Proper domain redirect (301 redirect)

[designer4life]

I know allot of people buy more than one domain. I also know allot of people just use the Domain forward feature on their cpanel or what not. So that is why I am writing this. There is a proper way to redirect your domain so that it doesn't lose any Page Ranking or back links that it has. This is also a way to stay on googles good side.

So here is what you do, it is very simple:

Create a new notepad document. Then copy and paste this into it:

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

Now REPLACE domain with your actual domain name. The one you are wanting to redirect to.

Note* This .htaccess method of redirection works ONLY on Linux servers having the Apache Mod-Rewrite moduled enabled.

Now that you have this pasted in your notepad document and made the change needed, you can now just click on save as and name your file this:

.htaccess

The . HAS to be in the name for this to work. Now just upload the new .htaccess file to your main root directory of your site and you now have a 301 redirect done and you won't lose any points from google for it either.

Any questions please ask.

[Brighteyes]

I had no idea that I could be penalized by google for forwarding the other domains to my main site, instead of doing the 301 redirect.

I'm implementing these today. Thank you for a most helpful tutorial designer!

[Xhris07]

Yes I never use anything other than a 301 redirect. Great tut.