I don’t trust GUI’s and this is why. A simple URL 301 redirect was botched by PowWeb’s URL Redirect tool. I had an issue with an error page being among the top content viewed and found an problem with a URL name change conflicting with a PPC campaign landing page target. I knew what had to be done.
PowWeb has a handy set of control panel tools that allow .htaccess editing. The .htaccess editor has a URL Redirect tool that defines the from path as http://… and the to path also as http://… in it’s instructions.
The non-working redirect was defined by the tool as:
Redirect http://www.domain.com/home.html http://www.domain.com
After going through various resources, I found this lovely note that saved my sanity:
“Notes: Don’t add “http://www” to the first part of the
statement - place the path from the top level of your site
to the page. Also ensure that you leave a single space
between these elements:”
PowWeb also has a very nice direct .htaccess editor that allowed me to modify the .htaccess file so I manually changed the redirect to the following:
Redirect 301 /home.html http://www.domain.com
There was no designation for a 301 Redirect so I had to modify the .htaccess file manually. It worked… Check your redirects here - http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/.
Luckily I have FTP access to the Web server but that is not always the case. In using the editor, I found there were actually 3 .htaccess files on the server. I had to ensure I was modifying the correct one and my next phone call to PowWeb will be about having 3 .htaccess files on the server.
Pay close attention to your redirects. Check them. Then check them again.
Tags: 301 redirect, search engine optimization, seo strategies, url redirect
August 31st, 2008 at 9:40 am
I do not believe this
March 21st, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Hi Fornetti,
I apologize for not responding quickly. I recently had another issue with the Web hosting front end tool screwing up a URL level redirect. I don’t trust every GUI and recommend editing the .htaccess file directly. I’m talking Apache here… Not every Web hosting tool may be an issue but it’s best to check your redirect (URL or 301) for validity. I use this redirect checker for server level 301 redirects - http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/
To test a URL level redirect, I use the site:domain.com/ operator to test the link after the redirect has been setup in .htaccess. The redirect is immediate so you can test on the fly.
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:37 am
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!