Redirects

[bode]

Hi,

 

I'm trying to resolve a canonicalization issue with my site to improve serps in google.

 

As you may be aware, these are the 4 variations that exist:

 

http:// www.mysite. com/

http:// www.mysite .com/index.html

http:// mysite .com/

http:// mysite .com/index.htm

 

The internal links on my site point to the homepage as <a href="index.html" etc

 

My back links from external websites point to http:// www. mysite .com/

 

In cpanel, I'm not sure if I have set up my 301 redirects correctly. My browser and various online redirect tools give different answers.

 

How do I set up the 301 correctly? I'd like them to all point to www.mysite . com/

 

Thanks

Edited January 30, 2009 by bode

[TCH-Bruce]

If you use this you should be set. Add it to the .htaccess file in the public_html folder.

 

>Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^domain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

 

Replace domain . com with your domain name.

 

Here's a quick little tool for doing this.

[bode]

Thanks, I've added the following code:

 

 

>Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /.*index\.html\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(.*)index\.php$ /$1 [R=301,L]

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^natural-light-cambridge.co.uk [nc]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$  http://www.natural-light-cambridge.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

 

This appears to be different from the code using the cpanel 301 redirects.

[TCH-Bruce]

That top portion can be removed if you haven't already. What it does is replace index.html with index.php. Unless you are using that it can safely be removed. It would be if you were changing your site from using html to php pages.

 

The one I gave is to just force www in front of any request for your domain.

[bode]

I had pasted the wrong code!

 

Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /.*index\.html\ HTTP/

RewriteRule ^(.*)index\.html$ /$1 [R=301,L]

 

 

Options +FollowSymlinks

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^natural-light-cambridge.co.uk [nc]

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.natural-light-cambridge.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

 

If I understand your link, I'm hoping that this will redirect /index.html to the co.uk/

 

So will these two codes be suitable for these potential problems on our version of apache?

 

domain.com

domain.com/

www.domain.com

domain.com/index.html

www.domain.com/index.html

 

to all point to www.domain.com/

[TCH-Bruce]

All you need is what I entered in my first reply. All the other redirects can be removed.

 

>Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^natural-light-cambridge.co.uk [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.natural-light-cambridge.co.uk/$1 [r=301,nc]

 

The $1 will be replaced by what ever page they are accessing (ex. index.html, about.html, contact.html, etc...) every thing will appear with www.natural-light-cambridge.co.uk/ in front of it.

[bode]

Thanks for your time on this. I've removed the other redirects and I'm using the code which you have provided.

 

However, (www....index.html is not redirecting to www....co.uk/ as it did before.

 

Also when I click on a homepage link within an inner page on my site, the link arrives at www..../index.html

 

Will this cause duplicate content on google?

[bode]

Found a new code which addresses all the potential canonicalization problems. Appears to be working fine.

 

>Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
#
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]+\ /([^/]+/)*index\.(s?html?|php[456])(\?[^\ ]*)?\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(([^/]+/)*)index\.(s?html?|php[456])$ http://www.mydomain.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]
#
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www\.mydomain\.co.uk)?$
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.mydomain.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

 

Thanks

[TCH-Bruce]

Great, glad you got it sorted out.