How do I redirect http:// to http://www.

[StephenR.]

I need a little help here. My directory is being indexed two ways...not good. Yahoo lists my site as http://top-affiliate.com and google indexes it as http://www.top-affiliate.com

I want all the search engines to index my site as http://www.top-affiliate.com

How do I do this and make sure all the search engines update their listings? What the best way. A .htaccess redirect or a meta?

If you could post the exact code for the best way that would be very helpful.

[brian.mark]

Since you asked about .htaccess, I am assuming you're using Apache. The best way I know to handle this is by editing your httpd.conf file with the following:

<VirtualHost 12.109.80.231:80>
ServerAlias toolpartsdirect.com
Redirect permanent / http://www.toolpartsdirect.com/
</VirtualHost>

With that code, if you go to http://toolpartsdirect.com/, you'll notice your address bar changes to include the www when the 301 redirect is passed back.

If you don't have that much access on your server, then I'm not sure how to best handle it. .htaccess would affect both www and non-www (unless you have them hosted in different directories, which may be an option), so you'd be redirecting in an infinite loop from my understanding.

Brian.

[StephenR.]

Thanks for the quick response. However is the httpd.conf supposed to be in the root directory? Not familiar with this specific type of redirect. I need to redirect about 7K pages

[StephenR.]

Would something like this work on my index.php page?

<?php 
////////////////////////////////// 
// retrieving the server host name 
if (preg_match("/^.(.*?)$/i", $_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"], $serverName)) { 
// issue a seo friendly 301 redirect 
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently"); 
// redirect target 
header("Location: http://www.top-affiliate.com". $serverName[1] . $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]); 
exit(); 
} 
////////////////////////////////// 
?>

I'm not sure I wrot this write if someone could check it that would be great.

[brian.mark]

To put it simply, httpd.conf is the apache configuration file. Ours is in /etc/httpd/conf/ and it requires administrator (root level) access, although this change could also be done by editing some included files (httpd.inc) that are in the conf directory of each domain's webspace. Since each type of control panel handles things differently, it is tough to say for sure where your particular files will be found.

Also, after these changes are done, you need to restart Apache.

Brian.

[StephenR.]

Nope, that particular code did not work but it has to be close to being correct......

[StephenR.]

brian.mark:
Ahh I see. Unfortunately I don't have root (SSH) access to the server. I contacted my Web host so we'll see what they say. TY for your help though.

[Ne0]

Do you have Cpanel 10? That's what I use for all of my sites and I would just go to the control panel www.yoursitename.com/cpanel and click on redirects and make a permanent redirect for http:// --> http://www.
my $0.02
NeO1

[StephenR.]

That's a nice feature of cPanel. I'm very happy with my web hosting CP but it does not provide that function unfortunately.

[jawn_tech]

Just simply use a Rewrite.

Create an .htaccess file (with notepad, in case you don't already have one). Use the following:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yoursitename.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yoursitename.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Upload to your parent directory, wherever your page files are stored. That should do it.

Don't forget to replace "yoursitename" with your domain name.

[StephenR.]

Using that code returns my pages as http://www.top-affiliate.com/index.php?req=cat&id= and takes away all of my PR.

[Sapphire]

Stephen, just use the reverse version:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} .
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^bluemushrooms\.com$
RewriteRule (.*) http://bluemushrooms.com/$1 [R=301,L]

And that'll make it no www. I use this on all my sites, and it's working fine. If I enter my sites with a "www" in the url, the url in the window immediately changes to have no www, and the site loads, and Google & Pals are only indexing the non-www version.

[jawn_tech]

StephenR do you have any way of knowing who is linking to your site as the non-www version? I had the same issue and found a couple ibl sources who linked to me without the www . After contacting them they were willing to change the url in the link to add 'www'. For me I used the code above and it worked perfectly, and kept my PR. I don't have any dynamic pages though currently on the site I used it for, so maybe that's why. Also double check to ensure all internal links use www , or whichever version you end up going with.

Interesting, my experience was the opposite... google listed the http version and the others listed the www verion.

[StephenR.]

I fixed it with a .htacess redirect. Good point with the IBL's...I have a lot of them though so it will take some time to identify the ones that need updating. Thanks for all the help gentleman.

[jawn_tech]

StephenR. that's great news you have a solution that works. I've tried 301 redirects but was getting loops when clicked on from an SE (with a timeout error), or else the pr didn't transfer. I'm curious how it was written, if you ever get a chance.

Best regards!

[StephenR.]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^top-affiliate.*
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.top-affiliate.com/$1 [R,L]

All PR followed just fine.

[jawn_tech]

Ok cool. I see what you did.

Congratulations! Nice getting something resolved finally, isn't it.

:)

[brian.mark]

Originally Posted by StephenR.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^top-affiliate.*
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.top-affiliate.com/$1 [R,L]

All PR followed just fine.

I guess there is a whole lot more I could do with .htaccess without modifying my httpd.conf files. Looks much simpler.

Brian.

[StephenR.]

jawn_tech: Heck yeah it's nice, that was driving me nuts :)

brian.mark: Glad I could help.

[brian.mark]

Just tried that on another site, and it works wonderful. Thanks a ton.

Brian.

[edit]

I had to change to [R=301,L] for a 301, otherwise it was doing a 302 which isn't good.