Directing deleted pages to valid pages

[Brewhaus]

We just realized that there are a large number of pages that no long exist (discontinued products, general layout changes, etc.) that still have outside links to them. Because the pages no longer exist we lose traffic, and possibly just as importantly, we lose credit for the links by the search engines. However, I have not been able to figure out how to redirect some of these pages from within AbleCommerce. For example:

http://
www.
hotsaucedepot.
com/Ass-Kickin-Cool-Ranch-Almonds-35oz-P255.aspx

no longer exists, so we would like to redirect it to the category that it was under

(http://
www.
hotsaucedepot.
com/Southwest-Specialty-Foods-C32.aspx).

Can this be done from within AC?

Also, I have heard that it is best to have everything point to one version of the site

(http://
hotsaucedepot.
com
and
http://
www.
hotsaucedepot.
com

are considered different, so for ranking purposes one should automatically redirect to the other). Can anyone comment on this, either to it being true or not?

[Katie]

Yes, we've had redirect features in the software for awhile now. Within the Configure > SEO menu. The feature varies depending on your version of IIS.

Fixed Redirect: http://help.ablecommerce.com/mergedProj ... irects.htm
Dynamic Redirect: http://help.ablecommerce.com/mergedProj ... irects.htm

[Brewhaus]

Hi Katie,

Merry Christmas!

I have a number or redirects in AC, but have been unable to get some of them to work. I will post as "code" so that the forum does not hide part of the URL needing to be redirected:

Code: Select all

http://www.hotsaucedepot.com/Ass-Kickin-Cool-Ranch-Almonds-35oz-P255.aspx
needs to be redirected to
http://www.hotsaucedepot.com/Southwest-Specialty-Foods-C32.aspx

 
http://www.brewhaus.com/Distillers_and_Parts_s/3.htm
needs to be redirected to
http://www.brewhaus.com/Distillers-and-Parts-C96.aspx

How do we enter these into AC's redirect? I have tried a number of different ways, and cannot get any of them to work. Between the two sites we have over 600 404 errors, and we would like to redirect them all to remove the 404 errors, gain the recognition for these inbound links, and capture the customers that are following the inbound links.

[Katie]

Hi Rick,

Thank you, and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well.

I have tried a number of different ways, and cannot get any of them to work.

Can you tell me what you have tried so far, for example, list exactly what was entered and where?

Thanks!
Katie

[Brewhaus]

Katie,

I removed the attempts when they did not work (if they were not working then I did not want them either using any CPU horsepower or potentially causing an issue elsewhere). But, if memory serves, on the Brewhaus redirect I tried (in both fixed and dynamic redirects, at separate times, of course):

Code: Select all

From:
3.htm
Distillers_and_Parts_s/3.htm
Distillers_and_Parts_s*
http://www.brewhaus.com/Distillers_and_Parts_s/3.htm

To:
http://www.brewhaus.com
http://www.brewhaus.com/Distillers-and-Parts-C96.aspx
Distillers-and-Parts-C96.aspx

I tried similar things with the HSD redirects. None worked, however, all of our other redirects do work. For example:

Code: Select all

From:
Distillers-and-Parts 

To:
http://www.brewhaus.com/Distillers-and-Parts 

After splitting our websites to the normal independent DBs (instead of running both sites from one DB) we removed all Brewhaus items from the HSD website, so we needed to forward all requests for those items or categories on www.hotsaucedepot.com to the appropriate page on www.brewhaus.com. That is what the example shows, and those work fine, BUT, any category or product ID reference will be the same on Brewhaus, so if the request is to www.hotsaucedepot.com/Distillers-and-Parts-C96.aspx, then it will redirect to http://www.brewhaus.com/Distillers-and- ... s-C96.aspx.

[Katie]

AbleCommerce only supports page to page redirects within the same installation. You might try googling "IIS Redirects" for some alternative solutions.

[Brewhaus]

I gave up on figuring out how to enter the redirects in AC, but found that IIS 7+ has an URL rewriter add-on, and that seems to work. It does require you to manually enter every redirect, though.