Apache Redirects

Overview

What you are trying to accomplish here is to have one resource (either a page or an entire site) redirect a visitor to a completely different page or site, and while doing so tell the visitor's browser that the redirect is either permanent (301) or temporary (302).
Therefore you need to do three things:

1. Have 2 resources - one source page or website, and one destination page or website.
2. When an attempt to  access the source resource is made, the webserver transfers the visitor to the destination instead.
3. During the transfer, the webserver reports to the visitor that a redirect is happening and it's either temporary or permanent.

The ability to control the "status" argument in the redirect directive (which sets whether it's a 301 or 302) within Apache is only available in version 1.2 and above. You are best off using version 2 or above for maximum stability, security and usefulness. 

301 Redirect

A function of a web server that redirects the visitor from the current page or site to another page or site, while returning a response code that says that the original page or site has been permanently moved to the new location. Search engines like this information and will readily transfer link popularity (and PageRank) to the new site quickly and with few issues. They are also not as likely to cause issues with duplication filters. SEOs like 301 redirects, and they are usually the preferred way to deal with multiple domains pointing at one website.

302 Redirect

A function of a web server that redirects the visitor from the current page or site to another page or site, while returning a response code that says that the original page or site has been temporarily moved to the new location. Search engines will often interpret these as a park, and take their time figuring out how to handle the setup. Try to avoid a 302 redirect on your site if you can (unless it truly is only a temporary redirect), and never use them as some form of click tracking for your outgoing links, as they can result in a "website hijacking" under some circumstances.

 

mod_rewrite

Mod_Rewrite is an Apache extension module which will allow URL's to be rewritten on the fly. Often this is used by SEOs to convert dynamic URL's with multiple query strings into static URL's. An example of this would be to convert the dynamic URL domain.com/search.php?day=31&month=may&year=2005 to domain.com/search-31-may-2005.htm

 

htaccess

htaccess (Hypertext Access) is the default name of Apache's directory-level configuration file. It provides the ability to customize configuration directives defined in the main configuration file. You can execute a mod_rewrite script using the .htaccess file.

 

httpd.conf

Apache is configured by placing directives in plain text configuration files. The main configuration file is usually called httpd.conf. The location of this file is set at compile-time, but may be overridden with the -f command line flag. In addition, other configuration files may be added using the Include directive, and wildcards can be used to include many configuration files. Any directive may be placed in any of these configuration files. Changes to the main configuration files are only recognized by Apache when it is started or restarted.

Redirection (302)

A default redirection function of IIS that redirects the visitor from the current page or site to another page or site, while returning a response code that says that the original page or site has been temporarily moved to the new location. Search engines will often interpret these as a park, and take their time figuring out how to handle the setup. Try to avoid a 302 redirect on your site if you can (unless it truly is only a temporary redirect), and never use them as some form of click tracking for your outgoing links, as they can result in a "website hijacking" under some circumstances.

 

 Permanent Redirection (301)

An optional function of IIS that redirects the visitor from the current page or site to another page or site, while returning a response code that says that the original page or site has been permanently moved to the new location. Search engines like this information and will readily transfer link popularity (and PageRank) to the new site quickly and with few issues. They are also not as likely to cause issues with duplication filters. SEOs like 301 redirects, and they are usually the preferred way to deal with multiple domains pointing at one website.

Mod_Rewrite and the Apache Redirect

If you have the mod_rewrite extension installed (it comes with most Apache installs as a default) you can use it to dynamically change URL's using arguments on the fly - this is NOT a 301 redirect, but rather it's related behavior. For example, if you wanted to redirect .htm files from an old server to their equivalent .php files on a new one using a 301 redirect, you would use a combination of mod_rewrite and the redirect directive to do the redirection + URL change.
You could do it on a file by file basis by making a really long list of possible redirects in the .htaccess file by hand without mod_rewrite, but that would be a real pain on a server with a lot of files, or a completely dynamic system. Therefore these 2 functions are often used together.

Syntax for a 301 Redirect

The syntax for the redirect directive is:

Redirect /yourdirectory http://www.newdomain.com/newdirectory

If the client requests http://myserver/service/foo.txt, it will be told to access http://www.yourdomain.com/service/foo.txt instead.
Note: Redirect directives take precedence over Alias and ScriptAlias directives, irrespective of their ordering in the configuration file. Also, URL-path must be a fully qualified URL, not a relative path, even when used with .htaccess files or inside of <Directory> sections.
If you use the redirect without the status argument, it will return a status code of 302 by default. This default behaviour has given me problems over the years as an SEO, so it's important to remember to use it, like this:

Redirect permanent /one http://www.newdomain.com/two

or

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

Both of which will return the 301 status code. If you wanted to return a 302 you could either not specify anything, or use "302" or "temp" as the status argument above.
You can also use 2 other directives - RedirectPermanent URL-path URL (returns a 301 and works the same as Redirect permanent /URL PathURL) and RedirectTemp URL-path URL (same, but for a 302 status).
For more global changes, you would use redirectMatch, with the same syntax:

RedirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ http://www.newdomain.com

or

RedirectMatch permanent ^(.*)$ http://www.newdomain.com

These arguments will match any file requested at the old account, change the domain, and redirect it to the file of the same name at the new account.
You would use these directives in either the .htaccess file or the httpd file. It's most common to do it in the .htaccess file because it's the easiest and doesn't require a restart, but the httpd method has less overhead and works fine, as well.

Simple Domain 301 Redirect Checklist

This assumes you just have a new domain (with no working pages under it) and want it to redirect properly to your main domain.
1. Ensure that you have 2 accounts - the old site and the new site (they do not have to be on different IP's or different machines).
2. Your main (proper or canonical) site should be pointed at the new site using DNS. All your other domains should be pointed at the old site using DNS. Parking them there is fine at this point.
3. Find the .htaccess file at the root of your old account. Yes, it starts with a "." We will be working with this file. The new site does not need any changes made to it - the old site does all the redirection work.
4. Download the .htaccess file and open it in a text only editor.
5a. Add this code:

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

6. Then upload the file to your root folder and test your new redirect. Make you you also check it using a HTTP Header viewer just to be sure it shows as a 301.

Control Panel Method

cPanel redirect

• Log into your cPanel, and look for "Redirects" under Site Management
• Put in the current directory into the first box
• Put the new directory in the second box
• Choose the type (temporary or permanent) temporary=302 and permanent=301
• Click "Add" and you're done

You can only do 302 redirects (or frame forwarding - bad!) using the Plesk control panel - use .htaccess for 301's instead.
If you use Ensim, the only way to redirect is by using the .htaccess file (no control panel option at this time).

Basic Old Website to New Website Redirection

This is used when you have an existing website (with pages) and want to move it to a new domain, while keeping all your page names and the links to them.
1. Ensure that you have 2 websites - the old site and the new site, and that they are on different accounts (they do not have to be on different IP's or different machines).
2. Your main (proper or canonical) site should be pointed at the new site using DNS. All your old domains should be pointed at the old site using DNS.
3. Find the .htaccess file at the root of your old account. Yes, it starts with a "."  We will be working with this file. The new site does not need any changes made to it - the old site does all the redirection work.
4. Download the .htaccess file and open it in a text only editor.
5a. If you have mod_rewrite installed, add this code:

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

5b. If you don't have mod_rewrite installed, you really should. If you can't install it, then you can use this code instead:

RedirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ http://www.newdomain.com

6. Then upload the file to your root folder and test your new redirect. Make you you also check it using a HTTP Header viewer just to be sure it shows as a 301.

FrontPage on Apache

After you've done the basic Apache 301 redirection described in this article, you will also need to change the .htaccess files in:  

_vti_bin
_vti_bin /_vti_adm
_vti_bin/ _vti_aut

Replace "Options None" to "Options +FollowSymLinks"
Those folders are part of your FrontPage extensions on the server, so you will have to use FTP to get to them, since FrontPage hides these folders by default to prevent them from accidentally being messed with by novice users.

More Complicated Redirects

You can't use a control panel in Apache currently for these - .htaccess only.

Redirecting everything to a single page

This is common when you are totally changing the new website from the old and you just want all your links and requests form the old site to be directed to a spot on your new site (usually the home page). You actually need to do it on a page by page basis.

Redirect 301 /oldfile1.htm http://www.newdomain.com
Redirect 301 /oldfile2.htm http://www.newdomain.com
Redirect 301 /oldfile3.htm http://www.newdomain.com

Redirection while changing the filename

This example will redirect all the files on the old account that end in html to the same file on the new account, but with a php extension. You can also use this technique within the same account if you want to change all your extensions but don't want to lose your incoming links to the old pages. This is common when people switch to from static htm files to dynamic ones while keeping the same domain name, for example.
Just change the "html" and "php" parts of the below example to your specific situation, if needed.

RedirectMatch 301 (.*)\.html$ http://www.newdomain.com$1.php

Redirection while changing the filename, but keeping the GET arguments

Sometimes, you will want to change to a different CMS, but keep your database the same, or you want to switch everything but you like the arguments and don't want to change them.

RedirectMatch 301 /oldcart.php(.*) http://www.newdomain.com/newcart.php$1

This will result in "http://www.olddomain.com/oldcart.php?Cat_ID=Blue" being redirected to "http://www.newdomain.com/newcart.php?Cat_ID=Blue"