Redirect a Web Page on an Apache Server
This tutorial will explain how to redirect a non www web page to a www web page and redirect index.htm and like default pages to the directory. These changes can make a difference on SEO since search engines will only see one way to get to your home page. This method only works for an Apache server.
www vs. no www
Search engines, including Google, recommend using www or not www but not both. In other
words, use www.mydomain.com or mydomain.com. This little trick
prevents search engines from indexing web pages twice and
possibly causing duplicate content issues.
Using
a 301 permanent redirect can alleviate the problem.
To redirect mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com do the following:
In an existing .htaccess file or a new .htaccess file add the following code:
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^mydomain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]Replace mydomain with the domain you want to redirect. r=301 means redirect the client and send a status code of 301.
Example
For the domain smartlabsoftware.com
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^smartlabsoftware.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.smartlabsoftware.com/$1 [r=301,nc]No www
For those who want to retain their domain without the leading www
this example will redirect www.mydomain.com to mydomain.com
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^www.mydomain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://mydomain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]Test it Out
Test out the following scenarios. They should all end up at www.mydomain.com/
- mydomain.com
- mydomain.com/
- www.mydomain.com
- www.mydomain.com/
mydomain.com will show up as a 301 permanent redirect
Next: Redirect the index page