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    • 37272
    • 216 Posts
    Hi,

    I’ve been having some problems with getting my home page rated well with Google etc. I’ve rewritten (improved) my home page, and wondered why it wasn’t being updated with Google. I have now found that, for some reason, I have listed with Google mysite.com/home as well as mysite.com (this is bad for ranking, as I have the same content listed with two different URLs). ’home’ (id 1) is set as my site start page. I’ve tried setting a redirct in the site root .htaccess file, but cannot get it to work.

    Here’s a copy of my .htaccess file:

    # MODx supports Friendly URLs via this .htaccess file. You must serve web
    # pages via Apache with mod_rewrite to use this functionality, and you must
    # change the file name from ht.access to .htaccess.
    #
    # Make sure RewriteBase points to the directory where you installed MODx.
    # E.g., "/modx" if your installation is in a "modx" subdirectory.
    #
    # You may choose to make your URLs non-case-sensitive by adding a NC directive
    # to your rule: RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA,NC]
    
    
    # Added redirct rules
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mysite\.com [nc]
    RewriteRule (.*) http://www.mysite.com/$1 [R=301,L]
    
    
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
    
    # Make sure .htc files are served with the proper MIME type, which is critical # for XP SP2. Un-comment if your host allows htaccess MIME type overrides.
    
    #AddType text/x-component .htc
    
    
    
    # If your server is not already configured as such, the following directive
    # should be uncommented in order to set PHP's register_globals option to OFF.
    # This closes a major security hole that is abused by most XSS (cross-site
    # scripting) attacks. For more information: http://php.net/register_globals
    #
    # To verify that this option has been set to OFF, open the Manager and choose
    # Reports -> System Info and then click the phpinfo() link. Do a Find on Page
    # for "register_globals". The Local Value should be OFF. If the Master Value
    # is OFF then you do not need this directive here.
    #
    # IF REGISTER_GLOBALS DIRECTIVE CAUSES 500 INTERNAL SERVER ERRORS :
    #
    # Your server does not allow PHP directives to be set via .htaccess. In that
    # case you must make this change in your php.ini file instead. If you are
    # using a commercial web host, contact the administrators for assistance in
    # doing this. Not all servers allow local php.ini files, and they should
    # include all PHP configurations (not just this one), or you will effectively
    # reset everything to PHP defaults. Consult www.php.net for more detailed
    # information about setting PHP directives.
    
    # php_flag register_globals Off
    
    
    
    # For servers that support output compression, you should pick up a bit of
    # speed but uncommenting the following lines.
    
    #php_flag zlib.output_compression On
    #php_value zlib.output_compression_level 5
    
    
    
    # The following directives stop screen flicker in IE on CSS rollovers. If
    # needed, un-comment the following rules. When they're in place, you may have
    # to do a force-refresh in order to see changes in your designs.
    
    #ExpiresActive On
    #ExpiresByType image/gif A2592000
    #ExpiresByType image/jpeg A2592000
    #ExpiresByType image/png A2592000
    #BrowserMatch "MSIE" brokenvary=1
    #BrowserMatch "Mozilla/4.[0-9]{2}" brokenvary=1
    #BrowserMatch "Opera" !brokenvary
    #SetEnvIf brokenvary 1 force-no-vary


    I need a 301 redirect; how would I write it, and where would I place it in the .htaccess file? Everything I’ve tried either doesn’t work, or causes a 500 error.

    Thanks.
      • 37272
      • 216 Posts
      I’ve installed the SEO Strict URLs plugin, and it does the job. However, I’m uncertain if this is the best solution. Will Google interpret this a permanent redirect? This is important because at the moment Google has indexed the latest version of my homepage as mysite.com/home. It also lists mysite.com, and I will be penalised for this. I really need my new optimised home page to work for me, but google continues with the old version because of the ’/home’ page. I expect this will not change without a 301.
        • 33372
        • 1,611 Posts
        The SEO Strict URLs plugin sends 301 redirects in exactly those circumstances, so that should help Google sort its links out.
          "Things are not what they appear to be; nor are they otherwise." - Buddha

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          • 37272
          • 216 Posts
          Ah, that’s great. Just what I needed then.

          Thanks.