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301 Redirect (for SEO?) through domain forwarding or through htaccess?

by satrap
7 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi Guys,

A quick question on 301 redirect.

Does it matter which way you go - through htaccess code change or just simply through domain forwarding option from your domain provider?...

I know with htaccess you have more control over the rewrite rules and stuff, but if you are just trying to do a simple 301 redirect to preserve (hopefully) what authority the old domain has, would it matter which option you use?...

I would think there would be no difference, but just wanted to ask to make sure I am not missing anything that I am going to learn about 6 months into it and be like oh why didn't I do it through htaccess.


Thanks in advance.
#301 #domain #forwarding #htaccess #redirect #seo
  • Profile picture of the author sodomojo
    I have a similar question.

    Should I redirect each indivually to its corresponding page on the new site, or just send them to the homepage? How much will it hurt, if any?
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    • Profile picture of the author justmoretravel
      Originally Posted by sodomojo View Post

      I have a similar question.

      Should I redirect each indivually to its corresponding page on the new site, or just send them to the homepage? How much will it hurt, if any?
      If you were browsing your site where would you want to go, the homepage or the most relevant page to your query?
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  • Profile picture of the author UMS
    Makes no real difference what method you use.

    If you do a domain redirect (which technically is just a URL redirect), you can always use .htaccess at anytime in the future if you find you need a finer grained control over the redirects.

    sodomojo, assuming your new site is the same (or very similar) to the old site, you should aim to redirect to the corresponding page on the new site.

    Watch the video below for more details

    Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author chandan_dutta
    I don't think there would be any difference. In past I did redirection twice through htaccess and used wordpress plugin to foward all posts and pages. Everything was working as expected.

    I followed this -

    Domain -> new domain though htaccess

    Used Simple 301 Redirects For

    Pages -> new domain pages
    Posts -> new domain post.

    The plugin is - Simple 301 Redirects
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  • Profile picture of the author racksjackson
    I think htaccess is the best way to apply 301 redirection.
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    • Profile picture of the author scott g
      Use .htaccess to redirect everything. I go through my Google webmaster tools occasionally for each of my sites to see the errors so I can redirect them...

      Just restructured URL structure for a law firm's website to simplify - very tedious, but I redirected every old URL to its new URL. I would suggest redirecting the bad link to its replacement URL. Takes more time and effort than a straight domain redirect or URL redirect, but it's worth it.

      Happier visitors and Google likes it. This is from my experience - both with users and Google.

      CHEERS!
      Signature
      scott g
      "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve."
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        It depends on how it's done. A true 301, 302, etc., is
        done by your site's settings. If your host does it as
        if the domain is parked, then it's essentially offline.

        And you don't want that if you are looking for juice
        passing.

        Paul
        Signature

        If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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