internal rewrite with redirection?

[scorpion]

What does it mean if you internally rewrite a URL and put [R=301] at the end of it? Does it make any sense since you are not forcing an external 'http://' call so what is the meaning of a redirection in that case?

I have an old site domain that has to be redirected to a new domain name on a NEW server, but I also have the option to move the old domain to the new server and do an internal redirect.

Any ideas how this impacts SE?

[wilderness]

scorpion
Hopefully I'm not to far off base here?
I'm assuming the comparison you present between internal (server side-htaccess) and external (html page based) is what your looking for.

The SE's will automatically pick up on the internal/server side redirects.

Html redirects are not a good idea. Especially to SE's. There use to be a rule of thumb acceptable to SE's of 10 second dealys before the redirect. Although I tried this initally before beginning with htaccess, I don't reall the SE impact.

[scorpion]

i'm talking about the difference between

this:

1. rewrite sitea.com /siteb/ [R=301]

and

2. rewrite sitea.com [siteb.com...] [R=301]

and even

3. redirect 301 sitea.com [siteb.com...]

[jdMorgan]

scorpion,

Case 1 is not "correct usage according to the book." If I get some time, I'll test it using the Server Headers checker [webmasterworld.com] and post.

Case 2 is an external rewrite, visible to search engines.

Case 3 is an external rewrite as above, but using mod_alias.

Either way you go with your two domains, it's a good idea to use a 301. Otherwise, you run the risk of problems due to duplicate content on multiple domains, and search engines getting confused as to which of the two domains gets listed or which pages get the PR.

Jim

[incywincy]

could i please ask a related question?

i'm having all sorts of problems with google indexing both www.mysite.com and mysite.com. i recently converted my site from static to dynamic and have used mod rewrite, i suspect that maybe i have brought this problem on myself.

is there a way of forcong a rewrite from mysite.com to www.mysite.com?

my serps have suffered a bit because of this!

thanks

[scorpion]

not sure but this might require an external rewrite because you'd have to say something like rewrite *domain.com to [domain.com...]

Maybe someone else knows?

[jdMorgan]

incywincy,

From a quick WebmasterWorld site search:

[webmasterworld.com...]

HTH,
Jim

[incywincy]

hi jim,

thank you very much, i appreciate it. it works a treat.

i didn't even try to search the site because i couldn't think of which search terms to use.