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.
301 redirect syntax for htaccess
-
I'm working on some htaccess redirects for a few stray pages and have come across a few different varieties of 301s that are confusing me a bit....Most sources suggest:
Redirect 301 /pageA.html http://www.site.com/pageB.html
or using some combination of:
RewriteRule + RewriteCond + RegEx
I've also found examples of:
RedirectPermanent /pageA.html http://www.site.com/pageB.html
I'm confused because our current htaccess file has quite a few (working) redirects that look like this:
Redirect permanent /pageA.html http://www.site.com/pageB.html
This syntax seems to work, but I'm yet to find another Redirect permanent in the wild, only examples of Redirect 301 or RedirectPermanent
Is there any difference between these? Would I benefit at all from replacing Redirect permanent with Redirect 301?
-
There is no difference between "Redirect 301", "Redirect permanent" and "RedirectPermanent". It is clear from mod Alias documentation:
"This directive makes the client know that the Redirect is permanent (status 301). Exactly equivalent to
Redirect permanent." "permanent - Returns a permanent redirect status (301) indicating that the resource has moved permanently."But, these directives are really confusing, because they are not page to page, but directory to directory. For example:
Redirect 301 /a-very-old-post/ http://yoursite.com/a-very-new-post/
Surprisingly, it will redirect all old subpages to new subpages. In particular it will redirect /a-very-old-post/page1 to /a-very-new-post/page1 Therefore better to use RedirectMatch or RewriteCond+RewriteRule for page by page redirections and for redirections with query strings.
Links to docs: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B14099_19/web.1012/q20206/mod/mod_alias.html
Link to simple RedirectMatch page by page redirects generator: RedirectMatch generator for htaccess https://www.301-redirect.online/htaccess-redirectmatch-generator
Link to good RewriteRule generator: htaccess 301 redirect rewrite generator https://www.301-redirect.online/htaccess-rewrite-generator
-
In **apache **"permanent" "RedirectPermanent" is the same as "Redirect 301"
By default, the "Redirect" directive establishes a 302, or temporary, redirect.
If you would like to create a permanent redirect, you can do so in either of the following two ways:
- Redirect 301 /oldlocation http://www.domain2.com/newlocation
- Redirect permanent /oldlocation http://www.domain2.com/newlocation
Page to Page 301 Redirect Generator for Htaccess
https://www.aleydasolis.com/htaccess-redirects-generator/
If no <var>status</var> argument is given, the redirect will be "temporary" (HTTP status 302). This indicates to the client that the resource has moved temporarily. The <var>status</var> argument can be used to return other HTTP status codes:
<dl> "permanent" & "Redirect 301"</dl>
<dl>
<dd>Returns a permanent redirect status (301) indicating that the resource has moved permanently.</dd>
"temp"</dl>
<dl>
<dt>Returns a temporary redirect status (302). This is the default.</dt>
"seeother"</dl>
<dl>
<dd>Returns a "See Other" status (303) indicating that the resource has been replaced.</dd>
"gone"</dl>
<dl>
<dd>Returns a "Gone" status (410) indicating that the resource has been permanently removed. When this status is used the <var>URL</var> argument should be omitted.</dd>
</dl>
**https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_alias.html **
https://www.bruceclay.com/blog/how-to-properly-implement-a-301-redirect/
To 301 Redirect a Page:
RedirectPermanent /old-file.html http://www.domain.com/new-file.html
To 301 Redirect a Page:
Redirect 301 /old-file.html http://www.domain.com/new-file.html
https://i.imgur.com/PTEj5ZF.png
https://www.aleydasolis.com/htaccess-redirects-generator/
Single URL redirect
Permanent redirect from pageA_.html_ to pageB.html.
.htaccess:
301 Redirect URLs.
Redirect 301 /pageA.html http://www.site.com/pageB.html
https://www.aleydasolis.com/htaccess-redirects-generator/page-to-page/
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
Redirect 301 /pageA.html /pageB.html</ifmodule>https://www.htaccessredirect.net/
//Rewrite to www
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^site.com[nc]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.site.com/$1 [r=301,nc]//301 Redirect Old File
Redirect 301 /pageA.html /pageB.htmlYou asked about Regex
https://mediatemple.net/community/products/dv/204643270/using-htaccess-rewrite-rules
.htaccess
Regular expressions
Rewrite rules often contain symbols that make a regular expression (regex). This is how the server knows exactly how you want your URL changed. However, regular expressions can be tricky to decipher at first glance. Here's some common elements you will see in your rewrite rules, along with some specific examples.
- ^ begins the line to match.
- $ ends the line to match.
- So, ^folder1$ matches folder1 exactly.
- . stands for "any non-whitespace character" (example: a, B, 3).
- * means that the previous character can be matched zero or more times.
- So, ^uploads.*$ matches uploads2009, uploads2010, etc.
- ^.*$ means "match anything and everything." This is useful if you don't know what your users might type for the URL.
- () designates which portion to preserve for use again in the $1 variable in the second string. This is useful for handling requests for particular files that should be the same in the old and new versions of the URL.
See for more regex
- http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html#Regular-Expressions
- https://www.askapache.com/htaccess/mod_rewrite-variables-cheatsheet/
- https://www.askapache.com/htaccess/
Hope this helps
Tom
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
301 redirect from dynamic url to static page
Hi, i want to redirect from this old link http://www.g-store.gr/product_info.php?products_id=1735/ to this one https://www.g-store.gr/golf-toualetas.html I have done several attempts but with no result. I anyone can help i will appreciate. My website runs in an Apache server with cpanel. Thank you
Technical SEO | | alstam0 -
What to do with old content after 301 redirect
I'm going through all our blog and FAQ pages to see which ones are performing well and which ones are competing with one another. Basically doing an SEO content clean up. Is there any SEO benefit to keeping the page published vs trashing it after you apply a 301 redirect to a better performing page?
Technical SEO | | LindsayE0 -
Best Practice on 301 Redirect - Images
We have two sites that sell the same products. We have decided to retire one of the sites as we'd like to focus on one property. I know best practice is to redirect apples to apples, which in our case is easily done since the sites sold the same thing. www.SiteABC.com/ProductA can be redirected to www.SiteXYZ.com/ProductA. My question is how far does that thinking go regarding images? Each product has a main product page, of course, and then up to 6 images in some cases. Is it necessary to redirect www.SiteABC.com/ProductA-Image1.jpg to www.SiteXYZ.com/ProductA-Image1.jpg? Or can they all be redirected to just the product page?
Technical SEO | | Natitude0 -
Wordpress Redirect Plugin Vs Manual .htaccess?
Hi everyone, I need to 301 redirect my old pages to new ones but i am confused between whether to choose plugin for this or i should manually rewrite the code on .htaccess file. Please give your suggestion and if you think i should use plugin then which one?
Technical SEO | | himanshu3019890 -
Htaccess redirect with question mark
Hi I have a problem setting up my htaccess for a specific page that has a question mark in the link, and one that has a space in the link and also a question mark. So I would like 2 redirects in my htaccess like that: www.olddomain.com/page.php?page=pagename1 to www.newdomain.com/newpage1.html www.olddomain.com/page.php?page=page name2 to www.newdomain.com/newpage2.html I have tried with something like this but doesn't work: RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^page.php?page=pagename1 "http://www.newdomain.com/newpage1.html" [R=301,L] RewriteRule ^page.php?page=page name2 "http://www.newdomain.com/newpage2.html" [R=301,L] Could someone tell me what exactly I have to change? Thanks
Technical SEO | | darkanweb0 -
What should be use 301 or 302 redirection for 404 pages
Please suggest which redirection we should use for 404 pages- 301 or 302. If you can elaborate it with reason then it will be highly appreciated.
Technical SEO | | koamit0 -
How long will Google take to stop crawling an old URL once it has been 301 redirected
I need to do a clean-up old urls that have been redirected in sitemap and was wondering about this.
Technical SEO | | Ant-8080 -
200 Redirects for SEO instead of 301
We are working with a company on re-platforming our website. On a call yesterday they outlined a strategy to use 200 redirects for our top keywords instead of 301s. I am not familiar with this type of redirect and was wondering if anyone could provide some more insight.
Technical SEO | | EvergladesDirect0