.htaccess Mod_rewrite

[Neosoph]

How would I write a .htaccess file that would rewrite this link:

http://www.ipsbeyond.com/forums/index.php

into this link:

http://www.ipsbeyond.com/forums/

Also, does that affect SEO in any way? I read something from google about mod_rewrite making it harder for search engines to index your site.

Thanks,
Aaron

[Neosoph]

Wow I would have thought someone knew .htaccess. :huh:

Guess I will submit a ticket.

[bfarber]

We don't support this, don't submit a ticket. ;)

Unfortunately I'm not all that familiar with htaccess syntax. But is there any specific reason why you want to do this? Doesn't seem to accomplish anything if you ask me, except for a ton of redirection without any real benefit.

[Neosoph]

Haha no reason at all, I just want to have my URL's look like this:

http://www.ipsbeyond.com/forums/

instead of having .php endings like this:

http://www.ipsbeyond.com/forums/index.php

but that apparently can be way more tricky than it seems.

[Dr. Adam]

Its better for seo to have an ending like html or php to a file.

[.Timmy]

If you're looking for good SEO software, I recommend CommunitySEO.

http://www.communityseo.com/ipb_seo.htm

[Axel Wers]

I have another (but similar problem).

Example:

Few months ago I created sitemap, file was named sitemap.xml
After 2-3 weeks I deleted it, and my new sitemap was named sitemap_second.xml

But sometimes in error log I see this:

[Tue Aug 28 02:26:18 2007] [error] [client 66.249.72.230] File does not exist: /host/mydomain.com/root/sitemap.xml

IP 66.249.72.230 refers to Google bot. Google bot of course found my new sitemap_second.xml, but sometimes it's looking for old sitemap (the same Yahoo).

I need all bots redirect from sitemap.xml to sitemap_second.xml. How?

[bfarber]

As before you can do this with .htaccess, I just don't know the syntax. :P

[Axel Wers]

What syntax? I am pretty unfamiliar with mod_rewrite, I need fix this because Google and Yahoo bots are stupid and there is lot of bad entries in my server error log :D

[bfarber]

Searched Google - first link gives the answers for both questions.

To redirect example.com/index.php to example.com/

RewriteEngine on # index.php to / RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3, 9}\ /.*index\.php\ HTTP/ RewriteRule ^(.*)index\.php$ /$1 [R=301,L]

Options +FollowSymLinks

To redirect old page to new page

Redirect 301 /sitemap.xml http://www.example.com/sitemap_second.xml

(Remember to change www.example.com in the above example, and remember to test the rule afterwards!)


http://www.webweaver.nu/html-tips/web-redirection.shtml

[Axel Wers]

Searched Google - first link gives the answers for both questions.

To redirect old page to new page

Redirect 301 /sitemap.xml http://www.example.com/sitemap_second.xml

(Remember to change www.example.com in the above example, and remember to test the rule afterwards!) http://www.webweaver.nu/html-tips/web-redirection.shtml

Thanks Brandon, it looks like so easy :D Before I tried

RewriteRule   ^sitemap.xml$  sitemap_second.xml [L,R=permanent]

but I got 500

Now it's solved.