server configuration, you can set that up in your .htaccess file by yourself.

Originally Posted by brianzajac

If you can't find one, my company does permanent 301 redirects for a cheap price.

Many companies will allow you to do this stuff all by yourself, with no additional cost.
(I will not go into self-promotion here).


Alex

[brianzajac]

This is just not true. Depending on server configuration, you can set that up in your .htaccess file by yourself.

Even if this does work, the BEST way that I've found was to redirect is via a permanent redirect as described in my previous statement. Plus, many people don't understand the concept behind redirects.

Many companies will allow you to do this stuff all by yourself, with no additional cost.
(I will not go into self-promotion here).

Please list some companies. Around my area, NO ONE does this for free. And, the ones who do, charge double, if not triple, the price that I charge (not to mention that they take forever to set this up). Plus, I take care of it w/o them worrying about any of it. That's why I'm suggesting that if they don't know how to do it, I can take care of it. I just don't want them to go through the extensive problems that I did with this.

[intelliot]

I like to use PHP to do my 301 redirects.

header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: ".$url);
header("Connection: close");

Make $url = the URL to redirect to, or change ".$url to the URL (and add a closing double-quote).

[intelliot]

brianzajac: the PHP method I use works fine with Google (and probably all the other search engines). You can find it on php.net somewhere, too. And if your host supports PHP, you can do it yourself.

Any server that uses CPanel, DirectAdmin, and probably some other control panels allows you to set up your own 301 redirects (and .htaccess files). One such host, since you're looking for a list, is http://www.sizzly.com.

[brianzajac]

Intelliot,

Thanks for the info. Can you show me some of the redirects that you currently do through that hosting company (or another)? Also, most hosts around here don't use PHP that much. Their main focus is ASP, ASP.net, & Cold Fusion. The good thing about doing a redirect through IIS is that it's universal for any programming language. And, I can set it up on my server without trying to deal with another hosting company's policies. When I use to deal with them, most of the time was spent dealing with their security and/or political issues.

So, if anyone is looking for the permanent 301 redirect solution, they've got some choices now from this thread. It's up to them which they would prefer - investing time or having someone do it professionally.

[brianzajac]

One last thing I forgot to mention was email. Many of my redirect clients request to have an email address for that new redirect. The only way I know to do this is hosting the redirect. Are there any other ways?

[Mac 5]

On the control panel for a website using "cPanelX" I added a redirect to our main website. I looked the web stats for that site, there are some code 301 - Moved Permanently hits, and a few Code 200 - OK hits.

[kerer99]

Originally Posted by timmathews.com

This is definately something to make you think for the future.
This happened to me a couple of years ago, when I was the Network and Web Administrator for a Mobile Computing company in Longboat Key, FL.
We had 120+ domains, all pointing into the main "company name" domain.
Google indexed all of the sites, all 121+ and it was awesome. We had so many visitors, sales, etc. We were high on the hog.
Then one day they stopped.
ALL 121+ domains were dropped TOTALLY from Google.
WOW, this was rough. What I did was stopped ALL redirects from the 120+ sites, and just used the company name as the main site.
Then, I made an individual web for each 120+ "secondary" domains, and made them product specific.
So, you would go to companyname.com, and get the full montey, but if you went to additionalcompanydomains.com, you would get an individual product group website, individual from the main, but still connected to the SQL dbase and cart.
Google loved this "niche" idea that I was doing, and we were re-indexed in 2 months, and all the 120+ other domains were re-indexed as well.
Note: When I set these domains up, I also used an individual IP for each domain.

I hope this helps someone.
Tim

This is an interesting strategy. I guess my issue is that I don't wouldn't want to pay for hosting on the "product specific" sites. Also, making mini-sites like these is a heck of a lot of work. I can't image making 120 product-specific sites and paying for hosting on this - ouch!

[Mac 5]

kerer99, Web Pro World redid their site so you have to change your signature to PHP for the links to work. Change your preferences to Always allow BBCode also.

I thought about using your stategy for a couple sites to link to the main webpage. Then change our normal bottons and hot links to absolute links. As long as you don't have duplicate content you should be ok.

[kerer99]

Originally Posted by Mac 5

kerer99, Web Pro World redid their site so you have to change your signature to PHP for the links to work. Change your preferences to Always allow BBCode also.

I thought about using your stategy for a couple sites to link to the main webpage. Then change our normal bottons and hot links to absolute links. As long as you don't have duplicate content you should be ok.

Thanks Mac. The BBCode is already on, and I'm not quite sure what I need to do differently to link my site in PHP (?)

Yeah, I'm going to have to strategize to see what would be the best (meaning the most time efficient and cost efficient) way would be to do this.

Search engines are so complicated!

[DarrenC]

I'm sorry I have read all of the posts but I'm baffled!

Im helping a friend do a direct 301 from one domain to a new one what is the correct code to use for unix servers for the .htaccess file?

His site has both PHP and static HTML pages. Will the links, PR, rankings etc carry themselves across?

[timmathews.com]

Originally Posted by kerer99

This is an interesting strategy. I guess my issue is that I don't wouldn't want to pay for hosting on the "product specific" sites. Also, making mini-sites like these is a heck of a lot of work. I can't image making 120 product-specific sites and paying for hosting on this - ouch!

[Faglork]

Originally Posted by timmathews.com

I guess my issue is that I don't wouldn't want to pay for hosting on the "product specific" sites. Also, making mini-sites like these is a heck of a lot of work. I can't image making 120 product-specific sites and paying for hosting on this - ouch!

You probably could put all of them on just a few virtual hosts and manage the whole thing with ZOPE (or something similar). We are just about to go this route: Many subsites, with part of the content fed from the main site, plus additional info. We will use subdomains for the subsites. Content will be managed through ZOPE.

Alex