Last Updated: May 24, 2020

How to apply 301 from one file to another file

Step 1: Add following code in your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
Redirect 301  /file1.html   https://www.mywebsite.com/file2.html

The above code will permanently redirect file1.html to file2.html. So whenever a search engine or a visitor will look for file1.html, he will automatically be redirected to file2.html.

Step 2: Replace ‘mywebsite’ by your website name and file1.html and file2.html by your file names.

Another example:

Redirect 301  /what-is-event.html  https://www.eventeducation.com/what-is-event.php

Note: If the following lines are already there in your .htaccess file, then don’t add them again:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On

Converting dynamic URLs into static looking SEO friendly URLs

How to redirect:
https://www.example.com/productdescription.php?keyval=25&keyval2=62
to
https://www.example.com/whiteboard-accessories.php

Add the following code in your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond   % {QUERY_STRING}   ^keyval\=25\&Keyval2\=62$ [nc]
RewriteRule   ^productdescription.php$  https://www.example.com/whiteboard-accessories.php? [r=301, l]

Note: You need to put a question mark (?) at the end of the substitution URL, otherwise query string will be appended at the end of the substitution URL.

How to redirect index.php to the root

Step 1: Add following code in your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*\/index\.phpl?
RewriteRule ^(.*)index\.php?$ https://www.mywebsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Step 2: Replace ‘mywebsite’ by your website name

How to redirect non-www to www using mod_rewrite module

Step 1: Add following code in your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond  %{http_host}  ^mywebsite.com [nc]
rewriterule  ^(.*)$  https://www.mywebsite.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

Step 2: Replace ‘mywebsite’ by your website name

How to create custom 404 page

Step 1: Create a web page which you want to display as your custom 404 page say custom404.php

Step 2:  Upload your webpage to the root directory.

Step 3:  Add the following code to your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
ErrorDocument  404  https://www.mywebsite.com/custom404.php

How to block an IP address from accessing your website

Add the following code in your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
Order  Deny, Allow
Deny from  61.16.153.67

If you want to block two or more IP addresses

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
Order  Deny, Allow
Deny from  61.16.153.67
Deny from  124.202.86.42

How to resolve the hotlinking Issue

Hotlinking means direct linking to your website file (images, videos, etc). By preventing hotlinking, you can save your server bandwidth.

Step 1: Add following code in your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://(.+\.)?mywebsite\.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule .*\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|bmp|png|swf)$ – [F]

Step 2: Replace ‘mywebsite’ by your website name.

Step 3: Use a hotlinking checker tool to find out whether your files (images, videos, etc ) can be hotlinked or not.

Note: Don’t copy the code from this blog post straight to your .htaccess file. First copy it to the text file to remove the formatting. Otherwise the code may not work.

Other posts you may find useful:

• Six valuable .htaccess tips
• Excel for SEO – Powerful Cheat Sheet to Boost Productivity
• How to do Site Speed Optimisation
• Ultimate Data Visualization Guide for SEO
• How to write an SEO Contract
• How to Automate Event Tracking in Google Analytics
• Social interactions tracking through Google Analytics
• Regular Expression Guide for SEOs
• SEO Contract | Sample SEO Contract Template
• Event Tracking – Google Analytics (Simplified Version)