URL HTTP Redirection

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URL HTTP Redirection

URL http redirection is an automatic URL change operation from one URL to another URL.

 

URL redirection

URL page redirection is an automatic URL change operation from one URL to another URL.

This redirection is done for the following reasons:

  1. Redirect from old obsolete URL to a new updated URL.
  2. Redirect from old obsolete domain to a new domain.
  3. Redirect from non www domain name to a www domain name.
  4. Redirect from short URL name to a long URL name - URL shortening service.
  5. URL shortening service will allow the user to insert a short URL and be redirected the the long URL that has the real page contents.

 

The user may reach the old URL from an old external links or a bookmark.

by the site's webmaster who adds a script.

 

Server side redirect

Server side redirection is done in the server, by configuring the Apache / IIS server software or by using PHP / ASP / ASP.NET script.

This is the preferred way to redirect URLs, since you can return HTTP 301 Moved Permanently status code.

Search engines use the 301 status to transfer the page rank from the old URL to the new URL.

 

Client side redirect

Client side redirection is done in the web browser of the user, by using HTML meta refresh tag or by Javascript code.

Client redirect is less preferred, since it does not return HTTP 301 status code.

 

Where to put redirect code

Domain
name		 Hosting
server		 Redirect code
placement
not changed not changed old page on same server
not changed changed old page on new server
changed not changed old page on same server
changed changed old page on old server

* Only with .htaccess redirect: add redirect code to httpd.conf file or to .htaccess file.

 

HTTP status codes

Status code Status code name Description
200 OK successful HTTP request
300 Multiple Choices  
301 Moved Permanently permanent URL redirection
302 Found temporary URL redirection
303 See Other  
304 Not Modified  
305 Use Proxy  
307 Temporary Redirect  
404 Not Found URL not found

 

HTTP 301 redirect

HTTP 301 Moved Permanently status code means a permanent URL redirection.

The 301 redirect is the preferred way to redirect URLs, since it informs search engines that the URL has moved for good, and search engines should put the new URL page in the search results instead of the old URL page and transfer the new URL page, the page rank of the old URL page.

The 301 redirect can be done across domains or on the same domain.

Google recommends to use 301 redirect.

 

Redirect options

Redirect script Redirect side Old page file type Redirect URL or domain Old URL server type 301 redirect support
PHP Server-side .php URL Apache / Linux yes
ASP Server-side .asp URL IIS / Windows yes
ASP.NET Server-side .aspx URL IIS / Windows yes
.htaccess Server-side all URL / Domain Apache / Linux yes
IIS Server-side all URL / Domain IIS / Windows yes
HTML canonical link tag Client-side .html URL all no
HTML meta refresh Client-side .html URL all no
HTML frame Client-side .html URL all no
Javascript Client-side .html URL all no
jQuery Client-side .html URL all no

 

redirect script - the scripting language that is used for the redirection.

redirect side - where the redirection takes place - server-side or client-side.

old page file type - the type of the old URL page that can can contain the scripting language of the redirect code.

redirect URL or domain - does support URL redirection of a single web page or domain redirection of a whole website.

typical old URL server type - the typical software and operating system of the server.

301 redirect support - indicates whether permanent 301 redirect status response can be returned.

 

PHP redirect

Replace old-page.php code with redirection code to new-page.php.

old_page.php:

<?php
// PHP permanent URL redirection
header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/new-page.php", true, 301);
exit();
?>

The old page must have .php file extension.

The new page can be with any extension.

See: PHP redirect

 

Apache .htaccess redirect

.htaccess file is a local configuration file of the Apache server.

If you have permission the change the httpd.conf file, it is better to add the Redirect directive in the httpd.conf instead of the .htaccess file.

 

Single URL redirect

Permanent redirect from old-page.html to new-page.html.

.htaccess:

Redirect 301 /old-page.html http://www.mydomain.com/new-page.html

 

Entire domain redirect

Permanent redirect from all domain pages to newdomain.com.

 .htaccess file should be at the old website's root directory.

.htaccess:

Redirect 301 / http://www.newdomain.com/

See: .htaccess redirection

 

ASP redirect

old-page.asp:

<%@ Language="VBScript" %>
<%
' ASP permanent URL redirection
Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently"
Response.AddHeader "Location", "http://www.mydomain.com/new-page.html"
Response.End
%>

 

ASP.NET redirect

old-page.aspx:

<script language="C#" runat="server">
// ASP.net permanent URL redirection
private void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
   Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.mydomain.com/new-page.html");
   Response.End();
}
</script>

 

HTML meta refresh redirect

HTML meta refresh tag redirection does not return 301 permanent redirect status code, but considered by Google as a 301 redirect.

Replace old page with redirection code with the URL of the page you want to redirect to.

old-page.html:

<!-- HTML meta refresh URL redirection -->
<html>
<head>
   <meta http-equiv="refresh"
   content="0; url=http://www.mydomain.com/new-page.html">
</head>
<body>
   <p>The page has moved to:
   <a href="http://www.mydomain.com/new-page.html">this page</a></p>
</body>
</html>

See: HTML redirection

 

Javascript redirect

Javascript redirect does not return 301 permanent redirect status code.

Replace old page with redirection code with the URL of the page you want to redirect to.

old-page.html:

<html>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
    // Javascript URL redirection
    window.location.replace("http://www.mydomain.com/new-page.html");
</script>
</body>
</html>

See: Javascript redirection

 

jQuery redirect

jQuery redirect is actually another type of Javascript redirect.

jQuery redirect does not return 301 permanent redirect status code.

Replace old page with redirection code with the URL of the page you want to redirect to.

old-page.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
   // jQuery URL redirection
   $(document).ready( function() {
      url = "http://www.mydomain.com/new-page.html";
      $( location ).attr("href", url);
  });
</script>
</body>
</html>

See: jQuery redirection

 

HTML canonical link tag redirect

The canonical link does not redirect to the preffred URL, but it can be an alternative to URL redirection for websites that most of the traffic arrives from search engines.

HTML canonical link tag can be used when there are several pages with similar content and you want to tell the search engines which page you preffer to use in the search results.

Canonical link tag can link to the same domain and also cross-domain.

Add the canonical link tag to the old page to link to the new page.

Add the canonical link tag to the pages that you preffer not to get search engines traffic to link to the preffered page.

The canonical link tag should be added in the <head> section.

old-page.html:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.mydomain.com/new-page.html">

See: Canonical URL link

 

HTML frame redirect

In frame redirection the new-page.html file is viewed by an html frame.

This is not a real URL redirection.

Frame redirection is not search engines friendly and is not recommended.

old-page.html:

<!-- HTML frame redirection -->
<html>
<head>
    <title>Title of new page</title>
</head>
<frameset cols="100%">
    <frame src="http://www.mydomain.com/new-page.html">
    <noframes>
     <a href="http://www.mydomain.com/new-page.html">Link to new page</a>
    </noframes>
</frameset>
</html>

 

301 Redirect generator ►

 

See also

WEB DEVELOPMENT

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