Redirects for new website

[JSimmons17]

Hi Moz community,
I'm a fairly new SEO Specialist with a brand new website.  We initially had a very basic holding website until the fully functional website was completed.  I have to do some redirects as we have both .html and .php files & we don't want to lose SEO value for specific pages (like the index, news, etc).  I also want to redirect from a www url to a non-www url.

I am trying to accomplish redirects with the following code:

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

RedirectMatch 301 /index.html (.*).(php|html) http://mywebsite.com/index.php

RedirectMatch 301 /cupcakes-slideshow/glutenfree-slideshow.html (.*).(php|html) http://mywebsite.com/gluten-and-glutenfree.php

RedirectMatch 301 /press.html (.*).(php|html) http://mywebsite.com/news-and-reviews.php

Please let me know if I am on the right track.  Thanks so much in advance!

[customerparadigm.com]

Yes, there are two main ways to do something like this.

My recommendation would be based on how many actual pages you need to redirect, and if you want to redirect everything, or if you want to redirect only a few pages here and there.

Option 1.  Redirect everything using programming.

The first way, is to use a rewrite rule like this:
RewriteRule ^/blog/(.*)$ http://blog.subdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

... that will redirect things programatically.  Your syntax seems to be okay, but I'd test it out to make sure it's working properly.

Advantages: One or two lines, and you're done!
Disadvantages: You are redirecting everything, and you can't test each and every line easily.

Option 2. Belt and Suspenders Method.

The second way is what I like to call the belt and suspenders method.  It is not elegant.  But the theory is that if you wear both suspenders and a belt, chances are good that you won't have your pants fall down.

This option creates a rewrite rule for each page on the site that is added to your .htaccess file.

What's nice about this is that you can easily create these redirects, without programming, just using a sitemap page.

I wrote a long article over on this site:
http://www.advancedwebranking.com/blog/how-to-create-301-redirects-from-sitemap/

... that shows how to create these redirects quickly, without any programming (just through Excel and a text editor).

Option 3. Use the rewrite rule, but use the method in option 2 to create a list of all of the pages that need to be redirected.

If you'd rather, you could also use the method for creating a list of all of the pages that need to be redirected, and then use a 301 redirect checking script (there are a lot of free ones out there, just Google it), and then test if your method is working properly.

Hope this helps!

• Jeff

[JSimmons17]

Thanks so much Jeff.  I will try the options you suggested.