.htaccess 101 – Rewrite and Redirection

This article will explain how to redirect your domain using a .htaccess file using common redirect rules.

.htaccess is a configuration file for use on web servers running the Apache Web Server software.

Since .htaccess is a hidden system file, please make sure your FTP client is configured to show hidden files. This is usually an option in the program’s preferences/options.

How to Redirect HTTP Requests to HTTPS

In order to redirect your website to be opened through HTTPS, you should add the following rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule .* https://www.domain.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

This will redirect your domain to https://www.domain.com

If you wish the redirect to work without www, you should remove it from the rewrite rule:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule .* https://domain.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

This will redirect your domain to https://domain.com

How to Redirect an Old Domain to a New Domain

In order to redirect your old domain to a new domain name, you should add the following rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.new-domain.com/$1 [R=301,L][/php]

How to Redirect From a Non-Www to Www URL

In order to redirect your site from a non-www to www URL, you should add the following rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
rewritecond %{http_host} ^domain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

How to Redirect a Domain’s Page to a Different Page

In order to redirect a specific page or section of your site to a different one, you should add the following rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:

Redirect 301 /page-name http://domain.com/new-page

How to Redirect an Entire Site to a Subfolder

In order to redirect your entire and for it to load from a subfolder, you should add the following rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:

Redirect 301 / http://domain.com/subfolder-name/

How to Redirect a Subfolder to a Different Domain

In order to redirect a subfolder to a different site, you should add the following rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:

Redirect 301 /subfolder-name http://different-domain.com/

How to Redirect All Files with a Certain Extension but Retain the File Name

If you want a .html extension to use the same filename but use the .php extension, you should add the following rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:

RedirectMatch 301 (.*)\.html$ http://domain.com$1.php

How to Redirect One Directory to Another

In order to redirect one directory or subfolder to a different one, you should add the following rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)/old-directory/(.*)$ $1/new-directory/$2 [R,L]

How to Redirect from a Blog Subdomain to a Blog Folder

In order to redirect blog.oldsite.com to www.newsite.com/blog/ you should add the following rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}/ blog
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.new-domain.com/%{REQUEST_URI} [R=302,NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.new-domain.com/blog/%{REQUEST_URI} [R=302,NC]

Alias “Clean” URLs

The following snippet lets you use “clean” URLs — those without an HTML extension, e.g. example.com/users instead of example.com/users.html.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)$ $1.html [NC,L]

Other Useful .Htaccess Redirects with Examples

Rewrite and redirect URLs with query parameters (files placed in the root directory)

Original URL: http://www.yourdomain.tld/index.php?id=1
Desired destination URL: http://www.yourdomain.tld/path-to-new-location/

You should add the following rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} id=1
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ /path-to-new-location/? [L,R=301]
Redirect URLs with query parameters (files placed in subdirectory)

Redirect URLs with query parameters (files placed in a subdirectory)

Original URL: http://www.yourdomain.tld/sub-directory/index.php?id=1
Desired destination URL:  http://www.yourdomain.tld/path-to-new-location/

You should add the following rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} id=1
RewriteRule ^sub-directory/index\.php$ /path-to-new-location/? [L,R=301]
Redirect one clean URL to a new clean URL

That’s a wrap!

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