Create an empty text file using a text editor such as notepad, and save it as htaccess.txt.
NOTE: The reason you should save the file as htaccess.txt is because many operating systems and FTP applications are unable to read or view .htaccess files by default. Once uploaded to the server you can rename the file to .htaccess.
301 (Permanent) Redirect:
Use a 301 redirect .htaccess to point an entire site to a different URL on a permanent basis. This is the most common type of redirect and is useful in most situations. In this example, we are redirecting to the "itsite.org" domain.
When adding the following to your website's .htaccess file, be sure to replace itsite.org with your own domain name.
# This allows you to redirect your entire website to any other domain Redirect 301 / http://itsite.org/
302 (Temporary) Redirect:
Point an entire site to a different temporary URL. This is useful for SEO purposes when you have a temporary landing page and plan to switch back to your main landing page at a later date:
# This allows you to redirect your entire website to any other domain Redirect 302 / http://itsite.org/
Redirect index.html to a specific subfolder:
# This allows you to redirect index.html to a specific subfolder Redirect /index.html http://itsite.org/newdirectory/
Redirect an old directory to a new directory:
# Redirects itsite.org/old to itsite.org/new RewriteRule ^old/(.*)$ /new/$1 [R=301,NC,L]
Redirect to a subfolder with URL masking:
# Show the content in itsite.org/folder2, but the URL appears as itsite.org/folder1 RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^folder1/?$ /folder2/
# To show the URL as just itsite.org RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^/?$ /folder2/
Redirect a non-existing page to index.php
Instead of prompting a 404 Not Found error page, the site will redirect to the homepage:
# Redirect non-existing pages to index.php Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
Redirect an old file to a new file path:
# Redirect old file path to new file path Redirect /olddirectory/oldfile.html http://itsite.org/newdirectory/newfile.html
Redirect to a specific index page:
# Provide Specific Index Page (Set the default handler) DirectoryIndex index.html
redirect non www to www:
RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^itsite.org [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.itsite.org/$1 [L,R=301]
redirect www to non www:
RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.itsite.org [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://itsite.org/$1 [L,R=301]
Redirect an error message:
Instead of prompting a 404 Not Found error page, the site will redirect to the homepage:
# Redirect 404 Error pages to the home page ErrorDocument 404 http://itsite.org/