301 redirect through registrar?

[terrybarnes]

I have a domain with [a hosting company] and I would like it to have a 301 redirect to point to my main website - I basically have a website with a number in the address so I have purchase both domain with 3 and THREE in the title.

Is it possible to set up a 301 redirect with the registrar or will I have to purchase webspace and then do it?

[edited by: phranque at 6:35 am (utc) on Mar. 13, 2009]
[edit reason] hosting specifics [/edit]

[kaled]

My Registrar allows several types of redirect (301,302 and framed) and also forwards emails.

I checked your registrar, and they seem to offer similar features.

Kaled.

[terrybarnes]

The only thing I can see in their control panel is a "http redirect" - is that the same as a 301 redirect?

[kaled]

An "http" redirect sounds like a 301 or 302, but you would have to check. Probably the quickest way to find out would be to set it up and then use an http header checker to verify it.

If you google [keyword specifics deleted] you will find the checker I use but there are others out there and doubtless Firefox extensions that will do the job too. Just remember that you don't want to auto-follow the redirect (because that's what you're checking).

Kaled.

[edited by: phranque at 6:42 am (utc) on Mar. 13, 2009]
[edit reason] keyword specifics [/edit]

[phranque]

Live HTTP Headers :: Firefox Add-ons:
[addons.mozilla.org...]

[terrybarnes]

Apologies for taking ages getting back about this but my registrar were messing around with the redirect and finally today it works. I've checked on one of the Check Server Header Tools Websites and I receive the following:

1. 302 Found
2. 301 Moved Permanently
3. 200 OK

So I'm presuming this means that the HTTP redirect is, indeed, a 301 redirect.

Thanks for your help with this.

[phranque]

that is a temporary redirect followed by a permanent redirect.
probably not what you want.

i'm guessing you are trying to redirect example3.com to examplethree.com.
the first redirect probably says you have temporarily moved http://example3.com/ to http://examplethree.com/ and then maybe the second redirect is to permanently move to the home page such as http://examplethree.com/index.html.

you should instead make the first redirect a 301 (permanent) from http://example3.com/ to your canonical home page which would be http://examplethree.com/index.html in this example.
perhaps there is a check box in the control panel to make the redirect permanent.

this part is beyond your original question:
even better in general would be to make your canonical home page the root directory of your domain (http://examplethree.com/) and specify index.html (or whatever your home page is) as the default document for your root directory.
then all your inbound home page links should point to http://examplethree.com/.
however if you already have a large number of inbound links to http://examplethree.com/index.html you might consider keeping that as your canonical home page url.

[phranque]

i forgot to mention that you should also canonicalize your domain - for example you may be using the www. prefix.
you should make sure all of the following get permanently redirected to your canonical home page url:
example3.com
examplethree.com
www.example3.com
www.examplethree.com

[terrybarnes]

Okay, I've been in touch with [my registrar] and they informed me that I can't do a permanent 301 if I only have the domain registered with them - I would basically need webspace and then do a permanent redirect with the htaccess file.

[edited by: phranque at 10:50 pm (utc) on Mar. 16, 2009]
[edit reason] hosting specifics [/edit]

[phranque]

in that case you should log into your account with [your registrar] and address all requests for that domain to where you do have a web hosting account.
both domains should now be pointing to the same web server.
then do the 301 redirect from that web server to the canonical domain at the same server.

[terrybarnes]

Please forgive me here but I'm slightly confused as to how I direct the one domain to the other hosting account. At the moment for the main domain I've pointed to my webspace by change the name servers to that specified by my hosting company - but I can't do that with the other domain because it'll need it's own separate hosting account?!

[g1smd]

Point all the domains at one server and add one set of redirects there so that any request for any of the wrong domains is redirected to the correct one.

Make sure you fix all non-www and www issues for all domains. The redirect should preserve the path part of the URL, and any parameters.

Any redirects must get you from URL A to URL B in just one hop. You must avoid any and all redirection chains. The redirect needs to be a single 301 redirect.

You generally do not need separate hosting for each domain, unless your host is being very restrictive.

[terrybarnes]

Thanks for helping but I don't know how I can point both of my domains to one server without having two sets of webspace on that server? I have example.com as my main domain and so the one for which I have webspace. I have specified the webhosts name servers for that domain so everything points correctly.

I then have example.co.uk but if I use the same name servers and type the domain into my browser there's no record of that domain - I'm presuming it's because I don't have webspace set up for that domain with those web hosts.

I'm very confused?!

[terrybarnes]

Okay, I'm still a bit confused with this seemingly simple problem. I have two domain names example.co.uk and example.com that I need to point to one webspace. The .com is the main domain name and therefore I need to set up a 301 on the .co.uk domain.

If I can work out how to point them both to the same webspace then I can simple set up the 301 in the .htaccess file.

[terrybarnes]

I'm a little bit closer to resolving this... I think!

Basically I've gone into the cPanel of my webspace and set up a parked domain for which I've entered my second domain.

Is this suitable? How do I now set up the 301 redirect for this parked domain?