Is anyone able to check this 301 redirect for errors please?

[Paul_MC]

Hi,

I had a developer write a 301 wildcard for redirecting old hosted site to a new domain. Old URLS looked like   /b/2039566/1/akai.html
With varying letters & numbers.

I have 26,000 crawl errors in GWT and I can only imagine it's because this is looping?
Can anyone advise if this would be causing grief?

Thanks
Paul

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^vacuumdirect.com.au$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.vacuumdirect.com.au$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "http://www.vacuumbag.net.au/vacuum-cleaners.html" [R=301,L]

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
  RewriteBase /
  RewriteRule ^p/([0-9]+)/(.*) default/$2 [R=301,L]</ifmodule>

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
  RewriteBase /
  RewriteRule ^c/([0-9]+)/1/(.*) default/vacuum-bags/vacuum-cleaner-bags-$2 [R=301,L]</ifmodule>

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
  RewriteBase /
  RewriteRule ^p/([0-9]+)/(.*) $2 [R=301,L]</ifmodule>

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
  RewriteBase /
  RewriteRule ^c/([0-9]+)/(.*) default/$2 [R=301,L]</ifmodule>

[Paul_MC]

I think I just found it.
He's used the wrong domain name.
Only realized when I cut & pasted.

[mememax]

Hi Vacbag, just one question, why do you have so many

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
  RewriteBase /
[.................]</ifmodule>

First if you have the rewriteengine On (and you should, because if not your redirect won't work at all) at the top of your htaccess, you don't need it in every ifmodule.

If you use the rewritebase rule, use it on top so ti applies to all the rules, without repeating over and over. Maybe I'm seeing jsut a bunch of your code, but I don't see the added value of having so many ifmodules...

[Paul_MC]

I've just deleted all his stuff from the htacess.

Should I now just do 301's for all the 404 errors that I can find?

I was hoping for a wild card (hence this guy doing it for me).
Anyone want to have a crack at doing it for me? Happy to pay a nominal fee

[mememax]

Hi Vac, send me a private message and in m y free time I'll be glad to help you, if I can condense the redirects in just one or two rules I'll definitely do that. However I think you don't have to redirect all your 404s. (further reading here)

It's natural for a site to have 404s you need to redirect only pages which are actually going elsewhere (as the redirect term indicates), for expired content or not available pages, you'll better create a customized 404 page to help UX on your site.