Redirect an Old Domain to your New Website

How to instructions using a 301 redirect and mod_rewrite

Simply enter the following code into your .htaccess file (changing the addresses in the examples below as needed) and save the changes. If there are several individual pages which have moved, just repeat as neccesary. Not sure how to access or change or .htaccess file. Read our .htaccess guide here.

 

Method 1:

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^olddomain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://newdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301]

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

 


Method 2:

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} \olddomain.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]


Method 3:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]


Method 4:

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


Benefits of redirecting traffic from your old domain

  • Don't lose website traffic! Ensure all visitors coming through to your old domain are instantly redirected through to your new address, rather than being presented with a an ugly error 404 which destroys trust in your website and perceived credibility. This means that customers who have already bookmarked your site, or memorised your web address can continue to have access seamlessly. Still have business cards or publications advertising your old website address or domain? This is not an issue with a properly setup 301 redirect.
  • Keep the Google bot happy! When a website or domain returns an error 404 (page not found) this tells Google that your website no longer resides at this address, and Google therefore promptly removes all of your web listings from it's search engine index, meaning all your SEO efforts to raise search engine ranks will have been wasted. Instead, by properly setting up a 301 redirect for your domain name, this tells Google (and other search engines) that your website has changed address, and Google then therefore updates it's index to reflect this change of address (while preserving your rankings). Also very important to note, is that Google then recognises all inbound links pointing through to your old website and attributes these 'votes' towards your new website, transferring almost all of your Google Pagerank and other signals accross to your new site, and assisting in preserving your sites reputation.