.htaccess newby
-
Sorry to ask a really dumb question. I want to sort out a load of old 404 errors. I've exported the list of URL and I'm more than happy to go through that and work out what needs to go where.
After that my only option at the moment is to use the re-direct function in my WordPress install and do all the work manually. There are loads to do so I want to be able to upload all the re-directs.
I know I need to create a htaccess file and upload it. I know where to upload it.
This is where I get nervous. I need to get this file right. Is there a really obvious idiots file which I can use and then save as the correct file type? I've got all the URLs in a CSV at the moment.
Sorry for being a bit thick. Hope you can help.
-
Tested and all working!
-
Thanks for that.
All done now, fingers crossed!
Richard
-
Yeah, that looks to be the right file. So, in this case, I'd put the new redirects right after the current redirect.
redirect permanent /index.html http://www.global-lingo.com/index.php
PUT NEW REDIRECTS HERE
BEGIN WordPress
Let me know if that works!
-
Got one.
This is the content - not certain that's what I need?
redirect permanent /index.html http://www.global-lingo.com/index.php
BEGIN WordPress
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule>END WordPress
-
Ah, I see what you are saying. You want to download the one from the site root for redirects. Typically, that is going to be something like a /public_html or /httpdocs folder. Do you have an htaccess file there?
-
That's what I want to do. But I can't be sure I have the right file. There are .htaccess files in a few folders
Thanks for bearing with me Matthew
-
Hey -
Glad you got everything in the right format!
Can you download your current .htaccess file via FTP? I'd download that and then add the new redirects at the bottom of the file and then upload the file. Be sure to save a backup of the htaccess file before you make changes.
Let me know if that works? Thanks,
Matthew -
Ok now I'm stuck again!
I have the list, in the right format, thanks to Matthew.
I can see where to upload the file, but now I'm worried that it will replace all my existing redirects. From the WordPress site I can't see where I can export all the existing redirects so that I could at least add my new ones to the existing ones and upload a new file.
Any ideas guys?
-
Brilliant, thanks Matthew
-
Hey Richard,
You are really close! In column A, do a find for "http://www.global-lingo.com" and replace with nothing. That way you are left with:
A = /news/2009/12/news-internet-translations/
B = http://www.global-lingo.com/blog/
C = redirect 301 /news/2009/12/news-internet-translations/ http://www.global-lingo.com/blog/
Thanks,
Matthew -
Hi Matthew,
Sorry, pretty nervous now!
Here's what I have in the columns
A = http://www.global-lingo.com/news/2009/12/news-internet-translations/
B = http://www.global-lingo.com/blog/
C = redirect 301 http://www.global-lingo.com/news/2009/12/news-internet-translations/ http://www.global-lingo.com/blog/
I think I got a little lost with the full URL in column A. What should I remove? Or have a got it correct? Sorry to use the real URL I just want to make sure I get this correct.
Thanks
Richard
-
Hi Matthew,
That is the perfect answer, thank you so much. Just creating the file was where I was getting stuck and knowing what to put in the columns.
what I have at the moment is:
Column A = 404 url
Column B = URL I want
That solution is perfect, I'm more than happy using that!
-
Hi Richard,
Updating htaccess files can be tricky, especially with that risk of wrecking your site if you do something wrong. So, not a dumb question at all.
WordPress is a great way to add redirects, but if you are dealing with hundreds that can equal a lot of time.
So, if you are looking for a way to quickly build the htaccess file vs. doing everything manually in WordPress, my trick is use to a concatenation function in Excel. That way I can write hundreds of redirects at once and then copy the resulting text into the htaccess file.
The general idea is you have your old URL path in col A, the new URL (full URL) in column B, and then in column C, you'd have a formula that looks something like this (obviously line numbers might change):
="redirect 301 " & A2 & " " & B2
You could then copy column C and add that to your .htaccess file. Of course, back up the htacecss file first. The only word of caution would be to make sure you have valid paths in column A (no special characters, no full URLs, etc.).
Hope that helps.
-
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the quick response. That's why I'm being very careful. I have used the re-direction tool but as there are quite a lot to do I was looking for some way to create one big file and then upload rather than copy and paste nearly 300 entries
-
Hey Richard
This isn't a thick question at all - you're very wise to take care with this. A faulty .htaccess file can cause chaos!
Just wanted to make a suggestion - if you're running WordPress have you tried the Redirection plugin? It does all of the rewriting for you - just pop in the old URL and the new URL and you're on your way. Comes with a few other features too and has had tons of downloads over the years.
If you want to go down the route of self-education, check out the SEOMoz redirection guide and also this blog post on some useful .htaccess snippets.
I'd recommend using the redirection plugin for 2-3 urls, check it works then look at the generated .htaccess file in your website's backend. From there, you can see the correct format and filetype etc. If the tool works, just continue to use it.
Hope this helps!
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
-
Redirect Issue in .htaccess
Hi, I'm stumped on this, so I'm hoping someone can help. I have a Wordpress site that I migrated to https about a year ago. Shortly after I added some code to my .htaccess file. My intention was to force https and www to all pages. I did see a moderate decline in rankings around the same time, so I feel the code may be wrong. Also, when I run the domain through Open Site Explorer all of the internal links are showing 301 redirects. The code I'm using is below. Thank you in advance for your help! Redirect HTTP to HTTPS RewriteEngine On ensure www. RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www. [NC]
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnWeb12
RewriteRule ^ https://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301] ensure https RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301] BEGIN WordPress <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule> END WordPress USER IP BANNING <limit get="" post="">order allow,deny
deny from 213.238.175.29
deny from 66.249.69.54
allow from all</limit> #Enable gzip compression
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript #Setting heading expires
<ifmodule mod_expires.c="">ExpiresActive on
ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/x-ico "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 14 days"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 14 days"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 14 days"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 14 days"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 14 days"</ifmodule>0 -
Handling Multiple Domain 301 Redirects on Single htaccess file
Hello, I have a client that currently that has 9 different markets with different sub-domains on one server (aka one htaccess file.). All the sites have very similar Navigation and some of them contain the same products aka same URLs. The site is using Magento CMS and I'm trying to figure out how to redirect some products that have been removed from one of the stores. The problem I'm running into is when I try to redirect one store url, it redirects all the site's URLs. Example http://store.domain1.com/ http://store.domain2.com/ I'd like to redirect http://store.domain1.com/old-url.html to http://store.domain1.com/new-url.html without making http://store.domain2.com/old-url.html redirect. I've literally been pulling out my hair trying to figure this one out but have had no luck. Does anybody have any ideas on how I could do this without having the sites redirect or create any loops? Any wisdom from you apache experts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Erik
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Erik-M0 -
Redirects in .htaccess file
I am using yoast seo plugin for wordpress. I have done several link changes and placed approximately 80-100 301 redirect into .htaccsses file. Is this good practice? Do they have to be there forever? Is it not slowing down site? Or should this be done in different way? Thank you very much Iris
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Rebeca10 -
Help with htaccess
I just setup a WP install in a subfolder: domain.com/development/ However, there is an existing htaccess file in the root which contains the following: RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z_0-9-]+)$ /index.php?page=$1 [QSA]
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SCW
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z_0-9-]+)/$ /index.php?page=$1 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z_0-9-]+)/([a-z]+)$ /index.php?page=$1&comp=$2 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z_0-9-]+)/([a-z]+)/$ /index.php?page=$1&comp=$2 [QSA] I need to leave the rules as-is due to the nature of CMS (not WP) under the root domain. Is it possible to include an exception or condition which allows URL requests containing /development/ to resolve to that folder? I tried to add: RewriteRule ^development/([A-Za-z_0-9-]+)$ /development/index.php?page=$1 [QSA] but this seems to send it in a loop back to the root. Thanks!!!0 -
.htaccess files
I am working with a clients website which has multiple htaccess files (.htaccess , .htaccess.holiding, and .htaccess.live -all in the same directory) My question is how does a server process these files? All 3 files? Currently the domain has 301 redirect showing for the home page to the mobile site (which is a problem) in one of the files (.htaccess but not others) Has anyone come across this before with regard to SEO problems?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | OnlineAssetPartners0 -
301 redirect via htaccess question
So, I have www.sitea.com and www.siteb.com I want to redirect SOME pages from www.sitea.com to www.siteb.com (example: www.sitea.com/plugins/wp/ to www.siteb/wp/ etc ) and the rest of any pages left, to the homepage of www.siteb.com. It is something with conditions... any help, please?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jasmin280 -
Can some brilliant mozzer out there teach a moron/newbie like me how to 301 redirect several URL's I have?
Okay - I am a supermodel. I look pretty. My legs are amazing. My cheekbones are high. But when it comes to 301 redirects I am the ugliest supermodel on the block. Crap, here is the truth: I am not even a supermodel. I am just a middle-aged, goofy looking dude who is a newbie to fixing websites. I have inherited several sites from a friend and I have been helping by creating solid contextual links internally and externally for a while. But, when Roger the wondrous SEOMoz robot talks to me, he says, "oops, it looks like your foolish freak self has a site that has both a www. and a non-www, which can create competition for yourself." What do I do when he says that? I just whisper a "thank-you" but gently press the skip this step button and go on with my life because I do not know how to make my non-www.'s redirect into the www. sites... Now, I have sort of asked this question on the site before, but I was answered by someone who does not understand my level of ignorance. any use of the word canonical or just put this lfwjkshj.htp/php inside the left ear of your mom, does not tell me anything so, is there any willing and kind soul who can walk me through redirecting several of my sites to their proper home - kind of like Carl Chubbs Weathers did for Happy Gilmore in that Academy Award winning classic? Thanks for the help in advance best, dumbhead
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | creativeguy0 -
Modify .htaccess
Hi everybody, I need to modify the .htaccess in order to include a 301 redirect. But I am having some problems with this. I downloaded the file into my computer and then modified it with windows notepad, but when I upload it again to the server it is not working and turns down my website. Even if I do not change anything on it. So I guess there is a problem in the saving process. Any Idea or suggestion? Thanks, G.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SilbertAd0