• majorAlexa

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. SEO Tactics
        3. On-Page Optimization
        4. How can I fix multiple 404 errors with Wildcard htaccess redirect

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        How can I fix multiple 404 errors with Wildcard htaccess redirect

        On-Page Optimization
        3
        12
        5579
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • Taiger
          Taiger Subscriber last edited by

          Hi all I hope that someone can help....

          How can I fix multiple 404 errors with Wildcard htaccess redirect

          The url in question is:

          How can I fix multiple 404 errors with Wildcard htaccess redirect

          http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/listing/search/Category/luxury_hotels_venues_uk_wedding_venues/exclusive_use_venues/letter/c

          http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/listing/location/uk-england/bedfordshire-weddings/franklin-park

          http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/deal/location/uk-england/chorley-weddings/curtis-bay

          etc, going to http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/business

          the above is just a few examples, google webmaster is showing over  8.000 404 page not found errors.

          Thanks in advance.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Taiger
            Taiger Subscriber last edited by

            Hi Denverish, thanks for your reply, been months since i looked at this problem. It has returned so trying to sort it out. the redirects mentioned did not work. so any suggestions.

            The CMS allows for 301 redirects via a form; place old url at the top of the form and the new url at the bottom and save,

            But as I am trying to create a wildcard 301 redirect, i am not sure what code to place in these fields..see pic

            tai

            MgrqdVB.png

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Christy-Correll
              Christy-Correll Staff last edited by

              Hi Tai, were you able to implement Matt's suggestions?

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Christy-Correll
                Christy-Correll Staff last edited by

                Hi Tai! Any update on this issue? Please let us know so we can help! Thanks.

                Christy

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Taiger
                  Taiger Subscriber last edited by

                  Hi Matt, sorry for the delay in getting back.

                  Just working on your suggestions, I will let you know if it works

                  T

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Matt-Williamson
                    Matt-Williamson @Taiger last edited by

                    Using the redirectmatch directive to redirect the entire deal directory to deals should definitely work for your situation. You then just repeat for each - so for deals:

                    RedirectMatch 301 /deal/(.*) /deals/$1

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Taiger
                      Taiger Subscriber last edited by

                      Hi Matt,

                      RewriteEngine On
                      RewriteRule ^listing/(.*)$ http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/business/ [R=301,L]

                      Did not work,

                      other urls flagged up in Google WM are/deal/ new: /deals/

                      http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/deal/location/uk-england/buckinghamshire-weddings/newport-beach

                      http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/deals/

                      thanks Matt

                      Matt-Williamson 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Matt-Williamson
                        Matt-Williamson @Taiger last edited by

                        Hi Tai,

                        I understand what you are saying in regards to making it easier with all the different URLs, however you will need to specify some start point in terms of being one level down from the domain root else you are effectively placing a wildcard on the whole domain, which wouldn't work when you are still working on this domain. So you need to try to identify the few main category URLs such as /listing and so on in order to create a rule.

                        Did the redirect I give you work for all URLs apart from the one listed? It should have worked for that.

                        An alternative you can try is:

                        RewriteEngine On
                        RewriteRule ^listing/(.*)$ http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/business/ [R=301,L]

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Taiger
                          Taiger Subscriber last edited by

                          Hi Matt, thanks again.

                          Yes we are trying to redirect old urls to the relevant pages.

                          As we have so many old urls from old cms system which had different url structures, to do a wildcard to catch all 404s would be great. (wordpress plugin wp redirection achieves this http://wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/)

                          RedirectMatch 301 ^/listing/.*$ http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/business

                          But it did not redirect

                          http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/listing/location/uk-england/essex-weddings

                          Thanks for your time on this.

                          Regards Tai

                          Matt-Williamson 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Matt-Williamson
                            Matt-Williamson @Taiger last edited by

                            Hi Tai,

                            I had a look at your site homepage and from your examples I could see you have relative urls which can cause 404 errors and as you mentioned 8000 I thought this could be part of your problems - no domains in your main navigation links so /business rather than www.yourdomain.com/business in coding - so no base URL can cause this. I took one of your links you mentioned to check if your hrefs were relative.

                            Putting what I mentioned aside for a second do you just want anything that is /listing and /deal redirecting to /business?

                            Have you tried this for the listing example and repeat for the others such as /deal/:

                            RedirectMatch 301 ^/listing/.*$ http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/business

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • Taiger
                              Taiger Subscriber last edited by

                              Hi Matt, and thank you for your response.

                              Not sure if i understand the solution to this problem though. The http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/listing/......./ are from old legacy urls, and we have many. I am not sure why google webmaster is still picking up these old urls. but having 8k old not found urls is a worry.

                              Regards Tai

                              Matt-Williamson 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • Matt-Williamson
                                Matt-Williamson last edited by

                                You can fix this issue much easier than trying to sort out redirects in htaccess. You are coming across this issue because your site uses relative URLs rather than absolute.

                                Example:

                                A relative URL isn't tied to a base URL so:

                                /business

                                Absolute would be:

                                www.5starweddingdirectory.com/business

                                Using relative means that when you visit a page your link is relative to that location so if I was on

                                www.5starweddingdirectory.com/business and visited the same llink it would become

                                www.5starweddingdirectory.com/business/business unless redirected.

                                Having to fix this issue in htaccess can get messy for this and it would be much simpler to change your nav links in the template of your site. I checked this was the case in your sites source code to be certain and you definitely use relative URLs.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • 1 / 1
                                • First post
                                  Last post

                                Browse Questions

                                Explore more categories

                                • Moz Tools

                                  Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                                • SEO Tactics

                                  Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                                • Community

                                  Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                                • Digital Marketing

                                  Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                                • Research & Trends

                                  Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                                • Support

                                  Connect on product support and feature requests.

                                • See all categories

                                Related Questions

                                • baystatemarketing

                                  My site auto redirects http to https. This is causing redirect chains. What can I do?

                                  I noticed that Moz flags a lot of redirect chain issues on my site. I realized that this is mostly because the site automatically redirects http to https, and when I create a new URL (when a URL changes, for example) it is automatically flagged as a chain. Example: http://www.example-link Auto directs to: https://www.example-link Which is then redirected to: https://www.example-link-changed (when the address actually changes) I don't seem to have any control over changing where the initial http redirect goes. Any advice on fixing this problem?

                                  On-Page Optimization | | baystatemarketing
                                  0
                                • dreservices

                                  How to fix duplicate content for homepage and index.html

                                  Hello, I know this probably gets asked quite a lot but I haven't found a recent post about this in 2018 on Moz Q&A, so I thought I would check in and see what the best route/solution for this issue might be. I'm always really worried about making any (potentially bad/wrong) changes to the site, as it's my livelihood, so I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Moz, SEMRush and several other SEO tools are all reporting that I have duplicate content for my homepage and index.html (same identical page). According to Moz, my homepage (without index.html) has PA 29 and index.html has PA 15. They are both showing Status 200. I read that you can either do a 301 redirect or add rel=canonical I currently have a 301 setup for my http to https page and don't have any rel=canonical added to the site/page. What is the best and safest way to get rid of duplicate content and merge the my non index and index.html homepages together these days? I read that both 301 and canonical pass on link juice but I don't know what the best route for me is given what I said above. Thank you for reading, any input is greatly appreciated!

                                  On-Page Optimization | | dreservices
                                  0
                                • Unbranded_Lee

                                  301 Redirect or landing page

                                  Hi everyone. I'm currently doing some SEO for a client, at the moment he has some landing pages which are categorised, but the category is set as a 302 redirect. I have a dilemma whether to 301 redirect to the landing page or make a page for each category. The link structure is as follows - http://examplesite.co.uk/products/fire/company-1/product/ so currently this is set as a 302 redirect - http://examplesite.co.uk/products/fire/company-1/ Do I make this page a category page and link the page to the children with some on-page optimisation or 301 redirect it?

                                  On-Page Optimization | | Unbranded_Lee
                                  0
                                • BeckyKey

                                  Alt Tags on multiple product images

                                  Hi I work on SEO for an ecommerce site and wanted to find out how important it is to optimise all images with alt tags. We have alt tags in place, however have not optimised descriptions for the following example images: Front of cupboard Back of cupboard Side of cupboard etc Is this dangerous for SEO if these images all have the same alt tag? We have thousands of products so it would be a huge job to update these, but if it's crucial for SEO we can work through our priorities. Thank you!

                                  On-Page Optimization | | BeckyKey
                                  0
                                • SearchParty

                                  Handling multiple locations in the footer

                                  I have a client with several locations.  Should I include only the main office's address in the footer?  The client is wanting to add them all.

                                  On-Page Optimization | | SearchParty
                                  0
                                • KLLC

                                  Review my website and guide me what can do for top ranking.

                                  Hi Guys, I really need your advice for my website (bmgapt dot com). I'm loosing ranking on (Buffalo Apartments) keyword. Two months ago my ranking number is 3 but now loosing to 15 number. What can I do for get again top ranking. Thanks in advance. John Smith

                                  On-Page Optimization | | KLLC
                                  0
                                • OOMDODigital

                                  Multiple Cities in Title Tag

                                  My question is how to avoid having a spammy title. Currently I'm working on a project where a business serves four cities, but two of them are out of its home state. I'm trying to create a title tag that is appealing to the eyes, and meets what I need it to do at the same time. I was wondering what everyone though of this sample Brand X Dealer Serving Newark, DE; New Castle, DE; Glens Mills, PA; and Springfield, PA I know that too much repetition can be a bad thing, but this might not be a big deal since they are separate instances. Let me know what you all think. Thanks!

                                  On-Page Optimization | | OOMDODigital
                                  0
                                • dgalassi

                                  Multiple domains vs single domain vs subdomains ?

                                  I have a client that recently read an article that advised him to break up his website into various URL's that targeted specific products. It was supposed to be a solution to gain footing in an already competitive industry. So rather than company.com with various pages targeting his products, he'd end up having multiple smaller sites: companyClothing.com companyShoes.com Etc. The article stated that by structuring your website this way, you were more likely to gain ranking in Google by targeting these niche markets. I wanted to know if this article was based on any facts. Are there any benefits to creating a new website that targets a specific niche market versus as a section of pages on a main website? I then began looking into structuring each of these product areas into subdomains, but the data out there is not definitive as to how subdomains are viewed by Google and other search engines - more specifically how subdomains benefit (or not!) the primary domain. So, in general, when a business targets many products and services that cover a wide range - what is the best way to structure the delivery of this info: multiple domains, single domain with folders/categories, or subdomains?  If single domain with folders/categories are not an option, how do subdomains stack up? Thanks in advance for your help/suggestions!

                                  On-Page Optimization | | dgalassi
                                  0

                                Get started with Moz Pro!

                                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                                Start my free trial
                                Products
                                • Moz Pro
                                • Moz Local
                                • Moz API
                                • Moz Data
                                • STAT
                                • Product Updates
                                Moz Solutions
                                • SMB Solutions
                                • Agency Solutions
                                • Enterprise Solutions
                                • Digital Marketers
                                Free SEO Tools
                                • Domain Authority Checker
                                • Link Explorer
                                • Keyword Explorer
                                • Competitive Research
                                • Brand Authority Checker
                                • Local Citation Checker
                                • MozBar Extension
                                • MozCast
                                Resources
                                • Blog
                                • SEO Learning Center
                                • Help Hub
                                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                                • How-to Guides
                                • Moz Academy
                                • API Docs
                                About Moz
                                • About
                                • Team
                                • Careers
                                • Contact
                                Why Moz
                                • Case Studies
                                • Testimonials
                                Get Involved
                                • Become an Affiliate
                                • MozCon
                                • Webinars
                                • Practical Marketer Series
                                • MozPod
                                Connect with us

                                Contact the Help team

                                Join our newsletter
                                Moz logo
                                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                                • Accessibility
                                • Terms of Use
                                • Privacy

                                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.