301 redirecting some pages directly, and the rest to a single page

[RyanWhitney15]

I've read through the Redirect guide here already but can't get this down in my .htaccess

I want to redirect some pages specifically (/contactinfo.html to the new /contact.php)

And I want all other pages (not all have equivalent pages on the new site) to redirect to my new (index.php) homepage.

How can I set it up so that some specific pages redirect directly, and all others go to one page?

I already have the specific oldpage.html -> newpage.php redirects in place, just need to figure out the broad one for everything else.

[danrawk]

hi -
how many pages are we talking here?

check with your website host. many of of them have redirect utilities (such as isapi_rewrite : http://www.isapirewrite.com/) installed on the server (or just "rewrite" for apache i think) that will allow you to add a set of rules to your .htacess so it filters the way you want every time someone hits an old page. you would need 2 rules:

1.) when site is contactinfo.html  --> contact.php
2.) when all others ---> send to index.php

i would highly advise forwarding more relevant pages to their new equivalents if they are available. doing it the way you've mentioned will send link juice to index.php, but you may run into relevance issues.

isapi_rewrite is a little complicated in terms of it's syntax rules, but they've got a pretty useful forum. additionally, sometimes website hosts have a pro that can help you if you can't figure it out.

hope that's of some help! :>)

dan

[danrawk]

also, keep in mind that if you are ranking on secondary terms on the non-front pages, you will lose a lot of that relevance by forwarding to only your home page (esp. if it's not about that specific thing.

example:
old site about fruit  on home page - old subpage about apples

the old subpage about apples may rank really well
next, you  forward the old subpage about apples to your new front page
the search engines go "oh, this page isn't as relevant as the old apples subpage that no longer exists, let's bump down the rankings"

hence, it's always best to forward your equivalent old content to your equivalent new content.