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.

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
      Moz Pro

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

      Try it free!
    • 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

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing
      Moz API

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing

      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
    • 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. Technical SEO
    4. Best & easiest way to 301 redirect on IIS

    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.

    Best & easiest way to 301 redirect on IIS

    Technical SEO
    4
    13
    3501
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • 2MSens
      2MSens last edited by

      Hi all,

      What is the best and easiest way to 301 redirect URLs on IIS server?

      I got access to the FTP and WordPress back office, but no access to the server admin.

      Is there an easy way to create 301 redirect without having to always annoy the tech in charge of the server?

      Thanks!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • 2MSens
        2MSens @MichaelC-15022 last edited by

        Thanks a lot for your answer 🙂

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MichaelC-15022
          MichaelC-15022 last edited by

          You have two options:

          1. Set it up in IIS Manager (best option, least overhead for the server, need no coding skills)
          2. Code it in classic ASP in a global include file that all pages reference before sending content back to the browser.

          Here's a great article that walks you through the IIS config option.  For this, you need access to IIS Manager:

          http://www.proworks.com/blog/2010/02/11/adding-a-301-redirect-in-iis-for-individual-pages-with-non-aspx-extensions/

          Sounds like that option is unavailable to you however.

          For the other option:  your site probably has a file or two that's included at the start of all web pages.  (If not, you can add it).  In that file, you'll want to check the URL passed in like this:

          Dim sThisPage                = Request.ServerVariables("SCRIPT_NAME")

          If (LCase(sThisPage) = "/oldpage.aspx") Then

          Response.Status            = "301 Moved Permanently"
                  Response.AddHeader        "Location", "http://" & sThisServer & "/newpage.aspx"
                  Response.End
          End If

          2MSens 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • 2MSens
            2MSens last edited by

            Any IIS expert around?.. 😃

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Andy.Drinkwater
              Andy.Drinkwater @2MSens last edited by

              There - you can see how often I have worked on IIS servers 😉

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • 2MSens
                2MSens @Andy.Drinkwater last edited by

                there is no .htaccess on IIS servers 😉

                Andy.Drinkwater 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • 2MSens
                  2MSens @vmialik last edited by

                  No problem, I'll have a look for another website 😉 thanks

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Andy.Drinkwater
                    Andy.Drinkwater @vmialik last edited by

                    Nor was I.

                    If you have FTP access, you might then have to work in the .htaccess file and build the redirects in there.

                    -Andy

                    2MSens 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • vmialik
                      vmialik @2MSens last edited by

                      Bummer, I was not aware of that, its such an awesome plugin

                      Andy.Drinkwater 2MSens 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • 2MSens
                        2MSens @vmialik last edited by

                        Hi Vadim,

                        Thanks for your answer, however it looks that the redirection plugin works only for apache servers.

                        vmialik 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • 2MSens
                          2MSens @Andy.Drinkwater last edited by

                          Hi Andy,

                          thanks, it works for IIS servers too?

                          • Benoit.
                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • vmialik
                            vmialik last edited by

                            Hi Benoit,

                            Yes, Andy is totally on it. Server side redirects are faster, however if you have Wordpress a plugins make it so much easier and convenient.

                            Also if you want other powerful features like: 404 error monitoring - captures a log of 404 errors and allows you to easily map these to 301 redirects, and more Try Redirection plugin

                            Hope this Helps!

                            2MSens 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • Andy.Drinkwater
                              Andy.Drinkwater last edited by

                              Absolutely - Install this plugin: http://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-301-redirects/

                              I use this on a couple of my own sites and it works a treat.

                              -Andy

                              2MSens 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • 1 / 1
                              • First post
                                Last post

                              Got a burning SEO question?

                              Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                              Start my free trial


                              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

                              • davidvogel

                                Best redirect destination for 18k highly-linked pages

                                redirect redirect chain technical seo 301 redirects

                                Technical SEO question regarding redirects; I appreciate any insights on best way to handle. Situation: We're decommissioning several major content sections on a website, comprising ~18k webpages. This is a well established site (10+ years) and many of the pages within these sections have high-quality inbound links from .orgs and .edus. Challenge: We're trying to determine the best place to redirect these 18k pages. For user experience, we believe best option is the homepage, which has a statement about the changes to the site and links to the most important remaining sections of the site. It's also the most important page on site, so the bolster of 301 redirected links doesn't seem bad. However, someone on our team is concerned that that many new redirected pages and links going to our homepage will trigger a negative SEO flag for the homepage, and recommends instead that they all go to our custom 404 page (which also includes links to important remaining sections). What's the right approach here to preserve remaining SEO value of these soon-to-be-redirected pages without triggering Google penalties?

                                Technical SEO | | davidvogel
                                0
                              • LouisPortier

                                Redirection chain and Javascript Redirect

                                Hi, A redirection chain is usually defined as a page redirecting to another page which itself is another redirection. URL1 ---(301/302)---> URL2 ---(301/302)---> URL3 But what about Javascript redirect? They seem to be a different beast: URL1 ---(301/302)---> URL2 ---(200 then Javascript redirect)---> URL3 From what I know if the javascript redirect is instant Google counts it as a 301 permanent redirection, but I'm still not sure about if this counts as a redirection chain. Most of the tools (such as moz) only see the first redirection. So is that scenario a redirection chain or no?

                                Technical SEO | | LouisPortier
                                0
                              • shawnbeaird

                                301 Redirect for multiple links

                                I just relaunched my website and changed a permalink structure for several pages where only a subdirectory name changed. What 301 Redirect code do I use to redirect the following? I have dozens of these where I need to change just the directory name from "urban-living" to "urban", and want it to catch the following all in one redirect command. Here is an example of the structure that needs to change. Old 
                                domain.com/urban-living (single page w/ content)
                                domain.com/urban-living/tempe (single page w/ content)
                                domain.com/urban-living/tempe/the-vale (single page w/ content) New 
                                domain.com/urban 
                                domain.com/urban/tempe 
                                domain.com/urban/tempe/the-vale

                                Technical SEO | | shawnbeaird
                                0
                              • Kilgray

                                Robots txt. in page with 301 redirect

                                We currently have a a series of help pages that we would like to disallow from our robots txt. The thing is that these help pages are located in our old website, which now has a 301 redirect to current site. Which is the proper way to go around? 1- Add the pages we want to disallow to the robots.txt of the new website? 2- Break the redirect momentarily and add the pages to the robots.txt of the old one? Thanks

                                Technical SEO | | Kilgray
                                0
                              • TitanDigital

                                Can you do a 301 redirect without a hosting account?

                                Trying to retire domain1 and 301 it to domain2 - just don't want to get stuck having to pay the old hosting provider simply to serve a .htaccess file with the redirect rule.

                                Technical SEO | | TitanDigital
                                0
                              • JeanYates

                                Delete 301 redirected pages from server after redirect is in place?

                                Should I remove the redirected old pages from my site after the redirects are in place? Google is hating the redirects and we have tanked. I did over 50 redirects this week, consolidating content and making one great page our of 3-10 pages with very little content per page. But the old pages are still visible to google's bot. Also, I have not put a rel canonical to itself on the new pages. Is that necessary? Thanks! Jean

                                Technical SEO | | JeanYates
                                0
                              • TrevorMcKendrick

                                301 Redirect with an Exact Domain name Match

                                My Client had a site that ranked for a pretty competitive two word phrase, but for a variety of reasons had to transfer the site to a different domain name (with none of the previous keywords). We've 301'd everything just fine to the new site, but our traffic for that two word phrase, as well as related long tail traffic, is beginning to drop. Could the drop be related to something that we didn't do well in the transfer? Or is it due to the new domain name now not being an exact match? Sitenote question: Our Google Analytics is still set up for the former domain name and shows data just fine. Is there any reason to switch GA to the new domain? What are the pros/cons? Much thanks in advance!

                                Technical SEO | | TrevorMcKendrick
                                0
                              • SamTurri

                                Any way around buying hosting for an old domain to 301 redirect to a new domain?

                                Howdy. I have just read this QA thread, so I think I have my answer. But I'm going to ask anyway! Basically DomainA.com is being retired, and DomainB.com is going to be launched. We're going to have to redirect numerous URLs from DomainA.com to DomainB.com. I think the way to go about this is to continue paying for hosting for DomainA.com, serving a .htaccess from that hosting account, and then hosting DomainB.com separately. Anybody know of a way to avoid paying for hosting a .htaccess file on DomainA.com? Thanks!

                                Technical SEO | | SamTurri
                                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.