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When do you need to use htaccess redirect generator?

Before we discuss when and where does an SEO or webmaster need to use .htaccess redirect generator. Lets discuss what’s .htaccess and when and where and who needs to use it.

The .htaccess runs on the webserver that’s hosting the website. Therefore the developer or SEO writing and uploading this configuration file must be a past master at doing this. In case you are a website owner, and you want to restrict access to certain files by your users you will need a .htaccess file. But don’t attempt it yourself if you are unfamiliar with how to go about it. Get an SEO or developer to do the work for you.

What is .htaccess file

.htaccess is a configuration file that’s used on servers running Apache webserver software. The Apache webserver software detects when a .htaccess is placed on a website and runs it. What the .htaccess configuration file does is that it alters some of the functions of the Apache webserver software configuration.

How to use .htaccess

.htaccess is the full file name and has no extensions. It may contain a single line or several lines. The .htaccess file takes over all the directories and sub-directories that it’s placed in. What a .htaccess file can do is to validate users by providing password protection for individual files. It offers custom redirection in case a user fails to login. It means that the user after failing to log in is sent to a particular web page.

You have to be a developer to write the correct code for the .htaccess file. Also, you need to upload the file in which the .htaccess code has been placed using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and in ASCII mode.

In case after uploading the file if it’s not working you will need to get in touch with the host administrator and ask him or her to grant your .htaccess file permission. In the case of any errors, you will have to correct them immediately. No website owner wants their site to go down or start generating errors. Therefore be very careful when you are creating and uploading .htaccess files. Check the file twice before uploading it.

Handling errors

No website owner or master wants visitors complaining that they are getting a 404 error on the website. It is where the .htaccess file which has been written to handle such errors comes into play. The .htaccess file will redirect the user to a page on your website which will be placed there to help site visitors.

Handling error messages is fine, but what you need to do is to ensure that site visitors don’t see such messages displayed when they visit the site. Visitors can get easily frustrated and turn away from such sites.

Password protection

It is one of the most important functions of .htaccess. If you have password protection on certain directories of your website you need to protect the passwords. The login procedure is handled by the popup screen and most of us have seen them. The passwords are encrypted and stored. What the .htaccess tells the server is the directory where this information is stored.

Deny Visitors

Some websites don’t want traffic coming from certain IP addresses. This function to deny access visitors from these IP addresses can be setup in the .htaccess file. You can redirect visitors from denied IP address to an error page or the server will display ‘403 forbidden’ message.

.htaccess redirect generator

You will need a .htaccess redirect on your website when you want to direct your site visitors from one page to another. In case you have shifted your website from one host server to another you would need the .htaccess to redirect your visitors to the new site seamlessly.

You can use the .htaccess redirect option to redirect visitors to another directory or location of a document on your website.

If you need to generate the .htaccess file to redirect from non-www to www or from www to non-www, use the searchenginereports.net .htaccess redirect generator utility.

To do this, go to searchenginereports.net from the navigation bar on your browser. On the site in the upper left side of the screen, you will see the ‘free SEO tools’ button. Click on it and scroll down the SEO tools till you come to the htaccess redirect generator button. Click on, it and it will display the screen. Select the redirect type and enter the domain name. remember to enter just the domain name without the www. prefix.

Once you enter the required input it will generate the required code. You can copy paste the code to your .htaccess file.

Conclusion

The .htaccess file is extremely useful as its through this file that the website instructs the hosting server how to handle errors, passwords and redirects. You can also bar unwanted visitors from visiting your website.

If your site contains videos and audio or these are placed on a different website you can redirect traffic to it through the .htaccess file.

There are several .htaccess help resources available on the internet from which you can get help such as sample htaccess file, how to create an htaccess file, htaccess tools, where is my htaccess file, htaccess file creator and how to create htaccess file. You can use them to learn about all the functionalities of .htaccess. if your website is in WordPress you should use a wordpress htaccess file example so that you know exactly how to write the code and place it in your website.

You have to be well versed in using and uploading .htaccess to your website hosting server. You may also need to request them to grant certain rights to your website. All this work needs an SEO and should not be attempted by a novice. It’s easy to bring a website down but it takes a lot of work to remove the damage and get it up and running again. This is a scenario that website owners avoid.