Giving search engine
spiders direction with a 301 redirect
Scenario
You are upgrading your web site and as part of the upgrade, it
means moving and renaming particular files.
Danger
Search engines have indexed your entire site and many pages rank
well. By moving and renaming these files, you run the risk of
losing a lot of traffic and leaving visitors to your site who
follow a search engine link with the dreaded "Error 404 - File not
found"
Strategy 1 - Custom Error Page
You could create a custom error page. The problem with this
solution is that:
a) You will lose rankings on the next search engine update as the
file will appear to be non-existent. It could be some time before
the page in it's new location or with a new name reappears.
b) Your web site visitors may be frustrated by the fact that they
then have to dig through your site to find the desired
information.
Strategy 2 - Meta Refresh
A meta refresh can be implemented in the <head> statement of your
source code in blank page with the old file name, which then
automatically redirects visitors to the new page. Example:
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.new.com/new.htm">
<TITLE>Page has moved</TITLE>
</HEAD>
Warning: This is a technique often used by spammers to
trick search engines and it should be avoided, unless the page is
in a section of your site that isn't spidered.
What the search engine spammers do is to create a page that is
optimized for certain keywords and phrases - it usually has no
real content. The page is then picked up by some search engines,
but when a visitor clicks on the search engine entry, they are
redirected to another site, often unrelated.
It's a despicable trick, but thankfully most search engines have
filters to detect this. Using this form of SE deception will see a
site eventually banned or penalized by major players such as
Google.
Strategy 2 - 301 Redirect
A 301 redirect is the most efficient and spider/visitor friendly
strategy around for web sites that are hosted on servers running
Apache (check with your hosting service if you aren't sure). It's
not that hard to implement and it should preserve your search
engine rankings for that particular page. If you *have* to change
file names or move pages around, it's the safest option.
A 301 redirect is implemented in your .htaccess file.
What is a .htaccess file?
When a visitor/spider requests a web page via any means, your web
server checks for a .htaccess file. The .htaccess file contains
specific instructions for certain requests, including security,
redirection issues and how to handle certain errors.
What is a 301 redirect?
The code "301" is interpreted as "moved permanently". After the
code, the URL of the missing or renamed page is noted, followed by
a space, then followed by the new location or file name
How do I implement a 301 redirect?
First of all, you'll need to download the .htaccess file in the
root directory of where all your web pages are stored. If there is
no .htaccess file there, you can create one with Notepad or a
similar application. Make sure when you name the file that you
remember to put the "." at the beginning of the file name. This
file has no tail extension.
If there is a .htaccess file already in existence with lines of
code present, be very careful not to change any existing line
unless you are familiar with the functions of the file.
Scroll down past all the existing code, leave a line space, then
create a new line that follows this example:
redirect 301 /old/old.htm http://www.you.com/new.htm
It's as easy as that. Save the file, upload it back into your web
and test it out by typing in the old address to the page you've
changed. You should be instantly and seamlessly transported to the
new location.
Notes: Be sure not to add "http://www" to the first part of the
statement - just put the path from the top level of your site to
the page. Also ensure that you leave a single space between these
elements:
redirect 301 (the instruction that the page has moved)
/old/old.htm (the original folder path and file name)
http://www.you.com/new.htm (new path and file name)
Search engine spiders & 301 redirects
The 301 redirect is the safest way to preserve your rankings. On
the next spidering, the search engine robot will obey the rule
indicated in your .htaccess file. The search engine spider doesn't
actually read the .htaccess file, but recognizes the response from
the server as valid.
In the next update, the old file name and path *should* be dropped
and replaced with the new one. Sometimes you may see alternating
old/new file names during the transition period, along with some
possible fluctuations in rankings as things settle. Don't panic -
this is normal and may take a number of weeks before everything is
back to normal; but the bottom line is, any change you make has
risks - whether it's altering page text or moving/renaming the
page. Search engines run by their own rules and can change those
rules at any time.
More fun with 301 & mod_rewrite
The 301 directive is quite powerful. You can redirect not just
single files but entire sites, e.g.
redirect 301 / http://www.you.com/
The first "/" indicates that everything from the top level of the
site down should be redirected.
Note: using the above is not a good strategy in relation to
search engine rankings as all current links within the search
engine results will redirect to the top level of the new location.
A more powerful set of directives for manipulating URLs is
contained in the Apache mod_rewrite module, especially useful when
moving large numbers of pages or changing domain names. Read our
tutorial on the
apache mod_rewrite module.
Michael Bloch
Taming the Beast
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
Tutorials, web content, tools and software.
Web Marketing, Internet Development & Ecommerce Resources
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