Redirection

No matter how well you plan your site you will always encounter situations where Web pages change their URLs. How you handle this depends on many factors including the type of Web server you use, JavaScript functionality, and the user experience.

The following techniques can be used to redirect users to new pages:

• .htaccess - this file can be used to redirect your users to the new page/site automatically rather than having them click on a "we moved" link.
  
  
• JavaScript - you can use JavaScript code to redirect people to new pages or to different pages based on their browser type.
  
  
• meta refresh - a meta tag within the head section of your HTML document that tells the browser to load the new page after "n" seconds.
  
  
• PHP - a scripting language that can be embedded in your HTML documents; normally used to redirect people to the new destination according to a certain variable, such as the browser used.
  
  
• symbolic links - in the UNIX world, a symbolic link is similar to an alias on the Macintosh or a shortcut on the Windows platform by acting as a pointer to a file or directory.