Make sure your 301 permanent redirect is setup

Kevin Lam · 07-12-2009, 07:52 PM

By preparing your website with a 301 permanent redirect, you are not only helping the search engines keep your website organized, but you are also helping them give you more value.

The thing is, if you don't have a 301 permanent redirect setup, your domain.com could be looked at differently than your www.domain.com. This could be detrimental to your positions in the SERP or even more.

I say "even more" because there was a prospect we did a free analysis for. We discovered that when you go to their domain.com site, it was fine, but if someone typed in [b]www.domain.com[b], the page was literally non-existent. This can really hurt you through the search engines and through customers who ended up on the wrong domain.

To prevent this from happening, you can use a .htaccess file that would tell the browser what to do when they land on either domain.com or www.domain.com.

We prefer to send www.domain.com to domain.com using a .htacess file. If you're not sure how to make that file, just create a new text file and rename it to ".htaccess". Make sure you're also able to edit the extension. If you have trouble with it, you can usually do it through your hosting cpanel via file manager.

If you have a WordPress blog, these are the codes you'd use in that file:

Quote:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
RewriteCond %{http_host} ^www.domain.com [nc]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]
</IfModule>

Just replace "domain" with your domain name.

Here's how you do it if it's just a regular page (not a blog):

Quote:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Hope this helps.

Joshua.E1 · 07-12-2009, 11:02 PM

Hi Kevin

This is a very good info on redirect. It is very good to use this redirect as it will help in building the ranks of your website.

Joshua.E

Kickstartpeter · 07-13-2009, 01:42 AM

good advise, google canonical

Kevin Lam · 07-13-2009, 02:07 PM

Not just that, but prevent errors on some sites.

Nspire · 07-16-2009, 11:47 PM

Kevin, Thanks for sharing the details on how to do the 301 permanent redirect. It also reminded me that i still needed to do that.

Kevin Lam · 07-19-2009, 10:13 PM

Glad to have helped out. You'd better have it done by now.

Kevin Lam · 07-20-2009, 06:00 AM

BP as in what? Blog Roll? LOL. Sorry, you need to clarify that. But you could always do a search in Google ;-).

07-12-2009, 11:02 PM	#2
Joshua.E1 HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 258 Thanks: 0 Thanked 11 Times in 11 Posts	Re: Make sure your 301 permanent redirect is setup Hi Kevin This is a very good info on redirect. It is very good to use this redirect as it will help in building the ranks of your website. Joshua.E

07-13-2009, 01:42 AM	#3
Kickstartpeter Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: San Francisco, California Posts: 15 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Social Networking	Re: Make sure your 301 permanent redirect is setup good advise, google canonical

07-13-2009, 02:07 PM	#4
Kevin Lam Dare To Dream War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 986 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 179 Thanked 229 Times in 154 Posts	Re: Make sure your 301 permanent redirect is setup Not just that, but prevent errors on some sites.

07-16-2009, 11:47 PM	#5
Nspire HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 230 Thanks: 8 Thanked 14 Times in 13 Posts Social Networking	Re: Make sure your 301 permanent redirect is setup Kevin, Thanks for sharing the details on how to do the 301 permanent redirect. It also reminded me that i still needed to do that.
	Nspire Atlanta Online Marketing SEO Atlanta Web Design

07-19-2009, 10:13 PM	#6
Kevin Lam Dare To Dream War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 986 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 179 Thanked 229 Times in 154 Posts	Re: Make sure your 301 permanent redirect is setup Glad to have helped out. You'd better have it done by now.

07-20-2009, 06:00 AM	#7
Kevin Lam Dare To Dream War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 986 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 179 Thanked 229 Times in 154 Posts	Re: Make sure your 301 permanent redirect is setup BP as in what? Blog Roll? LOL. Sorry, you need to clarify that. But you could always do a search in Google ;-).