php 301 redirecting to the wrong link

Question

I was trying to write a 301 redirect and used the following code:

<?php header("Location: http://www.google.com/", true, 301); ?>

This was to test if the redirect worked at all, and when it did I changed it to my eventual end link. However, it kept redirecting to Google even after the change.

I have tried clearing browser cache, using different browsers, and have restarted both the computer that I am working on it with, and the server that the code is running on.

What else can I do to clear the old redirect?

Answer 1

To avoid cached redirects, try to open the same page with new url parameters. If your test page has address https://www.example.com/rtest.php , to test redirect - every next time try to open address with:

https://www.example.com/rtest.php?a
https://www.example.com/rtest.php?b
https://www.example.com/rtest.php?c...

and so on. This excludes browser cached redirection and each time checks the server again!

But keep in mind - PHP code executes even after first "header" sets. You must exit or die after the correct one.

<?php 
header('Location: https://www.google.com', true, 301);
header('Location: https://www.bing.com', true, 301); ?>

Will be redirected to https://www.bing.com , as this is last header in code.

If You have multiple redirects, only last one will work.

Set 'die' or 'exit' after exact one.

<?php 
header('Location: https://www.google.com', true, 301);
exit; 
header('Location: https://www.bing.com', true, 301); ?>

This examle will redirect to Google.