How long should I keep the 301 redirect file
-
We've setup an new site and many pages don't exist anymore (clean up done). But for many of them we have new pages with new url's. We've monitored the 404 and have now many URL's redirected with 301 (apache file).
How long should we keep this in place? Checking all links manually to see of new url is in place of the old url (in google) is too much work.
tx!
-
Unless there's a reason to take the 301s down, don't.
If you don't want to have to wade through them all when you're editing your .htaccess file you could monitor your server logs which should show all requests & responses your server receives & sends. When no requests for a URL, (and therefor no 301 responses happen), come in for some long period of time, (a month? 6 months? a year?), then you may be able to safely remove the 301 directive from your .htacess, (or wherever you configure your 301s).
-
This is also bad idea.
.htaccess have parameter with enable or disable subdirectory .htaccess override - AllowOverride. And this can kill all Apache performance! Why?
Let you browse /index.html Apache will parse .htaccess, execute rules and return /index.html. This is normal case scenario - with one .htaccess. But if you browse /subdir1/subdir2/subdir3/subdir4/subdir5/blah.jpg this is BAD! Apache will parse /.htaccess then /subdir1/.htaccess then /subdir1/subdir2/.htaccess .... subdir1/subdir2/subdir3/subdir4/subdir5/.htaccess and then blah.jpg.
Remember! Apache doesn't cache .htaccess. They're loading, parsing and executing on each resource loaded. And when you access 2nd resource - they make this over and over.
It's much better if you make static configuration in httpd.conf because this configuration is loading on startup only and there you can define <site><directory><resource>for each of them.</resource></directory></site>
Other modern webservers also used static config - nginx, lighttpd, etc.
-
Not possible here, since the structure changed for 100%
-
Im with you EGOL.
Keep the redirect files as deep as possible.And no, there's no limit on the quantity of 301's
-
Some people place all of their 301 in the root .htaccess folder. I think that is a bad idea.
Mine are in subfolders, as deep within them as possible. I believe that reduces work on the server.
-
My 301s will still be up when I attend my own funeral.
I am old enough that the web will still exist, but for you maybe not.
I need to add an item to my business succession plan about 301s. Thanks for the reminder.
-
Can one have to many 301's? Can list be too long?
-
Hi KBC,
there I dont see that the follow up on the URL update on SERPs should be a problem. Have you tried using 'site:yoursite.com' query?
About the 301 redirect, I wuold keep it as many time as possible. There will be no harm at all when all URL are updated.
Hope this helps you.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
After 301 redirect
hello i do after 301 redirect from old domain to new since 3 month ago my qa : should i replace the backlinks links to new doamin Or the he backlinks in the old link will works
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cristophare790 -
HTTPS & Redirects
Hi We're moving to https imminently & I wondered if anyone has advice on redirects. Obviously we'll be redirecting all http versions to https - but should I be checking how many redirects are in each chain and amending accordingly? If there's 4-5 in a chain, remove the middle unnecessary URLS ? Advice please 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Found a cache of old domain names, should I link or 301 redirect
We have found a cache of about 10 URLs, some are ranking above our main URL in Google SERPS. What is the best course of action here? a. Redirect all to the homepage?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | moconn
b. Link all domains to the homepage?
c. Link all domains to select pages on on main site, being careful not to anchor text spam
d. 301 redirect all to the main site. Is there any disadvantage to your recommendation? Is there likely to be a penalty incurred? I feel like we'll get the strongest increase in rankings by following option c but it feels like option d may be safer. Thanks in advance for your help!0 -
Wrong redirect used
Hi Folks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Patrick_556
I have a query & looking for some opinions. Our site migrated to https://
Somewhere along the line between the developer & hosting provided 302 redirect was implemented instead of the recommended 301 (the 301 rule was not being honured in the htaccess file.)
1 week passed, I noticed some of our key phrases disappear from the serps 😞 When investigated, I noticed this the incorrect redirect was implemented. The correct 301 redirect has now been implemented & functioning correctly. I have created a new https property in webmaster tools, Submitted the sitemap, Provided link in the robots.txt file to the https sitemap Canonical tags set to correct https. My gut feeling is that Google will take some time to realise the problem & take some time to update the search results we lost. Has anyone experienced this before or have any further thoughts on how to rectify asap.0 -
Does this require site-wide 301 redirects?
I have an old site that we are re-building, and also moving form Yahoo Stores to Big Commerce. yahoo uses site.com/page.html and BC uses site.com/page. Is there any SEO benefit to keeping the old .html format? some of the pages on the old site have no links to them from external sites. Do they even need re-directs, or should I just let Google find the new page equivalents when they crawl the new version of the site? While some of the old pages (primarily product pages) have OK urls, others have obscure product numbers as the URL. Obviously the latter need re-directing to a more relevant page, but what about situations like this:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Grabapple
_/accessory-product.html _ > product-accessory
In this example, the existing URL is fine, except for the .html extention. If I just used the old URL, would having a mix of /sample.html and /sample pages hurt me? Thanks in advance for your help and input! Dave0 -
Explaining 301 redirects instead of 302
I am trying to explain in layman's terms to a client why using 302 for their redirects (which they have done themselves) is not right. There view is they do not seem to listen or believe what is being said to them and do not want to do permanent damage to the old domain so are using 302 redirects. I have explained over and over 301 is needed but I do not seem to be good at communicating this. Can someone give me a good example or description I can use to get my point across?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnW-UK0 -
301 Redirect - What happens to backlinks
Hello... One of my sites is losing rankings in G. I received the webmaster notification of unnatural links... My question is, should i do a 301 redirect of every page on my site to a new domain? If so, do the backlinks (which i believe are causing my rankings to drop) carry over? How about the good backlinks? Also, what would happen to the rankings i currently have on page 1? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Prime850 -
Not allowing me 301 Redirect
I am trying redirect my old site to my new site, both on the same domain. For one reason or another, I am having a hard time redirecting the some of the old urls to the new site. Please let me know how I can fix this issue. Below are the following old urls that are not allowing me to redirect: <colgroup><col width="636"></colgroup>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Melia
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/press/melia-caribe-tropical-announces-fall-promotion.html |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/press/melia-international-brand-overhaul.html |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/accommodations/ |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/dining/ |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/entertainment/ |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/events/ |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/flintstones/ |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/gallery/ |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/gallery/beach.html |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/gallery/dining.html |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/gallery/pools.html |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/press/ |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/press/melia-caribe-tropical-announces-fall-promotion.html |
| http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/press/melia-international-brand-overhaul.html |0