Re-Directs
Moving about?
If your website is in the stages of its first incarnation or going through a transitional phase of maintenance, such as the navigational system being tweaked, or files and pages being moved then you need to stay on top of the game and implement some redirect pages.
Unfortunately, moving pages around causes a little trouble. Search engines which have crawled and indexed your site will ensure that the certain pages will rank highly, and if you go moving them around, you will inevitably provide any potential visitors with a blank page and the message ‘Error 404- File Not Found.’ You may have come across this during searches you have done yourself, and you’ll know the frustration of clicking a link to see a certain piece of information to be greeted by a blank page.
There are two main ways to combat this hiccup when working on your site and swapping pages and files around. The first, and the easiest, though not exactly the best in terms of search engine optimisation, is to create a customised Error 404 Page. Here you can provide links to your homepage and the pages closest in similarity to the page that has been moved, and perhaps a cheeky apology for having moved the page in the first place. Frustrating potential visitors due to your maintenance is pretty unforgivable but if you can make them smile you’ve more chance of getting them to click yet another link- given on your customised 404 page- to find the information that they were after in the first place.
Unfortunately, this method is comes second to using the 1990’s style ‘website under construction banners’ that were once a popular excuse for lazy webmasters. In terms of SEO, search engines will automatically index 404 pages as non-existent when they’re next requested in a search, until the engine has been able to crawl your site again and memorise their new location. Also, you stand a good chance of frustrating your potential visitors by not providing the information that they wanted straightaway. Remember the five second rule- if a visitor cannot see what they are looking for within five seconds of hitting the page, chances are, they’ll click ‘back’ and go and check out a competing site. Not everyone can be bothered trawling through your navigational system to find what they’re after.
If you know that you’re running on Apache, then a 301 redirect is implemented in your .htaccess file. This is the file that a search engine spider checks for when they first crawl your site. In Layman’s terms, it’s like a ‘How-to’ page for your website- and explains details to the spider like redirection commands, security settings and how to deal with any errors which may crop up unexpectedly.
To implement a 301, you’ll have to download the .htaccess file in the root directory of where all the web pages are kept. If you can’t find one, then create one using Notepad or a similar program. When you name the file, put quotations and a full stop at the beginning- “.”. There is no tail extension required here. If you find an existing .htaccess file, be VERY careful with the lines of code already in there. If you’re in any doubt as to what you’re doing, before you delete or edit anything, make a copy of the existing coding and save it somewhere else on your computer just in case.
After you’ve copied it, scroll down to the end of the coding on your original file, leave a line space, and then insert this:
Roughly translated, with plain English in [brackets]:
Also, make sure that there’s a space between the name of the command [Redirect 301], the old location and page name [/old/old.htm] and the new location [http://www.Mittens.com/new.htm]
Save the file with the new coding you’ve just added and test out your handiwork by typing in the old address. You should be taken automatically to the page’s new location, no questions asked. Bear in mind also that if the name of the page that has moved contains spaces, you need to add quotation marks to make sure that the 301 works properly.
Using the example above with spaces, it would look like this:
The 301 method is the best way of redirecting visitors around your site when you have moved files and pages and preserves your search engine results as the spider that views your site automatically follows the instructions in the .htaccess file. The 301 method can also be used to redirect not just pages but entire websites too- just ensure that you leave it a couple of weeks in order for the search engines to spider your new address before you close down your old domain.
Unfortunately, moving pages around causes a little trouble. Search engines which have crawled and indexed your site will ensure that the certain pages will rank highly, and if you go moving them around, you will inevitably provide any potential visitors with a blank page and the message ‘Error 404- File Not Found.’ You may have come across this during searches you have done yourself, and you’ll know the frustration of clicking a link to see a certain piece of information to be greeted by a blank page.
There are two main ways to combat this hiccup when working on your site and swapping pages and files around. The first, and the easiest, though not exactly the best in terms of search engine optimisation, is to create a customised Error 404 Page. Here you can provide links to your homepage and the pages closest in similarity to the page that has been moved, and perhaps a cheeky apology for having moved the page in the first place. Frustrating potential visitors due to your maintenance is pretty unforgivable but if you can make them smile you’ve more chance of getting them to click yet another link- given on your customised 404 page- to find the information that they were after in the first place.
Unfortunately, this method is comes second to using the 1990’s style ‘website under construction banners’ that were once a popular excuse for lazy webmasters. In terms of SEO, search engines will automatically index 404 pages as non-existent when they’re next requested in a search, until the engine has been able to crawl your site again and memorise their new location. Also, you stand a good chance of frustrating your potential visitors by not providing the information that they wanted straightaway. Remember the five second rule- if a visitor cannot see what they are looking for within five seconds of hitting the page, chances are, they’ll click ‘back’ and go and check out a competing site. Not everyone can be bothered trawling through your navigational system to find what they’re after.
An effective way to realign your pages
A 301 redirect can combat this more effectively with less upheaval in the long run and is a lot friendlier toward search engines and potential customers to your site. To do this, you need to ensure that your site is on a server running Apache (it maybe worth ringing the helpline to make sure, if you’re a newbie).If you know that you’re running on Apache, then a 301 redirect is implemented in your .htaccess file. This is the file that a search engine spider checks for when they first crawl your site. In Layman’s terms, it’s like a ‘How-to’ page for your website- and explains details to the spider like redirection commands, security settings and how to deal with any errors which may crop up unexpectedly.
To implement a 301, you’ll have to download the .htaccess file in the root directory of where all the web pages are kept. If you can’t find one, then create one using Notepad or a similar program. When you name the file, put quotations and a full stop at the beginning- “.”. There is no tail extension required here. If you find an existing .htaccess file, be VERY careful with the lines of code already in there. If you’re in any doubt as to what you’re doing, before you delete or edit anything, make a copy of the existing coding and save it somewhere else on your computer just in case.
After you’ve copied it, scroll down to the end of the coding on your original file, leave a line space, and then insert this:
Redirect 301 /old/old.htm http://www.Mittens.com/new.htm
Roughly translated, with plain English in [brackets]:
Redirect 301 [This page has been permanently moved and the usual http://www. At the start of this address is not necessary]
old/old.htm [the previous location of the page and it’s title] http://www.Mittens.com/new.htm [the new location of the page]
Also, make sure that there’s a space between the name of the command [Redirect 301], the old location and page name [/old/old.htm] and the new location [http://www.Mittens.com/new.htm]
Save the file with the new coding you’ve just added and test out your handiwork by typing in the old address. You should be taken automatically to the page’s new location, no questions asked. Bear in mind also that if the name of the page that has moved contains spaces, you need to add quotation marks to make sure that the 301 works properly.
Using the example above with spaces, it would look like this:
Redirect 301 /old”/old wool mittens.htm” http://www.WoolyMittens.com/new.htm
The 301 method is the best way of redirecting visitors around your site when you have moved files and pages and preserves your search engine results as the spider that views your site automatically follows the instructions in the .htaccess file. The 301 method can also be used to redirect not just pages but entire websites too- just ensure that you leave it a couple of weeks in order for the search engines to spider your new address before you close down your old domain.