What is a 301 redirect?

[Dazza30]

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I was given this advice today but i dont know what a 301 redirect is, can some one please tell me?

Permanent Redirect Not Found
Search engines may think www dream4mobiles.co.uk and dream4mobiles.co.uk are two different sites.You should set up a permanent redirect (technically called a "301 redirect") between these sites. Once you do that, you will get full search engine credit for your work on these sites.

[Pete Taylor]

You need to set up a .htaccess file in your root directory and include the following 3 lines.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^dream4mobiles.co.uk
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.dream4mobiles.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

This will then make the www and non www versions of your site look like a unified site, instead of a duplicate/mirror.

[channel5]

SEO advice: url canonicalization

[Dazza30]

This will then make the www and non www versions of your site look like a unified site, instead of a duplicate/mirror.

I dont understand the basic principle behind this, as far as im aware there is only one version of my site so why would i need to unify anything?


Thanks for the resource link channel5 ill take a look.

[Pete Taylor]

Agreed, there is only 1 physical version of your site, but it can be accessed either by going to www.dream4mobiles.co.uk or dream4mobiles.co.uk (without the www), so search engines see this as 2 sites and assume one site is a duplicate of the other.

[Pete Taylor]

I dont understand the basic principle behind this, as far as im aware there is only one version of my site so why would i need to unify anything?


Thanks for the resource link channel5 ill take a look.

Looks like you have now added the code, so that it always goes to the www version.

[Dazza30]

Ive just started to read the article on canonicalization and its becoming clearer now, thanks to everyone for helping clear this up for me.

[Dazza30]

You need to set up a .htaccess file in your root directory and include the following 3 lines.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^dream4mobiles.co.uk
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.dream4mobiles.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

This will then make the www and non www versions of your site look like a unified site, instead of a duplicate/mirror.

The hosting company i use requires that all files are uploaded to a htaccess file, how do i go about including the rewriteEngine etc? is it as simple as placing the code into a notepad file and uploading?

Ive just read that This .htaccess method of redirection works ONLY on Linux servers having the Apache Mod-Rewrite moduled enabled. Im currently using a windows based server.

[Pete Taylor]

You may need to contact Fasthosts and ask them to make the changes on the Windows server.

[Dazza30]

You need to set up a .htaccess file in your root directory and include the following 3 lines.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^dream4mobiles.co.uk
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.dream4mobiles.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

This will then make the www and non www versions of your site look like a unified site, instead of a duplicate/mirror.

So i need to ask fasthosts to do the above for me?

I just read on another forum that this works

meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1; url=http://www.domain_name.tld/"

[Pete Taylor]

Fasthosts should be able to do it for you. However, looking at Google, you don't appear to have a problem, as they are only indexing your www version.

I personally wouldn’t attempt to fix something that isn't broke!


If you were on a Linux server, fair enough, make the changes as a "nice to have" fix, but don't beat yourself over the head fixing a problem that is not evident in the first instance on your site.

[Dazza30]

I suppose i should put it down as one of those interesting things you learn a day.


This did spook me though as i hadnt heard of a 301 redirect untill today

Permanent Redirect Not Found
Search engines may think www dream4mobiles.co.uk and dream4mobiles.co.uk are two different sites.You should set up a permanent redirect (technically called a "301 redirect") between these sites. Once you do that, you will get full search engine credit for your work on these sites.

At least ive learnt something new

Thanks for your assistance

[LotteMae]

Bit of a thread revival but I want to know if Fasthosts configure this or whether I need the htaccess file or meta tag method. My site is definitely separated into gazoomy.com and Gazoomy - Google Themes / Google Background Wallpaper, and I've noticed my addthis analytics are divided between the two.

[Dazza30]

Bit of a thread revival but I want to know if Fasthosts configure this or whether I need the htaccess file or meta tag method. My site is definitely separated into gazoomy.com and Gazoomy - Google Themes / Google Background Wallpaper, and I've noticed my addthis analytics are divided between the two.

If you're using shared hosting Fasthosts won't do anything, and you'll have to use the meta tag method which works fine.

[pustema]

Q1, how can you check to see if Google sees 2 versions

Q2, how is Google given it's almost unimaginable resources not smart enough to realise they are the same site?