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301 Redirect GoDaddy

Do you want to 301 redirect mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com in order to prevent canonical problems with the search engines? It is possible to 301 redirect GoDaddy hosting, but at the time of this post, GoDaddy help files do not clearly explain how to get this done if your domain is not registered with GoDaddy, but you are still using them for hosting.

301 Redirect for Linux Hosting

If you have Linux hosting, GoDaddy help files say that they support .htaccess. To make your .htaccess file, open Notepad and copy / paste the following code:

RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^mydomain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

Replace mydomain.com with the domain name that you want to redirect. Then you need to save your file:
file >> save as >> .htaccess
When you save your file, choose save as type “All Files” from the drop down menu at the bottom in Notepad. This prevents Notepad from turning your .htaccess file into a text file. Finally, using an ftp client, upload your .htaccess file onto the server where your homepage is located. Test your website to make sure that it is working.

Windows 7 Server Hosting

If your GoDaddy hosting is on Windows 7 Server, GoDaddy supports a web.config file for permanent 301 redirect. To get your redirect working, paste the following code onto Notepad:

<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
    <rewrite>
      <rules>
        <rule name="Redirect to WWW" stopProcessing="true">
          <match url=".*" />
          <conditions>
            <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^mydomain.com$" />
          </conditions>
          <action type="Redirect" url="http://www.mydomain.com/{R:0}"
               redirectType="Permanent" />
        </rule>
      </rules>
    </rewrite>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Then replace mydomain.com with the domain name that you would like to redirect. Next, you need to save your file:
file >> save as >> web.config
Choose save as type “All Files” from the drop down menu at the bottom in Notepad. Upload the web.config file onto the server where your homepage is located using an ftp client.

If this doesn’t work for you, call a GoDaddy representative and ask about the type of hosting that you have. The exact code that your server supports may be slightly different.

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12 responses to “301 Redirect GoDaddy”

  1. Troy says:

    After DAYS of searching finally success think you so much for clear instructions!!!!!

  2. Albert says:

    wow thanks to this tutorial! finally I’ve got the answer for my question! I’ll try so many methods but I fail when I go to this site Im so very thankful! nice and clear intructions! Keep it UP! 🙂

    • Albert says:

      oppss I have another concern how about on how to block access by ip address for specific country like Philippines ip only? hehehe… thanks in advance! 😀

  3. Monique says:

    I too have been searching and searching. We are moving our site from a template-driven provider. Our domain will remain the sames, but all of our other page names will change from very search engine unfriendly names to clear, simple names. We have very high organic rankings, so you can only imagine the ulcer I am developing. Can you tell me how to use web.config (I need to run on a windows server…. it does support web.config…. it is shared hosting so I cannot configure server) to redirect aspx files with parameter?
    ex. REDIRECT
    http://www.realestate-bigbear.com/PageManager/Default.aspx/PageID=2020765
    TO http:www.realestate-bigbear.com/search.html

    or this one (note the ?) … REDIRECT
    http://www.realestate-bigbear.com/PageManager/Default.aspx?PageID=2076184
    TO http://realestate-bigbear.com/watch/market-research.html

    Many many thanks in advance for any help you can give.

  4. Monique says:

    Thanks for the info. I have been to that page before… but am still not clear on how to do this with those PageIDs trailing the aspx .

  5. Joseph Andrews says:

    I am most grateful to you guys for you clear answer to my needs. For several years I have been struggling with my canonical issues and thanks to you now I have redirected my websites hosted on a Godaddy.com Windows 7 server hosting. theworkofgod.org to http://www.theworkofgod.org.
    adminvehicles.com to http://www.adminvehicles.com
    administraciontaxis.com to http://www.administraciontaxis.com
    Thank you for your precise information.

  6. Gazi Shaheen says:

    Very useful post, Worked for me!
    Thanks

  7. Joginder Pal says:

    I have follow the above instructions but it does not follow. It stop my site working and show error that website has redirect loop

  8. stu haynes says:

    After owning my site for more than 5 years I’m still a newbie. After all this time I found out a couple of days ago that I had a homepage ‘double’, without the http://www., just http://domain.com. I was confused by this, but did learn that my page rank could be affected. Your method of redirecting is easy enough that even I was able to implement it. Now, if I type http://domain.com it brings up http://www.domain.com. All other options were too complex for me, so thanks very much for this incredibly useful article.

  9. stu haynes says:

    Just a follow up. I have shared hosting so tried to add the code to a 2nd domain that has the same problem. This immediately created a ‘5000’ internal error in Godaddy. Can this code only be used once in a shared hosting account? Many thanks

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