How to avoid a redirect chain?

[netzkern_AG]

Hi there,

I am aware that it is not good practice to have a redirect chain but I am not really sure hoe to do it (on Apache).

I have multiple redirects in a chain because on the one hand I had to redirect because the content of the site got a new URL and because on the other hand I changed from http to https. Thus I have a chain like

http://example.com via 301 to http://the-best-example.com via 301 to https://the-best-example.com via 301 to https://greatest-example.com

Obviously I want to clean this up without loosing any link juice or visitors who had bookmarked my site. So, I could make three separate redirects:

http://example.com via 301 to https://greatest-example.com
http://the-best-example.com via 301 to https://greatest-example.com
https://the-best-example.com via 301 to https://greatest-example.com

But is there a way to combine it? Can I use an "OR" operator to link the 3 conditions to this one rule?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks a lot!!!

[DSM_UK]

Hi,

In a situation like this I would use something similar to:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} !^.+.example.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} !^.+.the-best-example.com$
RewriteRule ^(/~.+) https://greatest-example.com/$1 [R,L]

(Sorry this was written off the top of my head, so give it a test before rolling it out!)

Kind Regards

Jimmy

[netzkern_AG]

yeah, thanks. That helps.

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hey there

I would also make sure that your sitemap and internal links are up to date so that there are no redirects happening in those places. You may also want to make sure you take the time to update listings and do a quick backlink audit to see if there are links you wish to update or possibly remove.

Hope this helps as well - good luck!

[AlanMosley]

this is simple. rather that test what the domain name is, test what it is not.

use the logic,

if not my-preferred-domainname then redirect to my-preferred-domainname.