301 domain name to another site

[bhsiao]

I had 2 websites. I decided not to maintain one of them and set it to 301 to my main website. However, i see people getting 404 errors when they land on my main website but with a page name from the old site. How can I set things so that anyone who tries to go to the old site goes to my homepage of my main site?

http://siteA.com

http://oldsiteB.com/oldpagename sends them to http://siteA.com//oldpagename = 404  - I want them to go directly to homepage on siteA.

[BasKierkels]

Hi,

You have 2 methods that i would use:

Method #1: using .htaccess

Option A: redirect one specific URL to a new specific URL:
_Redirect 301 /old/old.html http://NEWSITE/new.html_

Note: 'old/old.html' has to be without the domain name: so just the directory + page.

Option B: redirect an entire directory to a new specific URL:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^OLDSITE.com [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.OLDSITE.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://NEWSITE/$1 [L,R=301,NC]

Note: the second line of that example has to be without 'www'.

Method #2: using PHP

If you have one header-file, you can place this code in the top of that php-file:
header( "Status: 301 Moved Permanently" ); header( "Location: http://NEWSITE" ); exit(0); ?>

Would that provide an answer for you?

Yours,
Bas

[bhsiao]

Can I use this option and somehow direct all traffic from old site to my new home page? I tried this and if someone was trying to find a specific page on the old site they get a 404 on the new.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^OLDSITE.com [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.OLDSITE.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://NEWSITE/$1 [L,R=301,NC]

[BasKierkels]

Ok so i had to test this one because i wasn't sure but you would have to remove "$1" from the last line.

That piece actually will add the file path of the original domain and add it to the domain you are redirecting the visitor to.

So this "www.myoldsite.com/my-page/"
Will become "www.mynewsite.com/my-page/"

Since you want it this way:
Old URL: "www.myoldsite.com/my-page/"
New URL: "www.mynewsite.com/"

Removing the "$1" should do the trick.

Is this an answer to your question?

Bas

[bhsiao]

Yes, that helps, thank you!

[bhsiao]

Actually, I tried that, and the result is still

Old URL: "www.myoldsite.com/my-page/"
New URL: "www.mynewsite.com/404.html

[BasKierkels]

Ok, just to be sure: you have placed this .htaccess on the old site. Right?

If that is the case and you've pasted the exact code i mentioned, then something else might be causing the issue.

Also: be sure to try this with a browser that hasn't visited the site in a while. It happens to me sometimes that the browser will simply remember the redirect and not follow the .htaccess.

Hope any of this helps!

[bhsiao]

No, I put it on the .htaccess on the new site. I had 301'd the whole old site in my domain name manager. Maybe I should not do that so I can put an .htaccess file right on the old domain?

[BasKierkels]

Try to put that .htaccess on the old site. It will rewrite the asked URL before it can be processed by the server. It will rewrite the request to contain the new domain.

On the new domain, you already have the code to process these requests.

Try that and report back. It probably works after that.