more redirect help plz!!!

[roam_dx]

Hi All,

I have changed folder names for some of my website pages. I have twice before used a redirect option from my cpanel (I don't undertand much about servers and did not want to mess with the .htaccess till necessary), it works fine, the pages are redirected. I also get an option of choosing permanent or temporary redirect, here I choose the permanent option. All this worked until I tried doing a redirect from http://site.com to http://www.site.com. This doesn't work, when I try this the site goes down.

So..I downloaded my .htaccess file. Now this is the code they are using for the redirects.


^/website-reviews/mypage.html$ http://www.mysite.com/web-site-services/mypage.html RedirectMatch permanent


Just want to confirm, is this a proper 301?


It is different from the one i have found on this website and others, which is,


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


Should I use the more common one (2nd one) instead or leave is as it is? In my .htaccess i don't see a RewriteEngine On command anywhere

Also, if I have to switch the commands, will this same code work for the pages I want to redirect too, other than the domain redirect, like


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

RewriteCond % ^/website-reviews/mypage.html$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/web-site-services/mypage.html$1 [R=301,L]


It seemed logical to remove the {HTTP_HOST} for the page redirects, should I keep it?


I also found this somewhere on the forum, to rediect pages


RewriteEngine On
Redirect 301 /website-reviews/mypage.html http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/zonk.html


and this to redirect directories here


RewriteRule ^olddir/(.*)$ http://new.com/newdir/$1 [R=301,L]


just different syntax...all of them!! To me it all looks like gibberish....very confused, can someone please guide me on how I can handle this. don't want to crash my servers or freak the spiders out...they don't come around much anyway :)

Also since I renamed a folder...is it possible to just redirect the folder so that the contained pages are automatically redirected?

thank you

[brian.mark]

Originally Posted by roam_dx

^/website-reviews/mypage.html$ http://www.mysite.com/web-site-services/mypage.html RedirectMatch permanent

This is redirecting one folder to another as a 301.

Originally Posted by roam_dx

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

This is redirecting from yoursitename.com to www.yoursitename.com as a permanent (301).

Originally Posted by roam_dx

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

RewriteCond % ^/website-reviews/mypage.html$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/web-site-services/mypage.html$1 [R=301,L]

Your second rule here is not correct. Keep the original way of doing the 301's for pages / directories and just put the Rewrite conditions and rules at the end of the file.

Originally Posted by roam_dx

RewriteEngine On
Redirect 301 /website-reviews/mypage.html http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/zonk.html

This looks just fine. You could use this if you like, although it isn't using the RewriteEngine at all.

Originally Posted by roam_dx

RewriteRule ^olddir/(.*)$ http://new.com/newdir/$1 [R=301,L]

This is correct if you'd prefer to use a rule instead of just a Redirect.

Originally Posted by roam_dx

just different syntax...all of them!! To me it all looks like gibberish....very confused, can someone please guide me on how I can handle this. don't want to crash my servers or freak the spiders out...they don't come around much anyway :)

Also since I renamed a folder...is it possible to just redirect the folder so that the contained pages are automatically redirected?

thank you

That last one would redirect the entire folder, all pages inside it included in that redirect. The problem with cpanel is that it isn't doing a rewrite rule, so it can't do conditional redirects. Basically, it's redirecting anything to www.yoursitename.com/anything and it gets stuck in an infinite loop. You've found all the correct code already, so just give it a try. The worst that can happen is you have to put your original file back on the server (make sure you back that up before making too many changes.)

Brian.

[roam_dx]

thanks Brian,

I added this code at the bottom of my current file (with the original cpanel code) & the

http:// redirect is working fine, and so are most the individual page redirects


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


Since of the pages that I have moved are about the only pages on my website currently getting any traffic from search engines, I just want to confirm, that the original code is ok

SE wise, i mean it's a proper 301 redirect, since the code doesn't mention "301" anywhere,

that's -


^/website-reviews/mypage.html$ http://www.mysite.com/web-site-services/mypage.html RedirectMatch permanent


you may have already commented on this, just want reconfirm, since i have seen a lot said about choosing the right method to redirect you pages.

that was good advice about the back up, usually do it, but then just at the last moment, it often silps from memory.

thanks again, appreciate the help.

[brian.mark]

If you want to make sure, use this tool to see what the redirect really is. Since it says permanent, that is a 301, but it's usually a good idea to test it anyway.

Brian.

[roam_dx]

hey brian, great tool. tells me its a permanent 301, so i'll just stick with cpanel redirects, easy to manage.

thanks for your help