Advanced HTACCESS Generator 2025

The key differences between 301 and 302 redirects are:

• 301 Permanent Redirect: Tells search engines and browsers that the URL has moved permanently to a new location. Search engines will transfer most of the SEO value from the old URL to the new URL, and will update their index to prefer the new URL.
• 302 Temporary Redirect: Indicates that the URL has moved temporarily to a new location. Search engines will keep the old URL in their index and will not transfer as much SEO value to the new URL.

For most website changes like site restructuring, URL changes, or domain migrations, 301 redirects are recommended to preserve SEO value. Use 302 redirects only for genuinely temporary situations, like site maintenance or A/B testing.

The .htaccess file should be placed in the root directory of your website (the public_html, www, or httpdocs folder). This allows the rules to apply to the entire website.

You can also place .htaccess files in subdirectories to apply rules only to that directory and its subdirectories. Rules in subdirectory .htaccess files override rules in parent directories.

Important notes:

• The file must be named exactly .htaccess (with the dot at the beginning and no file extension)
• The file should be in plain text format (ASCII or UTF-8 without BOM)
• Some hosting control panels have built-in tools to edit the .htaccess file
• If you're creating a new file, make sure your FTP client is set to show hidden files (files that start with a dot)

To redirect an entire website to a new domain while preserving paths and query strings, use this code in your .htaccess file on the old domain:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^olddomain\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.olddomain\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L,QSA]

This will redirect both the non-www and www versions of your old domain to the new domain, maintaining the same path structure and query parameters. For example:

• olddomain.com/page.html redirects to newdomain.com/page.html
• www.olddomain.com/products?id=123 redirects to newdomain.com/products?id=123

Use our "Domain Change" option in the tool to generate this code automatically.

Yes, you can redirect URLs with query parameters in two main ways:

1. Preserving query parameters: This passes all query parameters from the source URL to the destination URL. Use the QSA (Query String Append) flag with RewriteRule:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteRule ^products\.php$ /products/ [R=301,L,QSA]

   This would redirect /products.php?id=123&category=shoes to /products/?id=123&category=shoes

2. Handling specific query parameters: Use RewriteCond to check for specific parameters:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=123$
   RewriteRule ^products\.php$ /shoes/? [R=301,L]

   This would redirect /products.php?id=123 to /shoes/ (the question mark at the end of the destination URL removes the original query string)

In our tool, enable the "Preserve Query String" option to maintain query parameters in your redirects, or use the advanced query transformation options to customize how parameters are handled.

To redirect both www and non-www versions of a URL to the same destination, you need to use RewriteRules with conditions. Here are two common scenarios:

1. Redirect both versions to a specific destination:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [OR]
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com$
   RewriteRule ^old-page\.html$ https://example.com/new-page.html [R=301,L]

2. Standardize on www or non-www:

   To redirect non-www to www:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

   Or to redirect www to non-www:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com$
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

In our tool, check the "Include www/non-www Versions" option to generate rules that handle both versions of the URL.

RewriteRule flags modify how the rule behaves. Here are the most common flags:

• R=301: Perform a 301 (permanent) redirect
• R=302: Perform a 302 (temporary) redirect
• R=303: Perform a 303 (see other) redirect
• R=307: Perform a 307 (temporary) redirect that preserves the request method
• R=308: Perform a 308 (permanent) redirect that preserves the request method
• L: Last rule - stop processing rules if this one matches
• NC: No case - make the match case-insensitive
• QSA: Query string append - add the query string from the original URL to the redirected URL
• F: Forbidden - return a 403 Forbidden status
• G: Gone - return a 410 Gone status
• NE: No escape - don't escape special characters in the redirected URL
• PT: Pass through - pass the rewritten URL back to Apache for further processing

Multiple flags can be combined with commas: [R=301,L,QSA]

In our tool, you can specify custom flags in the "Rewrite Rule Options" section when using the "Rewrite Rule" redirect type.

To handle both versions of URLs (with and without trailing slashes), you have two approaches:

1. Redirect both versions to a specific destination:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteRule ^page$ /new-page.html [R=301,L]
   RewriteRule ^page/$ /new-page.html [R=301,L]

2. Standardize on one format:

   To redirect URLs without trailing slashes to versions with slashes:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteRule ^(.*[^/])$ /$1/ [R=301,L]

   Or to redirect URLs with trailing slashes to versions without slashes:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [R=301,L]

In our tool, check the "Include Trailing Slash Versions" option to generate rules that handle both versions of the URL.

If your redirects aren't working, try these troubleshooting steps:

1. Check server support: Make sure your server has mod_rewrite enabled. Ask your hosting provider if you're unsure.
2. Verify file permissions: The .htaccess file should be readable by the server (644 permissions).
3. Clear browser cache: Browsers cache redirects, so clear your browser cache or use private/incognito mode.
4. Check for syntax errors: Even small syntax errors can break the entire .htaccess file. Look for mismatched brackets, quotation marks, etc.
5. Ensure RewriteEngine is enabled: Add RewriteEngine On at the top of your rules.
6. Check rule order: More specific rules should come before more general rules.
7. Look at server logs: Apache error logs can provide helpful information about what's going wrong.
8. Test with curl: Use the curl command line tool with the -I or -v flag to see exactly what redirects are happening.

If you're still having issues, try creating a minimal .htaccess file with just one redirect rule to see if that works, then gradually add more rules.

The key differences between these redirect status codes relate to permanence and method preservation:

• 301 (Moved Permanently): Indicates that the resource has moved permanently to a new URL. Browsers may change the HTTP method from POST to GET during the redirect.
• 307 (Temporary Redirect): Indicates a temporary redirect and explicitly preserves the HTTP method used in the request (important for preserving POST data).
• 308 (Permanent Redirect): Indicates a permanent redirect and explicitly preserves the HTTP method used in the request.

When to use each:

• Use 301 for permanent redirects when method preservation isn't important (most common use case).
• Use 307 for temporary redirects when you need to preserve the HTTP method (e.g., during maintenance of an API endpoint that receives POST requests).
• Use 308 for permanent redirects when you need to preserve the HTTP method (e.g., permanently moving an API endpoint that receives POST requests).

Our tool allows you to generate all these redirect types with appropriate flags.