301 Redirect in htaccess is appending old file name to new url

Question

I'm using 301 redirect rule in my htaccess file to redirect some old urls to new ones. However, on a few of the redirects, the old file name is appending onto the new url so I'm getting 404 page errors on those.

For example, this is my rewrite rule

Redirect 301 /mtrx/motion-control/ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer

but the page that shows up is

http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfermotion-control

This is the whole .htaccess code

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

#REDIRECTS

Redirect 301 /videos/ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/videos-2
Redirect 301 /press-releases-2/ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/media
Redirect 301 /mtrx/motion-control/ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer
Redirect 301 /mtrx/pelvis-power/ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer
Redirect 301 /mtrx/mtrx-score/ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer
Redirect 301 /mtrx/recommended-drills/ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer
Redirect 301 /mtrx/ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer

Thanks for the assistance.

Jon Lin Jon Lin · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-23T22:48:34

It looks like mod_alias and mod_rewrite might be interfering with each other, and possibly itself.

Keep in mind that the Redirect directives link two path nodes together. So if you have, say:

Redirect 301 /mtrx/ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer

that statement also takes: /mtrx/foo/bar/ and redirects it to http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golferfoo/bar/.

You should either switch to using RedirectMatch or a RewriteRule.

For the former:

RedirectMatch 301 ^/videos/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/videos-2
RedirectMatch 301 ^/press-releases-2/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/media
RedirectMatch 301 ^/mtrx/motion-control/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer
RedirectMatch 301 ^/mtrx/pelvis-power/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer
RedirectMatch 301 ^/mtrx/mtrx-score/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer
RedirectMatch 301 ^/mtrx/recommended-drills/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer
RedirectMatch 301 ^/mtrx/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer

For mod_rewrite, you must place these rules BEFORE your wordpress rules:

RewriteRule ^/?videos/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/videos-2 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^/?press-releases-2/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/media [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^/?mtrx/motion-control/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^/?mtrx/pelvis-power/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^/?mtrx/mtrx-score/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^/?mtrx/recommended-drills/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^/?mtrx/?$ http://www.zerolinegolf.com/golf-mtrx-for-the-golfer [L,R=301]

301 Redirect in htaccess is appending old file name to new url

1 Answers