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I have an existing static html site that I want to rebuild on wp.com. It has pages like this:
example.com/about.html
But if I rebuild the site on wp.com it seems like I can only have the page like this:
example.com/about/
It looks nice that way, but I need a permanent redirect of the existing URLs or I'll mess up the SEO. I couldn't find a way to add an htaccess or something like it. Can this be done?
We do require a link to the blog in question starting with http:// so we can be sure we provide the correct answer to your question. Will you please post it?
I haven't ever published a wp.com site. I have a little 2 or 3 page test site to get acquainted with the system, but it's set to private since it's just test garbage. I could publish it if that would help.
My question is really a general one that would apply to multiple static html sites I have built or taken charge of (none are blogs). Nearly all of them have URLs formatted like
example.com/about.html
rather than
example.com/about/
so I think I would have to deal with that on any site I want to rebuild onto wp.com. I'm very interested in the system, but I couldn't find a solution to this one SEO thing. It's the only thing I'm stuck on.
Thanks for your time.
I know of no way to do page level redirects here at wordpress.COM. Sometimes domain registrars have some elementary redirects, but typically only for TLD (top level domains) not for specific URLs.
If you are planning on using WordPress.ORG software on your existing site with your current host then I think you have different options.
Your case is one where .ORG and .COM work way way different and that is the reason we ask about the URL.
For more on the difference: http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
It looks like .org is my only choice for existing sites with that type of URL. OK, thank you all for your your replies.
You are welcome. There are a couple redirect plugins for .ORG blogs. I've used them both and they work reasonably well.
That's a good tip. I've barely used WordPress.ORG at all so I wouldn't have thought of looking at the plugins.
Yeah, if you have more than one or two redirects, never use the .htaccess method. That severely slows down your site.
Do you mean .htaccess for more than a couple of redirects is specifically bad in a WordPress.ORG setup (and the plugin method is superior) or do you mean that it's bad in general and slows down any kind of site?
We're running a little off topic since of course the forum is for WordPress.COM sites, but your comment is interesting.
The plugin is better. Each and every page load, the web server scans the .htaccess file before it loads anything looking for anything it should know before serving up the page. If you have 200 redirects in there, that is a lot of stuff for it to scan, and it takes up precious processing power (some web hosts might actually throttle you back if you take up too much processor time).
Use the plugin, it is a better way to go and you won't have issues.
I assumed the .htaccess file was scanned just once in a fraction of a second. Thanks, that's very helpful.
Nope, scanned every time since after the server serves up a web page, it goes on to do other things. There is no way a server can have enough memory to hold all the configuration bits for literally thousands of sites at one time. They scan, they interpret, they serve the files, and then move on to the next request where they again scan, they interpret, they serve the files, and then move on to the next request.
Rinse and repeat.
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wavelet
