Recently I have made good use of the Apache .htaccess file to redirect and rewrite URL’s to keep visitors from getting page not found errors. Moving three domains, creating a subdomain or two, and then moving things around again, has created ample opportunity for lost visitors.
There are lots and lots of pages in the Google search results for “.htaccess,” so here are my notes, all in one place, for your reading pleasure.
Redirect visitors from an old site to a new site
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !www.newsite.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.newsite.com/$1 [L,R=301]Redirect visitors using .html links to .php links
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !newdomain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ http://newdomain.com/$1\.php [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.php$ http://newdomain.com/$1\.php [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://newdomain.com/ [L,R=301]