In this second installment of our technical tips series, eSeller scribe Paul Skeldon reveals how mod_rewrite and 301 redirects can make Google love you.
Read On:
Advanced website restructuring tips
Structuring your website for SEO
Constructing your website for Google spiders
Using mod_rewrite to rewrite URLs
The mod_rewrite module of the Apache Web server gives you the power to rewrite poorly formed URL s on the fly as well as manipulate the appearance or any file name you choose. There are tools available to simplify the complex parts.
Use mod_rewrite to easily and noninvasively restructure the URL to look like www.example.com/pets/dogs/fod.
Activate mod_rewrite by adding the text RewriteEngineOn to your Web root directory’s .htacess file. The mod_rewrite module is not present on all server, so be sure to contact your Web hosting administrator to make sure that it is installed or ask if an alternative solution is available.
Tip: Mod_rewrite can be very complex and difficult to use if you are not a skilled Web programmer. And excellent, free tool can be found at www.mod-rewrite-wizard.com. You also have the option to add any relevant keywords as a prefix or suffix.
Redirect non-WWW traffic to WWW
You may be amazed to learn that some search engines see the example.com and www.example.com variations of your domain name as two totally separate Web sites. This is called a www/non-www canonical issue because there is confusion as to which version is standard.
It is important to set up your server to redirect all traffic to one variation to prevent any confusion by the search engines.
Fortunately, you can easily address this problem by adding a small amount of code to your Web root directory’s .htaccess file to set up a 301 redirect from example.com to www.example.com or vice versa. A 301 redirect is also known as a permanent redirect.
301 redirects are the preferred method of redirection because Google attempts to pass all the ranking influences to the new destination.
Tip: You should always set up the 301 redirect discussed in this task, and you may be curious to see if you have a large canonical issue with your www/non-www domain entries.
To check, visit www.google.com and type site:newdomain.com into the search bar. Replace newdomain.com with your domain name.
Also take a note of the total number of pages indexed in the upper-right corner of the search results. Next, type site:www.newdomain.com into the search bar. If the results differ dramatically from the results of the previous query, you probably have a canonical issue.
Redirect with 301 Redirects
301 redirects provide you with the means to tell the search engines that not only have you moved your site, but you want all your rankings to move with it. This is a very important and often overlooked issue.
Unfortunately, search engines are not necessarily friendly when you make Web site changes. You can set up a 301 redirect to accomplish this task, and both search-engine spiders and Web browsers automatically redirect to the new location.
For search-engine optimization purposes, this also preserves most if not all of your search-engine ranking factors.
If you want to move your entire Web site from one domain to another, a 301 redirect is your best bet to keep your current search-engine rankings.
Do not be alarmed if your redirect is not reflected immediately. Also, keep in mind that any changes you make to your Web site can negatively or positively influence your search-engine rankings.
Tip: Do not expect the search engines to understand your intentions. When you remove pages that are not longer necessary for your site, consider adding a 301 redirect for those pages back to your site’s home page.
Otherwise, if you remove the pages and the search-engine spiders continue to crawl the missing pages, they may penalize your entire site despite the deletions being intentional.
If you own the .com, .net, .org, or other extension of your domain name, you can use 301 redirects to automatically force all .net and .org visitors to redirect to the .com extension or whatever extension you choose. 301 redirects can be used to automatically redirect any misspelled traffic to your actual domain name.
Speak Your Mind