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Redirects

Valid for versions 82 through the latest version

Version:

82

Last modified: October 29, 2024

Looking for this interface?
Note:

Your hosting provider can enable or disable this interface in WHM's Feature Manager interface (WHM >> Home >> Packages >> Feature Manager).

Overview

The Redirects interface allows you to send all of the visitors of a domain or particular page to a different URL. For example, if you create a page with a long URL, use the Redirects interface to add a redirect from a short URL to the long URL. Visitors can enter the short URL to access the content of the long URL.

You can also use redirects like this to avoid storing sensitive customer information. For example, payment processors like Stripe offer links to secure pages where they process payment information so that you don’t have to store any credit card data.

Note:
  • You cannot edit a redirect. To modify a redirect, you must delete it, and then recreate it.
  • If you wish to redirect a domain’s visitors from the insecure version of the website to the secure version, use the Force HTTPS Redirect option on cPanel’s Domains interface (cPanel » Home » Domains » Domains).

Add a redirect

To add a redirect, perform the following actions:

  1. Select a redirect type from the Type menu.
    • Permanent (301) — This setting notifies the visitor’s browser to update its records.
    • Temporary (302) — This setting does not update the visitor’s bookmarks.
  2. Select a domain name from the menu, or select **All Public Domains** to redirect all of the domains that your cPanel account controls.
  3. In the next text box, enter the rest of the URL from which you wish for the server to redirect visitors. For example, if you wish to redirect http://example.com/directory/file.html to another URL, enter directory/file.html in this text box.
  4. In the Redirects to text box, enter the URL to which you wish to redirect users.
    Important:

    You must specify a protocol in this text box. For example, http://, https://, or ftp://.

  5. Select one of the following settings:
    • Only redirect with www. — This setting only redirects visitors who enter the www. prefix before the domain name part of the URL.
    • Redirect with or without www. — This setting redirects all users, regardless of whether the visitor enters the www. prefix before the domain name part of the URL.
    • Do Not Redirect www. — This setting does not redirect users who enter the www. prefix before the the domain name part of the URL.
      Note:

      The interface disables the www. redirection setting if you select **All Public Domains**.

  6. Select the Wild Card Redirect setting if you wish to redirect all files within a directory to the same filename in the new directory. For example, if you enable the Wild Card Redirect setting and example1.com redirects to example.com, then a visitor who tries to access the http://example1.com/pic.jpg URL redirects to the http://example.com/pic.jpg URL.
  7. Click Add.
  8. To test the redirect, click the link under Directory in the Current Redirects table. If you properly configured the redirect, the system directs you to the original domain.
Note:

To add a redirect where the original domain appears in the browser’s address bar, create a subdomain and redirect it to your chosen domain. You can create a subdomain in cPanel’s Domains interface (cPanel » Home » Domains » Domains).

Redirects via third-party applications

When you add a redirect with the cPanel interface, the system places redirect rules at the bottom of the .htaccess file. Some third-party applications will ignore your rules because those applications only read rules and configurations that their section of the .htaccess file contains.

Important:

If you use a third-party application or content management system to add a redirect, such as WordPress®, the redirect may not function properly. To avoid this problem, add redirects manually with the instructions above.

Edit your htaccess file through the File Manager interface

To edit your .htaccess file through cPanel’s File Manager interface (cPanel » Home » Files » File Manager), perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to the interface.
  2. In the top navigation bar, click Settings. The Preferences interface will open.
  3. Select Show Hidden Files (dotfiles).
  4. Click Save. The Preferences interface will close.

Your .htaccess file will now appear in the public_html folder. To learn more about actions you can take through the File Manager interface (cPanel » Home » Files » File Manager), including editing your files, read our File Manager documentation.

Redirect configuration example

The following example displays the configuration that you must add to the top of the .htaccess file to add a redirect for the Drupal content management system. In this example:

  • drupal.user.example.com represents the URL to redirect.
  • http://cpanel.net/ represents the URL to which to redirect.
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<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^drupal\.user\.example\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.drupal\.user\.example\.com$
RewriteRule ^cptest$ "http\:\/\/cpanel\.net\/" [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

The Current Redirects table

The Current Redirects table lists the redirections that currently exist on your account. To search for a redirection, enter the search criteria in the Search text box and click Go.

The table lists the following information about redirects:

Label Description
Domain The domain to redirect. ALL represents all of the account’s publicly-available domains.
Directory The directory to redirect. Click the link to test the redirection.
Regular Expression The system will redirect any URL that matches the regular expression in this column.
Redirect URL The URL to which you wish to redirect users.
HTTP Status Code The numerical HTTP Status Code of the redirect.
Type
  • permanent — This setting notifies the visitor’s browser to update its records.
  • temporary — This setting does not update the visitor’s bookmarks.
Match www. Only redirect visitors who enter the www. prefix before the domain name part of the URL.
Wildcard Redirect all files within a directory to the same filename in the new directory. For example, if you enable the Wild Card Redirect setting and example1.com redirects to example.com, then a visitor who tries to access the http://example1.com/pic.jpg URL redirects to the http://example.com/pic.jpg URL.
Actions Available actions for the redirection:
  • Delete — Delete the redirection. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
Important:
Most web browsers add redirections to a cache. Visitors may need to clear their web browser cache to remove the redirection from their web browsers

Examples

Permanent redirects

The following is a permanent redirect of an entire site from its original location to example.com:

Redirect 301 / http://example.com/

The following is a permanent redirect of a page on example.com to a different page on example.com:

Redirect 301 /original.html http://www.example.com/new.html

The following is a permanent redirect of an entire directory on example.com to a different directory on example.com:

Redirect 301 /old-directory http://www.example.com/new-directory

Temporary redirects

The following is a temporary redirect of an entire site from its original location to example.com:

Redirect 302 / http://example.com/

The following is a temporary redirect of a page on example.com to a different page on example.com:

Redirect 302 /original.html http://www.example.com/new.html

The following is a temporary redirect of an entire directory on example.com to a different directory on example.com:

Redirect 302 /old-directory http://www.example.com/new-directory

Additional Documentation