HTML Redirects
Cary, NC – Today, we’re going to nerd-out with a post about how to redirect an html page.
WHY REDIRECT
Sometimes, you need to change the home page address (url) of a domain.
For example, we built a new site for our client Julie Roland. Previously, her home page had been http://julierolandrealtor.com/index.html.
For her new site, we went with an all-WordPress installation. That changed her home page address to index.php.
The problem is with legacy links – people who have the old address (index.html) end up at a 404 (page not found).
THE SOLUTION
Fortunately, the solution is simple.
- Create a new page called index.html
- Add this code between <head> and </head>: <meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0; url=http://your-new-home-page.com/”>
- Upload to the root (top level) on your server
Bear in mind, if you already have a file called index.html, this will over-write it, so be careful.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF A REDIRECT
We also used the redirect trick to send traffic from Julie’s old blog to her new site.
- Old blog address: http://julierolandrealtor.com/wordpress/
- New blog address: http://julierolandrealtor.com/
For this instance, we created a directory called ‘wordpress’ and upload our index.html redirect file into it. So, when people go to the old address, they get instantly redirected to the current home page.
Click on the old blog address up above and see for yourself.
SUMMARY
Html Redirects can help your existing audience find you if you have changed the address of your website.