How is it possible to 301 specific pages to a new domain?
-
The old site is small, only 100 pages or so, and about 10 of them are particularly useful. I would like to 301 those 10 pages to 10 similar pages on the new site, and also 301 the other 90 pages to the new site... the new site's home page, I suppose.
Does it make sense to do this and if so how?
I think if I simply 301 the whole of the old domain to the new one, the juice will be shared among the new site's page equally which is not what I want. I know where the htaccess file is and I can 301 a page within a domain but I'm at a loss with this. Thanks for any help.
EDIT:
I'm hoping for something like this:
old.com/page_1 >> new.com/page_A
old.com/page_2 >> new.com/page_B
... and 8 more of those
And then the other 90 pages:
old.com/Remaining pages >> new.com/index
-
Glad it helped and the explanation below is nicely done.
-
Thanks Matt, that put me on the right track. I have posted a full solution is you need it anytime.
-
SOLUTION:
Options +FollowSymlinks RewriteEngine On
#redirect this type of url www.old.com/index.php?everything-after-the-question-mark to a new url
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^everything-after-the-question-mark$ RewriteRule ^index.php$ http://www.new.com/new-page? [L,R=301]
#change the above for every specific url with a query string that you want to send to a specific url
#for capturing the rest of the site's query string urls and sending them to a single page - the home page in this example:
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(.*)$ RewriteRule ^index.php$ http://www.new.com? [L,R=301]
#www.old.com doesn't have a query string so needs its own 301:
Redirect 301 / http://www.new.com
-
I think the issue you are having is because you are redirecting a dynamic URL and this is what is causing the problem. There was Q&A on here regarding this ages ago I will try and find it and let you have the link - unless we have an expert that wants to step in..
Try adding a rewrite condition before a rewrite rule:
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} route=product/product&product_id=51
-
For some reason it doesn't work. I've changed the fifth line below for posting here, but the four lines above it is the code that I used in the htaccess. Because it's a 1and1 server which use php4 as default, it has an extra line to use php 5, which the site has always had. The domain-to-domain 301 works ok with this extra line.
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
Redirect 301 /index.php?route=product/product&product_id=51 http://www.newdomain.com/new-page
-
try this below
Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on
Redirect 301 /oldpage.html http://www.newdomain.com/newpage.html ```
-
Thanks Matt
The domain-to-domain redirect works but the page-to-page doesn't, even when the page-to-page is the only instruction below "RewriteEngine on".
-
Hi - yeah place all your specific redirects first and then add you blanket redirect at the end.
-
Sorry Matt, that was a bad typo. I've changed that now... I meant 301 those 10 pages to 10 similar pages".
Thanks very much for the link. I might just have to test this with a dormant domain and see if it works, but my worry is that the command to redirect the whole domain will override the commands to redirect the individual pages.
RewriteEngine on
#I would have ten of these:
rewriterule ^index.phproute=product/product&product_id=52(.*)$ http://www.new.co.uk/products/new$1 [r=301,nc]
######## As I would prefer not to do the above for all 100 pages, I would need a way to redirect the remaining pages. I don't know if the following accomplishes this as it's simply a command to redirect the domain?
#######Options +FollowSymLinksRewriteEngine onRewriteRule (.*) http://www.new.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]
-
Sorry my confusion - when you said "301 those 10 pages to 120 similar pages on the new site". Then your idea is correct it will be best to redirect your old page to a specific new one - I have done this successfully many times myself.
You can does this with your .htaccess - easiest way for you would be to use this:
http://www.webconfs.com/htaccess-redirect-generator.php
When using the tool you only need to initiate the rewrite engine once then just copy the last line for each url redirect:
include this only once:
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
-
Hi Matt,
It will be one-to-one:
old.com/page_1 >> new.com/page_A
old.com/page_2 >> new.com/page_B
... and 8 more of those
And then the other 90 pages:
old.com/Remaining pages >> new.com/index
-
To me it doesn't make sense to redirect a page using a permanent redirect that tells the search engines the old page has moved to multiple new pages - the new page should only exist in one location from a duplicate content and link juice point of view. I think that would be an improper use of a 301 redirect. You could group pages and point the old page to the first page of each group.
Also note as far as I am aware this is not possible as a 301 redirect will send you to a single location not multiple when you type the old address, so you could point 10 pages at 120 other than creating 10 index pages which group those 120 and pointing one of the 10 original at each of them...
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
-
301 Redirect from Authoritative but Loosely-Related Domain
We acquired a health-related blog about a year ago with good domain authority and a pretty strong link profile (TF ~40). We have been publishing good relevant content in it but it's not really paying dividends and we are considering doing a 301 to our money site, which is focused primarily on senior issues but has a lot of health-related content. The question is - with the two domains only being loosely related in subject matter, do we stand to harm our main site by redirecting from the other domain?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sa_787040 -
New page disappeared from the ranks, under dubious circumstances
I've had an odd situation happen today. Published a blog post and it ranked No 6 within 2 or 3 hours, just come back now (About 12 hours later) and it has completely vanished! I have checked to page 9, and used a couple of keyword tools and it appears nowhere! It didn't have any back links, but it was unique and high quality. I have checked on the page does still exist and it is still readable. Any thoughts would be gratefully received.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoman100 -
How does a page with a canonical for another domain impact SEO?
Hi, We have a requirement to host files that contains .html, .css, .js, and .pdf files externally on AWS S3 bucket. We have a landing page on our site that contains a link to those external links (i.e. pdf). On our site's (hosted on Drupal), landing page we already have a canonical link for the current landing page. On the .html file which is hosted externally, we were thinking to add the same canonical link that exists for the landing page so that search engines will go to the externally available .html file and interpret that the externally hosted file is related to our landing page. I was wondering if this is an acceptable solution without any SEO penalty. If there is a penalty, what would be the alternative solution to this so we can host files externally and drive most of the traffic to our landing page? Example Landing page: absolute url = https://www.site-domain.com/page-url ...... Externally available .html file (static) ......
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KendallHershey0 -
What is the fastest way disassociate an old URL with a new domain name?
We have a client with an old domain which was spammy (bad links). Until two months ago, it was forwarding to his current domain and (I believe) causing a penalty. Two months ago we transferred ownership of the spammy URL to a third party and setup an unrelated blog for Google to pick up on. Google did pick up on the URL. After two months Google Webmaster Tools is still showing 200 links from the old domain, to the new domain (from the spammy domain). Also, when you search the company name, the spammy domain still appears in the results (page two). Is there a faster way disassociate the old domain entirely from the business? I.e., just delete the domain, forward the domain to another website, etc.? If you have experience in this, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mgordon0 -
301 Redirected url to new subdomain, now the rank appears to be completely gone...
In an attempt to not feel bad for not blogging, I set up a new subdomain on my site to have a "coming soon" style page and "best of" section for my blog and video show properties. All the pages on the relaunch subdomain are done in Unbounce. http://relaunch.tommy.ismy.name The idea was that I would then take the pages on my regular domain, and one by one create landing pages that test out new design ideas (instead of going into full production web design) and redirect the traffic from the top ranked pages to the new, redesigned pages. At first, I set up the 301 through a plugin in wordpress and for the first week or so it was great. As far as I know, I did set my canonical tags up properly on that page too. However, just a couple days ago, I wasn't getting the same traffic, and my top ranked keyword that accounts for over half my traffic is nowhere to be found in at least the first 15 pages of search results. Which stinks, because I've maintained that rank for well over 2 years 😞 Clearly, something I did wasn't liked by Google, and I wonder, what did I do "wrong" and is there anything I could do to get that rank back?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Thomas_m_walker0 -
Embed Same Video On Multiple Pages or 301 Redirect Into 1?
I have 3 pages that rank VERY well for related terms such as: -How to get widgets -How to become a widget -Getting widgets -etc. I am incorporating a video on the topic and rewriting much of the content on the site. I am wondering if it is wise to 301 redirect all 3 pages to 1 page that has the new/better video content or if I should leave the old content that is ranking well and embed the video on the top of each. The anal retentive side of me wants a nice new site structure and 1 powerful page. However, if the 3 pages are currently ranking (sometimes 2 pages in the same top 10 results), should I mess with what is working? Ultimately my goal is to increase the avg time on site as these 3 pages are top traffic pages for the site. However, they do not convert at all, as they are for a product we don't offer. Thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TheDude0 -
How To 301 Redirect .html pages
I need to redirect a page/URL that is purely .html to a new location. I don't know how to do this. All the redirects I can find are for server side code pages .php/.aspx etc. From my understanding I can't put a server side redirect in a .html file. I am hosting on a microsoft server, however the new page I am redirecting to is .php. I am running some WordPress (.php) files on the server. I need to make it redirect before the old page loads so visitors don't start reading something that is about to get redirected Can someone please help me?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MyNet0 -
301 Redirect or Canonical Tag or Leave Them Alone? Different Pages - Similar Content
We currently have 3 different versions of our State Business-for-Sale listings pages - the versions are: **Version 1 -- Preferred Version: ** http://www.businessbroker.net/State/California-Businesses_For_Sale.aspx Title = California Business for Sale Ads - California Businesses for Sale & Business Brokers - Sell a Business on Business Broker Version 2: http://www.businessbroker.net/Businesses_For_Sale-State-California.aspx Title = California Business for Sale | 3124 California Businesses for Sale | BusinessBroker.net Version 3: http://www.businessbroker.net/listings/business_for_sale_california.ihtml Title = California Businesses for Sale at BusinessBroker.net - California Business for Sale While the page titles and meta data are a bit different, the bulk of the page content (which is the listings rendered) are identical. We were wondering if it would make good sense to either (A) 301 redirect Versions 2 and 3 to the preferred Version 1 page or (B) put Canonical Tags on Versions 2 and 3 labeling Version 1 as the preferred version. We have this issue for all 50 U.S. States -- I've mentioned California here but the same applies for Alabama through Wyoming - same issue. Given that there are 3 different flavors and all are showing up in the Search Results -- some on the same 1st page of results -- which probably is a good thing for now -- should we do a 301 redirect or a Canonical Tag on Versions 2 and 3? Seems like with Google cracking down on duplicate content, it might be wise to be proactive. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks. Matt M
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MWM37720