Re: Root level redirect

Robb_Barrett
Marketo Employee

Root level redirect

We're changing our CNAME.  This is a mess because we have a lot of links - email, web pages, linkedin, etc pointing to info.oldcname.com/various-page-names.html and we want to redirect them to info.newcname.com/various-page-names.html.

Is it possible to do a root level redirect and preserve the page names without the need to go through the arduous task of re-directing each individual page?

Robb Barrett
9 REPLIES 9
Casey_Grimes
Level 10

Re: Root level redirect

In a case like this, your best bet is probably to handle such a redirect at the DNS level. Now, while it's strongly discouraged because you're doing two lookups, it's totally possible to do something like

info-old IN CNAME your-instance.mktoweb.com.
info IN CNAME info-old

So when you look up info, it goes to info-old, then to your-instance.mktoweb.com. However, what you're describing sounds more like swapping the root domain rather than the CNAME. Same concept applies, though.

Depending on your DNS provider, you may be able to set up redirects rather than chaining CNAMEs, but it's a non-standard thing and depends on who you have.

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Root level redirect

This won't change the URL in the browser (nor the cookie domain). It isn't any different from swapping the Primary LP Domain with a Domain Alias.

Jay_Jiang
Level 10

Re: Root level redirect

in apache servers using htaccess you can:

create your new cname and update settings in marketo as such

delete your old cname and create a subdomain of the same name

add a htaccess file to the subdomain root with 301 redirect to rewrite domain to new one

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Root level redirect

This is a Marketo LP domain, however.

Jay_Jiang
Level 10

Re: Root level redirect

delete the old cname and create a subdomain of the same name, place the htaccess file in there.

so any hits to oldcname.domain.com/pageXYZ gets rewritten as newcname.domain.com/pageXYZ

https://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection on why you should use 301 redirects instead of js or meta refresh

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Root level redirect

You're leaving out the fact that you're involving a non-Marketo server.

Jay_Jiang
Level 10

Re: Root level redirect

changing cname settings in marketo will update marketo landing pages to have the new cname in the link going forward

what they're worried about is existing links out there in the WWW right? and surely they have access to manage their own domain right? so delete the old cname record in DNS, create a subdomain and subsequently new DNS record for the subdomain so you now have control over "oldcname.domain.com", add htaccess file to set up the 301 redirects

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Root level redirect

The ability to request a CNAME RR from a DNS administrator in no way means you have access to the HTTPd config for any domain.

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Root level redirect

If you don't need an HTTP redirect, you can trivially perform this redirect using JS on your template.

In fact using JS is the only way to preserve the Munchkin session association, so you don't end up with anonymous visits for people you previously knew.