Knowledgebase

How do I Redirect my site using a (dot) htaccess file ?

This document will explain how to create a .htaccess file to redirect your site or site content. This will not redirect any emails for your domains.

As a configuration file, .htaccess is very powerful. Even the slightest syntax error (like a missing space) can result in your content not displaying correctly or at all. Since .htaccess is a hidden system file, please make sure your FTP client is configured to show hidden files. This is usually an option in the program’s preferences/options.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Create an empty text file using a text editor such as notepad, and save it as htaccess.txt.

2. Edit the contents of the file. Check the following examples:

     301 (Permanent) Redirect: Point an entire site to a different URL on a permanent basis. This is the most common type of redirect and is useful in most situations. In this example, we are redirecting to the “hostitsmart- example.com” domain:

                 # This allows you to redirect your entire website to any other domain

                 Redirect 301 / http://hostitsmart-example.com/

     302 (Temporary) Redirect: Point an entire site to a different temporary URL. This is useful for SEO purposes when you have a temporary landing page and plan to switch back to your main landing page at a later date:

                 # This allows you to redirect your entire website to any other domain

                 Redirect 302 / http://hostitsmart-example.com/

     Redirect index.html to a specific subfolder:

                 # This allows you to redirect index.html to a specific subfolder

                 Redirect /index.html http://example.com/newdirectory/

     Redirect an old file to a new file path:

                 # Redirect old file path to new file path

                Redirect /olddirectory/oldfile.html http://example.com/newdirectory/newfile.html
     Redirect to a specific index page:

                # Provide Specific Index Page (Set the default handler)

                DirectoryIndex index.html

3. Upload this file and re-name it to .htaccess.