need help with a 301 redirect

[Bernard]

So TimeWarner is changing to Comcast in my area and that means that RoadRunner (ISP) customers like me are facing migration to Comcast servers. While TW/Comcast have disclosed that the RoadRunner email servers will remain active for a year forwarding emails to a comcast email server, they have not said anything about personal web pages stored on RoadRunner servers.

I happen to have a simple page I threw up on my RoadRunner web space some time ago that is currently ranking very nicely on a very competitive phrase and earning enough money every month to pay for my cable bill.

So, I need to move my page now while I have a chance to hopefully serve notice to folks (ie. search engines) that the page is moving before TW/Comcast pulls the plug on the RoadRunner web server.

I'm trying to set up a simple .htaccess file to redirect my index page stored in my folder to a new site, but it's not working as I hoped:

Current page:
http://home.houston.rr.com/mypersonaldirectory/

Desired new page:
http://www.newdomain.com/newdirectory/

I tried setting .htaccess with a single line as such:
Redirect 301 / http://www.newdomain.com/newdirectory

but, it keeps appending /mypersonaldirectory to the path. The .htaccess file is stored in the mypersonaldirectory folder.

Help???

[Quadrille]

Originally posted by Bernard
Desired new page:
http://www.newdomain.com/newdirectory/

I tried setting .htaccess with a single line as such:
Redirect 301 / http://www.newdomain.com/newdirectory

but, it keeps appending /mypersonaldirectory to the path. The .htaccess file is stored in the mypersonaldirectory folder.

Howzabout Redirect 301 / http://www.newdomain.com - if it adds /mypersonaldirectory, you'll end up with

http://www.newdomain.com/mypersonaldirectory ... close enough?

I suspect the problem lies in your existing site being effectively a folder of someone else's site.

So long as you get them to the new domain, a 301 there (where you have full control) can take them to the destination you want.

[Blue]

Try this, or try working with it, Bernard:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^subdomain.website.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.subdomain.website.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.website.com/subdomain/ [R=301,L]

[WebSavvy]

If the index page isn't PHP, add the following to your .htaccess file

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .htm .html

Now, if the index page is .php, .htm, .html -- doesn't matter because of the added .htaccess codes above.

In the index page you can now safely add simply this only, and it will take care of your 301 issues.

<?php
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.newdomain.com/newdirectory/" );
?>

Let me know if it works for you or not? :)

[Bernard]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Unfortunately, the RoadRunner server choked any time I tried to turn on the Rewrite Engine, so I ended up having to use my original Redirect and then set up a second redirect on the new domain. It's working now even if it jumps through two 301 redirects instead of one.

For those interested, I added the following to the .htaccess on the new domain:

RewriteRule ^mypersonaldirectory/$ / [R=301, L]

to redirect the folder back to the new domain root.

[g1smd]

Search engines cannot pass any Pagerank through chained redirects like this.

Your visitors will get to the site OK, but search engines will choke on this a bit.

[Bernard]

Originally posted by g1smd
Search engines cannot pass any Pagerank through chained redirects like this.

Have you done any tests to validate that statement? I know the last time I moved a site to a new domain (using a single 301 redirect), it took about 3 months before Google gave the new domain the same SERPs enjoyed by the corresponding pages of the old domain. I didn't pay that much attention to the PageRank.

[g1smd]

Yes, PR is passed when you have:

URL:OLD ---> redirect ---> URL:NEW

but it does not get passed properly when this happens:

URL:OLD ---> redirect ---> URL:intermediate ---> redirect ---> URL:NEW

The problem is the chained redirects.

[Bernard]

Well, I guess I'm going to test your claim... I don't have much choice.

[Connie]

Just curious. Why not contact TimeWarner or RoadRunner and ask what they plan to do with personal domains.

I'm surprised that you can even use a .htaccess file for any kind of redirect on a ISP personal site. I'm certainly not surprised that mod_rewrite does not work.

Have you considered a meta refresh? I don't know much about them, and normally would not raise the question. In your situation, I think I might look into that as a possible option.

[Bernard]

Hi Connie,

Yes, I tried contacting TW/Comcast several times. The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. All I get in response is "corporate hasn't announced any decision on the PWPs".

A meta refresh does not accomplish the end goal and PHP is not available on the RR server.