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I have a site that was temporarily set up as 111.222.333.444/~mysite because the real URL was not ready. 111.222.333.444/~mysite/?page_id=123 was a valid page on that site. My site is live now. I no longer want or need to use 111.222.333.444/~mysite to access the site.

However Google has indexed a search for a term on page ?page_id=123 as 111.222.333.444/~mysite/?page_id=123. But ?page_id=123 no longer exists. It's now on a new page, and I want to redirect Google's link to www.example.com/newpage

The closest I have come to implemeting this redirect is:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}  ^111\222\.333\.444$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING}  ^\?page_id=123$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^~mysite/$ //www.example.com/newpage [R=301,NE,NC,L]

But this doesn't work, and gives me an internal server error.

I have also tried:

Redirect 301 /?page_id=195 /newpage

But that had no effect. Can anyone suggest how to do this? I don't have a problem redirecting single pages, but the temporary/alternate URL with the IP address is throwing me.

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  • Redirecting will keep the old URL alive. I would not do this. I would just let the page 404. Google will eventually remove it from the index and find your correct page. Commented Aug 23, 2016 at 1:53
  • Fair point, but alas I have a client who does not want it to 404! The client is always right :-) Besides, Im puzzled I cant seem to get such an apparently simple redirect working - it isnt hard for the same url, but something is odd about using the ip address. Commented Aug 23, 2016 at 7:38
  • Silly silly client! ;-) You have two of our very best below so I am sure you will be able to redirect the way you want soon. Cheers!! Commented Aug 23, 2016 at 14:54

1 Answer 1

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The mod_alias documenation states in the top section that it doesn't support redirects based on query strings. You are not going to be able to get a Redirect 301 rule to work.

I see a couple problems with your rewrite rule:

  1. You are missing a period (.) in your ip address rule.
  2. The question mark (?) is not included in the query string so \? should not be part of your QUERY_STRING rule.
  3. mod_rewrite doesn't support protocol relative redirect URLs. Your new URL can't start with //. You need to start it with http:// or https:// unless you do a bunch of fancy hocus pocus.

Also:

  • I don't think you need the no case ([NC]) flag, so I would omit it.
  • I don't think you need the no escape ([NE]) flag, so I would omit it.
  • If your new site doesn't use a page_id=123 query string at all, you could remove the requirement that it has to be on the IP address.
  • Similarly, I would omit the ~mysite part of the rule. Just base the redirect on the the query string, not on the folder it is in.

I would try this rule:

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING}  ^page_id=123$
RewriteRule (.*)  http://www.example.com/newpage?  [R=301,L]
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  • You'll need a ? on the end of the RewriteRule substitution (or use the QSD flag on Apache 2.4+) to remove the query string from the redirected URL. Otherwise, mod_rewrite passes the query string through unaltered, which would result in a redirect loop. +1 Commented Aug 23, 2016 at 11:24
  • Edited in the ? based on w3dk's suggestion Commented Aug 23, 2016 at 12:55

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