Correct way to redirect a domain

John84 · Nov 23, 2007

Can someone please explain what is the correct way to redirect a domain? For example, I own www.myniche.com and have been running it successfully for a couple of years. I recently purchase my competitor's website; www.sameniche.com and would like to redirect all traffic from the new domain to my original domain.

Is the correct way a 301 redirect using .htaccess file? Or can I simply point the new domain to the same directory as the old domain through my cpanel from my host?

Thanks,

John

weblord · Nov 23, 2007

yes 301 is the best

http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

vorarg · Nov 23, 2007

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Your Page Title</title>
<meta http-equiv="REFRESH" content="0;url=http://www.the-domain-you-want-to-redirect-to.com"></HEAD>
<BODY>
Optional page text here.
</BODY>
</HTML>

Put that as the index.html or .php of the new domain.
Then put your URL in the code above...
That's the easiest way to do it I think.

John84 · Nov 23, 2007

thanks for that link weblord. so using the following code...

<?
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.new-url.com" );
?>

... is just as good as creating the .htaccess file? And is that code all that I would need on that page?

mwzd · Nov 23, 2007

An .htaccess file is more likely to give a better result.

Search engines hate meta or javascript redirection.

A .htaccess file will give the correct 301 server response to spiders.

John84 · Nov 23, 2007

Aah. Thanks for clearing that up. Question answered. Thread may be closed.

weblord · Nov 24, 2007

sorry never told to you first, on that same page .htaccess is the best
(only to those servers that supports it btw)
some run around like the .php if it doesn't support

John84 said:
thanks for that link weblord. so using the following code...

<?
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.new-url.com" );
?>

... is just as good as creating the .htaccess file? And is that code all that I would need on that page?

Daniel · Nov 24, 2007

<?
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.new-url.com" );
?>

An easier way to do this is:

PHP:

header("Location: /foo.php",TRUE,301);

Read it all here: http://php.net/header

John84 · Dec 3, 2007

I went ahead and created an .htaccess file to redirect the traffic...

Code:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.OriginalDomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

...is there a way to track which traffic is coming from the new domain

locomo · Dec 4, 2007

I would also really like a solution to this last question - how best to track incoming direct traffic to DomainA.com that has been redirected to DomainB.com.

Ideally there would be some way of picking this up in something like google analytics for DomainB.com especially if you are redirecting multiple domains to DomainB.com

Ideas anyone?

Coopey · Dec 5, 2007

What I've done before is redirect to:

http://www.newdomainname.com/index.php?r=olddomainname

In my analytics software is shows up as a seperate entry point, I usually use the r= (referrer =) and different descriptions to track entry traffic from multiple sources.

locomo · Dec 6, 2007

nice - that seems like a simple solution.. i'll try that now and see if google analytics picks it up

John84 · Dec 9, 2007

S~ said:
What I've done before is redirect to:

http://www.newdomainname.com/index.php?r=olddomainname

In my analytics software is shows up as a seperate entry point, I usually use the r= (referrer =) and different descriptions to track entry traffic from multiple sources.

Worked like a charm. Thanks for that.

VirtualT · Dec 9, 2007

is there a way to get webmaster tools verification working with redirected domains?
I can't even get one working with a url forward at the registrar.

Correct way to redirect a domain

Established Member

Top Member

Established Member

Established Member

Top Member

Established Member

Top Member

Danltn.comVIP Member

Established Member

Established Member

Member of the YearVIP Member

Established Member

Established Member

Still AliveVIP Member

Similar threads

We're social

Palmira.org

KiddieCenter.com

Previous.co

DotlessDomains.net

ATherapeutics.com

WorksiteSafetySolutions.com

CryptoBase.org

Semester.co

GardenElves.com

FalconDAX.com

Pinned

Appreciation

Agreement

Answers

Relevance

Reaction

Status

Feeling