This interesting question came into my inbox today. This gentleman did a redirect where the old page was static HTML and the new page is powered by WordPress. To keep the traffic flowing properly, he created 301 redirects. However, there is a problem. Apparently, users who visited the old HTML pages before were still being served the old pages and those who never visited before were served the new pages. So he wants to know how we can prevent that.

Despite it all, there’s very little information to work with here. All I can think off are a few scenarios.

1. Browser cache. If that is indeed the case, a quick refresh or clearing of browser cache will take care of the problem. However, we cannot force this upon the user so in this case, if the user contacts you, you should advise them to reload or clear their browser cache otherwise, there is little we can do to force it as a webmaster.
2. Old HTML page still present. Depending how the redirect is done, I’ve experienced cases where the redirect is ignored if the old HTML page is still present. This usually happens if you’re using a plugin like redirection. .htaccess redirects usually work. Because I do not know what was used to create the redirect, this is one possible explanation. In this case, the best way is to either remove the old HTML page entirely or rename it to something else so the redirect will kick in.
3. Wrong code. This is a common error although I don’t think this is the reason in this case considering some people are still getting redirected but it is always wise to check if the redirects are done properly.

If you’re experiencing redirects not working, hopefully this will sort it out for you. If you do not know how to do redirects, the following videos might help.

Creating 301 Redirects via cPanel

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTm2O5MlEfY[/youtube]

Creating affiliate redirect links

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT88tSdEH5s&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]