Redirect old link to new

[Guest]

I recently reconstructed my site and need some assistance. I currently have
many webpages that are listed in search engines as
http://www.mysite.com/states/whateverstate/whateverpage.html

I created subwebs for each state. Thus elimatinating the need for the
'states' folder. I have searched the net and have found that I need to create
a redirect. I also read that the change needs to take place in the .htaccess
file at the root.

Will this effect my frontpage ext. already in place?
Do I need to create a redirect for EACH SPECIFIC page ie -

http://www.mysite.com/states/whateverstate/whateverpage.html to
http://www.mysite.com/whateverstate/whateverpage.html

http://www.mysite.com/states/whateverstate/whateverpage2.html
http://www.mysite.com/whateverstate/whateverpage2.html etc.

There were nearly 300 pages in the 'states' folder.
What is the exact syntax I need to use?

Thank you,
Jack

 

[Steve Easton]

I would create a custom error page with a notice that you are reorganizing and to please
click a link to the home page, find the new page and reset bookmarks.



--
Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
95isalive
This site is best viewed..................
...............................with a computer
'

 

[Guest]

Steve,
I am not worried about 'users' reseting their links. I want to redirect for
the search engines from the old to new page. I want to eliminate the 404
errors.

 

[Steve Easton]

The search engines don't need a "redirect," nor iirc, will they follow it.
They will automatically follow the new links when they reindex the site.

--
Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
95isalive
This site is best viewed..................
...............................with a computer

 

[Murray]

They do need a redirect. And they need some header info about why the
redirect is happening.

Investigate ISAPIRewrite as a way of doing this. I have rebuilt several
sites, and used this to rewrite the URLs before they ever get to the search
engine, along with a 300/301 header specifying "permanently moved", which
will cause the SE's to rewrite the index.