SEOMike - 6:18 pm on Feb 10, 2011 (gmt 0)

A client is changing URLs and redesigning their site. Their current site has awful query strings which dynamically build every page. (ie. index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=XX&Itemid=YY) Redirecting these pages will be a pain, but I can handle that.

My real question is how do I redirect index.php (the main page of the site with inbound links) to index.htm while ignoring index.php with a query string attached? My limited understanding of this has me thinking that anytime the redirect sees index.php in any form (with or without the query string) it'll redirect to index.php's target (the new homepage).

I'm worried it'll work like this:

301 redirect index.php -> index.htm

301 redirect index.php?awful_QS -> index.htm


I need it to work like this:

301 redirect index.php -> index.htm

301 redirect index.php?awful_QS -> matching_new_page.htm