Rewrite spare domains to main domains with .htaccess

Question

We have a site with an English and Spanish version, each on a different domain. We also have a few spare domains for each language which we'd like to redirect to the language's main domain.

Specifically:

• estadiosfutbol.net/..., estadiosfutbol.org/... and estadiosfutbol.info/... should all redirect to https://estadiosfutbol.com/ ...
• worldfootballstadiums.com/..., worldfootballstadiums.info/..., worldfootballstadiums.org/... and worldfootballstadiums.net/... should all redirect to https://worldstadiums.football/ ...

I'm struggling with the rewrite rules so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

There are two ways this can be done. The first is the simpliest, but is not always practical.

First Method

This method does not require HTACCESS files. In your Apache server configuration you just need to add ServerAliases for each of the domains that you want it to handle. (You must make sure all the domains are pointing at the same machine)

The Code

NameVirtualHost *:443

<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerName estadiosfutbol.com
ServerAlias estadiosfutbol.info estadiosfutbol.net estadiosfutbol.org
DocumentRoot /www/domain
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerName worldstadiums.football
ServerAlias worldfootballstadiums.com worldfootballstadiums.net worldfootballstadiums.info worldfootballstadiums.org
DocumentRoot /www/otherdomain
</VirtualHost>

Note: This will only redirect if the user tries to access the website using SSL. (eg ) If you want it to redirect all traffic from both port 80 and port 443 you would need to make separate virtual hosts and use the second method to achieve the redirection.

Second Method

The second way is a little more complicated, but works in almost all situations. There a two main steps that need to be carried out in order for this to work properly:

1. Make sure that whatever server software you are using is setup to be looking for all the domains. The server has to have a VirtualHost(Apache) that is listening for each domain in order for the next step to do anything.

2. Create a .HTACCESS file under each domains' root that looks similar to this:

The Code

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !estadiosfutbol.net$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://estadiosfutbol.com/$1 [L,R=301]

Note: You will need to change the third line on each domain to be the domain to rewrite from (eg estadiosfutbol.net/, estadiosfutbol.org/ and estadiosfutbol.info)

Note: Changing the forth line is all that is required for the separate domain.