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A simple 301 redirect question

by monsur
11 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Dear friends,

I bought hosting from nexx(a sister company of netfirms) few days ago.

I asked its support
"I want to transfer www.deartravel.com to my nexx account.My question is-

As the domain already has some indexed pages ,how may I redirect all those indexed pages to the home page of deartravel.com ? "

They told

"Thank you for your email inquiry.

You would have to create a google webmaster tools account:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/
In their control panel, you shall be able to redirect those index pages to the correct location."


Is it right?Please answer from your expertise


Thanks
Monsur
#301 #question #redirect #simple
  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    Are you asking about the www and no-www versions of your URL?

    If yes, it is partly right: in GWT you can set your preferred version so G. won't consider those as two different sites (which otherwise it would).

    Partly only because your site still would be available with both URLs. To avoid it, set up a 301 redirect in your htaccess file. Furthermore, as it is a WP site, make sure you have your canonical URL in your head section.

    It is true or ti's a joke that you are using WP version 1.0?
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    • Profile picture of the author monsur
      Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

      Are you asking about the www and no-www versions of your URL?

      If yes, it is partly right: in GWT you can set your preferred version so G. won't consider those as two different sites (which otherwise it would).

      Partly only because your site still would be available with both URLs. To avoid it, set up a 301 redirect in your htaccess file. Furthermore, as it is a WP site, make sure you have your canonical URL in your head section.

      It is true or ti's a joke that you are using WP version 1.0?
      Thanks much for the useful reply.In fact,I am changing my hosting account without taking the existing content.In this condition I want that all the indexed pages should be redirected to the home pages of deartravel.com

      For example-when a visitor follows any indexed page like Discount Last Minute Travel - 5 Top Places to Find Deals - Travel News/Travel Guide/Travel Information/Travel Ideas ,he will be redirected to the home page.

      Any tips?

      Thanks
      Monsur
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    You are not thinking clear here.

    Changing hosts should NOT mean any kind of change in your website, should NOT need any redirect. Ever.

    What you want is NOT related to changing hosts. It is as if you want to delete all your content and want the old links to go to your new index page instead of 404 not found error page.

    The main problem is that you are not able to formulate what you want... and you ask all the wrong questions everywhere.
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    • Profile picture of the author monsur
      Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

      You are not thinking clear here.

      Changing hosts should NOT mean any kind of change in your website, should NOT need any redirect. Ever.

      What you want is NOT related to changing hosts. It is as if you want to delete all your content and want the old links to go to your new index page instead of 404 not found error page.

      The main problem is that you are not able to formulate what you want... and you ask all the wrong questions everywhere.
      Sorry about that.Yes,you finally understood what the problem is!
      Your are quite right .Anyway,I am really grateful to you as you wasted your valuable time for me.

      Thanks
      Monsur
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  • Profile picture of the author jminkler
    Yes and no.

    Yes a 301 is used to redirect content to its new page. No its not a good idea to have the 301 go to a default landing page.

    If you are going to delete the content, when bots hit this link they will get a 404 page if it's not there. If they hit a 301, they expect to see "roughly" the "same" content that was there before the page moved. They are trying to verify that the content is still there.

    If its NOT there you want it to land on a 404 page. I would advise against this though. If at all possible try and keep the content but don't link to it in an obvious manner (to humans), this way your site will retain all its backlinks and link juice it has already gotten.

    You can do this several ways depending on how you had the old content laid out. 1) .htaccess redirects with mod_rewrite. which would take the old links in based on a part of the url for example /blog/123/this-is-a-post would still be at that url but its real location (on disk) would be under /oldsite/123/this-is-a-post that way you can move the files around, and have your new blog at /b/ or whatever

    If your going to wipe the content, expect your page rank and link juice to be wiped as well. (if you dont try to preserve the conent where the se's expect to find it)
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  • Profile picture of the author justaskbigjohn
    Here's a quick and easy script I use:

    <META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="0;URL=http://www.putyourredirectlinkhere.com">

    Just put it under your pages title and you're good to go!
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    • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
      Originally Posted by justaskbigjohn View Post

      Here's a quick and easy script I use:

      <META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh"
      Hmm... Reading the thread is always helpful...

      Where would you put your "easy" solution if the existing content is going to be DELETED?
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  • Profile picture of the author artlover
    use .htaccess to redirect your old pages to your new domain.
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    • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
      Originally Posted by artlover View Post

      use .htaccess to redirect your old pages to your new domain.
      Same as above: ALWAYS read the OP and the thread before post8ing somethnig that make you look... hmm... not-so-smart...
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      • Profile picture of the author davidlieder
        Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

        Same as above: ALWAYS read the OP and the thread before post8ing somethnig that make you look... hmm... not-so-smart...
        Its always nice to see a self-appointed forum cop at work. Actually, Istvan, Artlover is 100% correct in my opinion.

        Look Monsur, I use 301 redirects all the time so I can weigh in on this discussion with some experience, you have your old domain, www.deartravel.com, you are going to change the DNS (Nameservers) to the new host Nexx - by going to your domain registrar and where it says "Nameservers" or "Ns1.blahblahblah.com" you put your nexx Nameservers for the new location.

        I use 301 redirects a lot and it is advisable in my opinion to put in your .htaccess file a list of the old pages and put the new home page.

        Like this:

        redirect 301 /paristravel.php http://www.deartravel.com
        redirect 301 /london.html http://www.deartravel.com
        redirect 301 /somefolder/index.html http://www.deartravel.com

        So it is redirecting back to itself but it is OK, it is good to have a 301 like this and let the Search Engines have an idea of what is happening.

        Then a few things to remember:
        1) Keep a backup of the .htaccess file in case it ever gets overwritten by accident
        2) Make sure you put every single page that you want to redirect
        3) Remember that your site has a "site PR" as well as "page PR". If you put 301 redirects on all the old pages then Google will appreciate it and retain your "Site PR" even though your old pages will no longer exist in the index. Your "Site PR" is really the most important rating.

        In my opinion, just ignore the post on this thread that says that the pages have to be similar. It is better to have a 301 than to have a 404 error. The fact that your content is similar will be enough. I have found that it is still OK to redirect even if the page radically changes. In fact, in my opinion, Google appreciates it because you are giving it some kind of idea of what is happening.

        I see that you are moving the domain, so that means the new site will be related to the old, but with different (but similar) content.

        Hope that helps.

        David Lieder
        Astral Universe Worldwide Media

        P.S. In rare occassions, if you have some weird things going on in the directory structure (like installing Wordpress in a subdirectory), it can cause problems with the 301 redirect code above and you have to use another one. If this is the case for you, then IM me and I will send you the correct code.
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  • Profile picture of the author monsur
    Thanks for the informative reply
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