301 reditects, .htaccess and Wordpress

[morestar]

Hey ladies and men who are gentle...

So for a search for one of my services I found a link in the SERPs that goes to a 404 page and I was trying to re-use my other .htaccess 301 redirect code on this site but it wouldn't work.

The url in question is similar to the following:

http://www.mydomain.com/2009/09/seo-web-design-services/

The .htaccess code is the following:

RewriteRule ^2009/09/seo-web-design-services http://www.mydomain.com [R=permanent,L]

But this is a definite no go and I'm not a master with .htaccess and redirects.

Any help is totally appreciated as I would LOVE to get that 404 page out of my user's view.

wige??

[Uncle Dog]

Your .htaccess should start with these lines.

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on

+FollowSymlinks is probably already enabled, but it doesn't hurt to try again.
RewriteEngine may be on, but...

Your RewriteRule

^2009/09/seo-web-design-services

means urls starting with 2009/09/seo so...

it's simplest to just put the full url first

RewriteRule http://www.mydomain.com/2009/09/seo-web-design-services http://www.mydomain.com [R=permanent,L]

I like .htaccess tips and tricks for gentle reminders.

[morestar]

Thank you for the link UD.

This didn't work

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule http://www.mydomain.com/2009/09/seo-web-design-services http://www.mydomain.com [R=permanent,L]

Did I do something wrong?

[morestar]

I also have this in my current .htaccess file:

# BEGIN wordpress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END wordpress

[Uncle Dog]

The [L] means Last Rule so... if the conditions for a rewrite were met then it will be actioned but anything following it will be ignored.

[Uncle Dog]

The wordpress conditional says

If you can do rewrites?

Switch the rewrite on
The directory root (for this) is /
Here's a trap for a missing file request
Here's a trap for a missing directory request
If a trap has fired... go to this page [Don't do any more]

[morestar]

OK I edit it to this:

# BEGIN wordpress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule http://www.mydomain.com/2009/09/seo-web-design-services http://www.mydomain.com [R=permanent,L]
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END wordpress

that didn't work...and actually caused and Internal Server Error...

but thank you for trying to help UD...

[Uncle Dog]

No!

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule http://www.mydomain.com/2009/09/seo-web-design-services http://www.mydomain.com [R=permanent,L]

RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Having said all that. If you just changed the existing Wordpress Rewrite to [R=permanent,L] then anything missing would be permanently redirected.

One of the problems of only seeing part of the problem, you only get part of the solution.

[morestar]

OK honestly UD, I really don't mean to bug ya but that didn't work...

the exact code I have written in there right now is what you have above (with my domain) and it's not throwing a server error but not at all redirecting...

[morestar]

lol you're signature UD...that cracked me up...