301 redirect code on windows servers?

**adp** · 02-07-2008, 11:25 AM

we launched a new site and I want to properly redirect the pages on the old version of the site which are indexed in the SE's over to the cooresponding pages on the new site. most of these pages are .htm pages (some are .asp). Here is what I was doing:

I would simply delete the info on the page and replace it with this code:

<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently"
Response.AddHeader "Location", "http://www.adproductsco.com/productc...idCategory=530"
%>

and then upload the page to the server. When I visited the old page I expected it to re-direct over to the new site but it just comes up blank. I feel like this should be a simple task but it is proving to be more frustrating than anything.

I would appreciate any advise!

**ADAM Web Design** · 02-07-2008, 11:31 AM

Good question, dude.

1) Add Response.End under the Response.AddHeader line. If you don't, Googlebot will throw an error.

2) ASP code won't work on HTML pages no matter what you do. You not only have to delete the info, you'll have to delete the page as well and use a custom 404 to perform your redirects. Make sure you use the 301 code that you've got though (plus the Response.End line) and not the Response.Redirect (as Response.Redirect will generate a 302 status code).

To simplify this a bit:

Delete all HTML pages.
Install custom 404 on your site. Note: you will need either access to your server or a host that will set up custom 404 pages for you. You can't just upload them and expect them to work. They don't. (I've made that mistake before, 8 years ago.)
Have custom 404 examine old URL (http://www.your-domain.com/your-old-url.html) and have it go to new URL (http://www.your-domain.com/new-produ...oductID=123456).

That's about the simplest I can make this for you. Good luck!

**adp** · 02-07-2008, 11:37 AM

thanks for the info... can you give me some ideas on how to:

Have custom 404 examine old URL (http://www.your-domain.com/your-old-url.html) and have it go to new URL (http://www.your-domain.com/new-produ...oductID=123456).

**ADAM Web Design** · 02-07-2008, 12:19 PM

The code is more or less on the custom 404 page I linked to. All you have to do is apply it to your specific situation and adjust the Response.Redirect lines to reflect the 301 code you have above.

How you do that...well...there are about a million different ways, and it really depends on what you're ultimately trying to accomplish in detail. That's not really something I can answer.