I’m being advised to set up 301 Redirects, as I’m replacing a friend’s website with a new one. It’s his business and I’m worried about loosing his Google ranking. The problem I have is I don’t have access to the current site or its creator. It’s hosted by Easily and the package needs to be updated first. The update I’ve been warned could kill the site. Access to the site would be via Forklift if the upgrade went well.
So how would I implement a 301 Redirect in this case?
Thanks,
Andrew
In this situation I think you’ll simply need to take note of the existing URLs and then set up the 301 redirects after you transition to the new site and hosting package.
If you are using cPanel, redirects can be set up there or alternatively you can create them directly inside the .htaccess file on the server. I have never used Forklift but I imagine it would allow you to edit online but at the very least it will allow you to download the file and then upload a replacement with the 301 redirects. There are lots of online tutorials explaining how to create 301 redirects.
I have a similar issue but if I ask my hoster to do it he’ll charge me.
My old website pages are no longer valid and Ive set up a new rapidweaver project so how would you put a redirect on old .html pages to redirect to new ones without the rapidweaver project itself?
Can I use sitemap on my new project to redirect external old .html pages or doesn’t it work that way?
The problem I have is that I can’t access the old site via RTP unless I upgrade the Easily hosting package, and Easily warned me that might kill the old site.
@Beeswax You don’t need access to the old site via FTP to take note of the different urls. Just click on the pages and copy paste the urls to a text document. I have to say, Easily sound pretty hopeless if they are going to wipe everything just by upgrading your package.
Why not copy contents from the existing site by any means necessary. At worst you can export the pages as PDF for your records via Safari to help you build the new site. The old site will be deleted eventually no matter what.
Build your new website, upgrade the hosting package or move elsewhere and upload the new site. Then create the 301 redirects on the server. I think you are possibly over thinking this because it’s actually quite straightforward to obtain all the information you need just by viewing the existing site online.
@Gabrielle You don’t create 301 redirects on the old site. You do it via the control panel that should contain an option for redirects or directly inside the .htaccess file on the server. I would then delete the old pages that are no longer relevant and the server will push visitors to the new pages.
Hi Ashley, thanks for your input. I don’t have access to the control panel my hoster does, and he wants to charge me for popping in half a dozen redirects which I think its a bit unnecessary, so I’m trying to work out how to do it myself.
If I make a text document in Text wrangler, each of my redirects look like this, does that look correct to you?:
Redirect 301 http://www.stormdesignprint.com/Portfolio.html http://www.stormdesignprint.com/Portfolio
//301 Redirect Old File
Then I simply save as .htaccess and upload to the server and thats it?
Here is a page with examples of how to redirect;
You could do a backup before upgrading. Try SiteSucker for instance.
Ok a few questions:
here is a snippet from my file with rewrite conditions (these rules were created for me when I used Cpanel):
ErrorDocument 404 /404.html
RewriteOptions inherit
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^walkinartcenter.org$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.walkinartcenter.org$
RewriteRule ^art-events/$ “http://www.walkinartcenter.org/events/events_overview/” [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^walkinartcenter.org$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.walkinartcenter.org$
RewriteRule ^e2/classes/$ “http://www.walkinartcenter.org/education/education_classes/” [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^walkinartcenter.org$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.walkinartcenter.org$
RewriteRule ^about/$ “http://www.walkinartcenter.org/about/overview/” [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^walkinartcenter.org$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.walkinartcenter.org$
RewriteRule ^contact/$ “http://walkinartcenter.org/contact/contact_us/” [R=301,L]
Ok thanks very much for the info :-).