Sometimes when websites are redesigned, pages become renamed and any existing links to your Website become invalid. Likewise any rankings by Google or other search engines are tossed out the window.
There is a solution. Tell the Internet where you moved to . . . even if you established a new domain name, you can Redirect your existing links to the new pages.
Here is how. You or your Web architect (preferred term over Webmaster!) need to create or add to a special file on your Web server. The file is called
.htaccess
This file has no name in front of the "."
Open or create this file as an ascii text file using a text editor. Then upload the file to your Web server. NOTE: When creating this file, you will need to give it a name like 1.htaccess , then when you upload it to the same location as your /index.html file, rename the file to remove the 1 and name it .access
What's in the file?
If you want to move all your files to a new directory or Web domain, just enter this one line.
RedirectMatch 301 (.*) http://www.new_website_name.com/
We recently did this for a Website called, http://www.outdooryogatrips.com , we redirected all links to this site to a new page at http://www.northernedgealgonquin.com/yoga.html
Click the link above and see what happens as you are automatically redirected.
For individual files that have been renamed, consider entering one line entries like the following for each file that is renamed.
Redirect 301 /old-file-name.htm http://www.new_website_name.com/new-file-name.htm
For each file you rename, create a new line and make a new entry.
A few things to note:
- Redirect - use a capital R
- 301 tells the internet that this is a permanent change.
- if the file is in a directory on your domain, file name would be /directory/old-filename.htm
- there is a space before the new location.
- if the new file name is on the same website, there is no need to list the domain name, just enter /new-file-name.htm
- each entry gets its own line.
There are many benefits to ensuring the search engines and existing links stay linked, most importantly, you will continue to benefit from your existing Web traffic.
Todd Lucier -
TourismClicks.com
Labels: 301 redirect, moved domain, moved webpage, redirect, renamed domain, renamed webpage
