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301 redirect not working

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  • twotd
    twotd last edited by Mar 26, 2013, 4:02 PM

    Hi there! I have recently moved a domain that has been indexed by google and setup redirects so that it forwards to the new domain. It seems like the only redirect that actually is working is the canonical and main domain but every other page and or page nested within a folder are not working. Here is an example of some of the redirects. Am I doing this wrong? It seems to be going to the new domain but can't find the actual pages....

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !agoodsweep.com$ [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://agoodsweep.com/$1 [L,R=301]
    redirect 301 woodstoveservicerepair.html http://agoodsweep.com/woodstoveservicerepair/
    redirect 301 /westchesterchimney.html http://agoodsweep.com/west-chester-chimney/

    Thanks in advance for any help!!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • BlueprintMarketing
      BlueprintMarketing @twotd last edited by Mar 27, 2013, 5:36 PM Mar 27, 2013, 5:36 PM

      Great news there is a plugin you might like http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

      ps I would still use a maged Wordpress host they will speed up your site and keep it safe.

      Happy it is fixed

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • BlueprintMarketing
        BlueprintMarketing last edited by Mar 27, 2013, 5:19 PM Mar 27, 2013, 5:19 PM

        PS all your links point to www.antrimscomplete.com

        not antrimscomplete.com

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • BlueprintMarketing
          BlueprintMarketing @twotd last edited by Mar 27, 2013, 7:10 PM Mar 27, 2013, 5:17 PM

          Sorry I just spent 45 min and went to post the site made me login it did not post

          i will have more time later but do NOT tell google to devalue  HTML links

          Make a redirect with links shown

          http://www.htaccessredirect.co.uk/

          http://yoast.com/change-wordpress-permalink-structure/

          http://www.webconfs.com/htaccess-redirect-generator.php

          http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/

          http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

          If moving your domain this is a good time to use a Wordpress only host use Zippykid , WPengine, Pagely, Web Synthesis or PressLabs Zippykid gives you the most for the moneyhttps://www.zippykid.com/pricing/they are great and will move you and fix this for you. https://www.zippykid.com/resources/kb/pre-sales-faq/can-you-migrate-my-website-for-me/This is how to move to there hosting your selfhttps://www.zippykid.com/resources/kb/getting-started/migrate-your-wordpress-website-to-zippykid/if not use this infohttp://robcubbon.com/moving-wordpress-site-to-new-domain/

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • twotd
            twotd last edited by Mar 27, 2013, 4:41 PM Mar 27, 2013, 4:41 PM

            read a bunch of those articles and saw the video w/matt cutts...

            i have gone into google webmaster tools and have both sites. I told google to redirect antrimscomplete.com to a goodsweep.com. I also simplified the htaccess :

            Redirect 301 /http://agoodsweep.com/
            redirect 301 /index.html http://agoodsweep.com/
            redirect 301 /woodstoveservicerepair.html http://agoodsweep.com/woodstoveservicerepair/
            and on and on...still the sitelinks in google get 404's. Looked in the host ftp panel to make sure it was reading it - it was. So then I just figured that if i redirect those links in agoodsweep (the new url) to the correct page, it might work.

            It worked! Thanks for all the help - much appreciated!! Now i have to do a bunch of redirects in the wordpress simple redirects plugin.

            BlueprintMarketing 1 Reply Last reply Mar 27, 2013, 5:36 PM Reply Quote 0
            • twotd
              twotd @BlueprintMarketing last edited by Mar 27, 2013, 11:43 AM Mar 27, 2013, 11:43 AM

              hi Thomas - I did clear my cache and history and used separate browsers but do not see that it is working. I will check out the screaming frog!the old site at antrimscomplete.com has been a wordpress site for years now. I guess that the developer of that site left all the html pages up and then realized the problem and put in redirects. So this site has been sitting for a few years  as-is. The owner wants to use a different domain name and wants a different look. I am trying to clean up the mess! I want it to be in wordpress because he uses it as a cms. I guess google indexed a hodge-podge of links, some of which are some of those html pages. Do you suggest going into google webmaster tools and demote the sitelink url's that are the old pages? Does google then use other pages to fill the slots?

              BlueprintMarketing 1 Reply Last reply Mar 27, 2013, 5:17 PM Reply Quote 0
              • BlueprintMarketing
                BlueprintMarketing @twotd last edited by Mar 27, 2013, 1:05 AM Mar 27, 2013, 1:05 AM

                you have some serious problems that site just so you know. I will look at your inbound links a lot of them are very  spamy.

                Why would you take an existing HTML website and convert it into WordPress out of curiosity?

                I'm not saying there aren't advantages toward press I love WordPress for it much to HTML however if you're going to do a web project like that you and want to start with a clean slate yours has anchor text stating that the website is going to be turned from HTML to WordPress that's not good.

                I would strongly consider having somebody like Joost audit the site and then fix it. Or simply have a developer pull the good code. The stylesheet will tell the website will look along with CSS with that start you can• with a fresh and get it right

                twotd 1 Reply Last reply Mar 27, 2013, 11:43 AM Reply Quote 0
                • BlueprintMarketing
                  BlueprintMarketing @twotd last edited by Mar 27, 2013, 12:45 AM Mar 27, 2013, 12:45 AM

                  I am so sorry this is taking so long. Let me somebody that is sure to know

                  It IS fine it  redirects to http://agoodsweep.com/ no www

                  if you want to use the www. you must swap what you have up there.

                  use this to find the problem Use the link below to find any big problems in most websites. Change your browser or clean out your cash or reset your browser entirely because it is functioning correctly now

                  http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

                  http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-avoid-seo-disaster-during-a-website-redesign/42824/

                  http://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-and-an-easy-way-to-set-up-a-301-redirect-on-your-blog/36752/

                  http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-friendly-url-structure/4556/

                  http://www.searchenginejournal.com/10-ways-coding-can-help-your-seo/45402/

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • twotd
                    twotd last edited by Mar 26, 2013, 6:48 PM Mar 26, 2013, 6:48 PM

                    thanks for all the input! I did adjust the htaccess to Method 1, but still it is not working correctly. Here is what i did:

                    Options +FollowSymlinks
                    RewriteEngine On
                    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^antrimscomplete.com [NC]
                    RewriteRule ^(.)$ http://agoodsweep.com/$1 [L,R=301]
                    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.antrimscomplete.com [NC]
                    RewriteRule ^(.
                    )$ http://agoodsweep.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                    The old site was originally html and then they made it into a wordpress but kept all the html pages up and active with a few redirects here and there. My client wants a new domain name and eventually a different design, so i have started the process by moving the old domain and all of it's content to the new domain.

                    When you google antrims complete, google has added some site links and here is where things go south - it seems that the pages follow to the new domain but fall short of going to the new page. For example:

                    google points to "our services" page and it redirects to: http://agoodsweep.com/ourservices.html

                    in the htaccess i have: redirect 301 /ourservices.html http://agoodsweep.com/our-services/

                    it's weird because google any thoughts??

                    BlueprintMarketing 2 Replies Last reply Mar 27, 2013, 1:05 AM Reply Quote 0
                    • BlueprintMarketing
                      BlueprintMarketing last edited by Mar 26, 2013, 5:18 PM Mar 26, 2013, 5:18 PM

                      http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection

                      http://301redirects.net/redirect-old-domain-to-new-website.php

                      http://website-tools.net/google-keyword/word/apache+redirect+domain

                      http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93633

                      Redirect an Old Domain to your New Website

                      How to instructions using a 301 redirect and mod_rewrite

                      Simply enter the following code into your .htaccess file (changing the addresses in the examples below as needed) and save the changes. If there are several individual pages which have moved, just repeat as neccesary. Not sure how to access or change or .htaccess file. Read our .htaccess guide here.

                      Method 1:

                      Options +FollowSymlinks 
                      RewriteEngine On
                      RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^olddomain.com [NC]
                      RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://newdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                      RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.olddomain.com [NC]
                      RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://newdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                      Method 2:

                      Options +FollowSymlinks 
                      RewriteEngine On
                      RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} \olddomain.com$
                      RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

                      Method 3:

                      Options +FollowSymLinks
                      RewriteEngine on
                      RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

                      Method 4:

                      Redirect 301 / http://www.newdomain.com/

                      Benefits of redirecting traffic from your old domain

                      • Don't lose website traffic! Ensure all visitors coming through to your old domain are instantly redirected through to your new address, rather than being presented with a an ugly error 404 which destroys trust in your website and perceived credibility. This means that customers who have already bookmarked your site, or memorised your web address can continue to have access seamlessly. Still have business cards or publications advertising your old website address or domain? This is not an issue with a properly setup 301 redirect.
                      • Keep the Google bot happy! When a website or domain returns an error 404 (page not found) this tells Google that your website no longer resides at this address, and Google therefore promptly removes all of your web listings from it's search engine index, meaning all your SEO efforts to raise search engine ranks will have been wasted. Instead, by properly setting up a 301 redirect for your domain name, this tells Google (and other search engines) that your website has changed address, and Google then therefore updates it's index to reflect this change of address (while preserving your rankings). Also very important to note, is that Google then recognises all inbound links pointing through to your old website and attributes these 'votes' towards your new website, transferring almost all of your Google Pagerank and other signals accross to your new site, and assisting in preserving your sites reputation.
                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • BlueprintMarketing
                        BlueprintMarketing last edited by Mar 26, 2013, 4:40 PM Mar 26, 2013, 4:40 PM

                        Would you do me a favor and explained exactly what you are using WordPress?

                        Can you give me both domains without folders?

                        I will get you the right info. I also need to know are you using lightspeed, Apache what you using?

                        sincerely,

                        Tom

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Mike.Goracke
                          Mike.Goracke last edited by Mar 26, 2013, 4:38 PM Mar 26, 2013, 4:38 PM

                          I am confused. I am no .htaccess expert; however, I think you should have your old domain in the condition and the rule should have your new domain... like this maybe?

                          RewriteEngine On
                          RewriteBase /
                          RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !antrimscomplete.com$ [NC]
                          RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://agoodsweep.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                          Mike

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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