How to write 301 redirects in WordPress

[CeCeBar]

I've successfully migrated new site to new domain (www.cmsearchmarketing.com)

But I cannot get 301 redirects for pages and blog posts to redirect from the old domain (www.creativemindsearchmarketing.com).

And it's my understanding I need to do a 301 for each page to maintain SEO.

Here's what I've tried:

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^p=975$RewriteRule ^index.php$ http://www.cmsearchmarketing.com/top-5-questions-to-ask-an-seo-firm-before-signing-up/? [R=301,L]

BEGIN WordPress<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine OnRewriteBase /RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-fRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-dRewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule># END WordPress

#AND ALSO#

Use PHP5 Single php.ini as defaultAddHandler application/x-httpd-php5s .php

BEGIN WordPress<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine OnRewriteBase /RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-fRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-dRewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule># END WordPress

redirect 301 /top-5-questions-to-ask-an-seo-firm-before-signing-up http://www.cmsearchmarketing.com/top-5-questions-to-ask-an-seo-firm-before-signing-up/

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

_Cindy

P.S. Maybe some other issues are in the way:

--Old site is  WP-Remix theme no longer supported, and latest WP version is 2.9.1

-- Old domain (www.creativemindsearchmarketing.com) is the primary account on BlueHost …and the new domain (www.cmsearchmarketing.com) is an addon, so the new domain's directory is within root of old domain.

-- in root domain of old site there are other "handler files" that also have base file rewrites, if this is an issue:

name of this file in root directory is:
.htaccess.addHandlerBak

-FrontPage-

<limit get="" post="">order deny,allowdeny from allallow from all</limit><limit put="" delete="">order deny,allowdeny from all</limit>AuthUserFile /home/creatjo7/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.pwdAuthGroupFile /home/creatjo7/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.grp# BEGIN WordPress<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine OnRewriteBase /RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-fRewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-dRewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule>

END WordPressAuthName creativemindsearchmarketing.comIndexIgnore .htaccess /.?? *~ *# /HEADER /README /_vti

[CaseyKluver]

Is the old site in WordPress? Try Simple 301 Redirects or a similar plugin to 301 individual pages/posts.

[Georgios]

I recommend Redirection – it's the most popular plugin out there. I use it on a number of sites and works great.

[CeCeBar]

Thanks for your reply.

The old site theme isn't supported anymore, cannot update WP beyond 2.9.1.

Does this simple 301 redirect plugin need to be on old site or new?

So if old domain name is different than new domain name, can I use this plugin?

_Cindy

[Brian-M]

Cindy as long as your categories and file names are the same, you can just put in 1 (one) wild card redirect that will redirect everything from your old domain to the same file name on your new domain.  i.e. olddomain.com/seo/goodseo.html will redirect to newdomian.com/se/goodseo

And, the easiest way to do this is from your servers Cpanel.  Go into the cpanel, look for redirect, tell it the old domain and the new domain and tell it to use "wild card" for redirection.

[CeCeBar]

Thank you for answering.

None of the pages are the same name on new site as on the old site.

However, the blog posts are the same. And if i could use a redirect for all pages on blog that would help.

But when I use the cpanel wildcard, or rules to the htaccess file, I do not get one page corresponding to the new page, - all old blog posts go to the home page.

_Cindy

[CeCeBar]

So is the redirection plugin installed on the old site (that's a different domain name), and can the target url be an external link?

The source URL cannot be an external link, right?

Cindy

[Brian-M]

You should be able to do something like this: http://screencast.com/t/1kU7rKwiC

[CaseyKluver]

Hi Cindy,

You can install the plugin on your current setup, and it should work, if by chance it doesnt work, you can download the older versions here which are supported in 2.9.1

This plugin allows you to 301 redirect from anywhere on your site to any external link you want

[CeCeBar]

Didn't understand the link you gave...

[Brian-M]

Sorry, try that link again (I've edited it)

[CeCeBar]

OK, so simple 301 redirects seem to be working out fine.

But having a thing for a puzzle, and thus far learning more about htaccess, I am wondering why a simple rewrite... or "redirect" rule would not work. Like this:

RewriteRule ^(./blog)$ http://cmsearchmarketing.com/blog$1.php [R=301,NC]

or this

RewriteRule ^./blog$ http://www.cmsearchmarketing.com/blog [R=301,NC]

(...and this goes into the old site htaccess with the old domain name, NOT the new site with the new domain name; and the new site basically has all new page names.)

Where in the htaccess file would it go... after the WP permalink rule - considering I am using permalinks on the site and writing the rules with the permalink structure?

Can I write a rule such as this and redirect to another domain all together?

When would I use [L] for last rule?

And what's the difference in a rewrite and a redirect?

OK, if anyone is pursuing and can help I would appreciate.
Thank you very much.

_Cindy