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  4. SEO impact difference between a URL Rewrite and 301 redirect

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SEO impact difference between a URL Rewrite and 301 redirect

Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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  • shloy23-294584
    shloy23-294584 last edited by Oct 16, 2014, 10:55 AM

    Hi guys and girls!

    Just putting a new site live, we changed the URL from one thing to another and I created a 301 file redirecting the urls like for like.

    The developer installing it has created a different file with columns like:

    RewriteRule ^page/ http://www.site/page [R=301,L]

    RewriteRule ^/page/ http://www.site/page [R=301,L]

    What's the difference? The page redirects but is there a difference between the 301 redirect and this URL rewrite in terms of SEO and link value?

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • WilliamKammer
      WilliamKammer last edited by Oct 17, 2014, 4:30 AM Oct 16, 2014, 12:52 PM

      To Google, there is not. The R=301 at the end of the rewrite rule defines it as a 301 redirect, so it's practically the same thing. For a one-off redirect I wouldn't use the rewrite format. This is usually for when you need to grab big chunks of URLs and redirect them all at once. Still, if it works this way, there's really nothing wrong with it from the redirecting standpoint. If there was, when people used it for large quantities of redirects, it wouldn't work.

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