How to Redirect with .htaccess: 301, HTTPS, www and RewriteRule Examples

Short answer: to redirect a page with .htaccess, add Redirect 301 /old-page https://example.com/new-page to the .htaccess file in your site's root folder. For anything more (HTTPS, www, whole folders, query strings or clean URLs), use RewriteEngine On with a RewriteRule. This guide has a copy-ready rule for each case. To skip the syntax, pick a preset in our free .htaccess Redirect Generator: enter your domain and it writes the Apache and Nginx rules for you.

.htaccess is a plain text file that the Apache web server reads on every request. Rules in it apply to the folder it sits in and everything below it, so redirects for the whole site go in the file in your site root (usually public_html). It works on most shared hosting, cPanel and WordPress hosts, and LiteSpeed servers read it too.

• It must be allowed. The server config needs AllowOverride All (or at least FileInfo) for the folder, or the file is ignored.
• RewriteRule needs mod_rewrite. It is on at almost every host. If it isn't, any RewriteRule line causes a 500 error.
• Nginx does not read .htaccess. On Nginx the same redirects go in the server config. Our .htaccess Redirect Generator shows the Nginx version of every rule next to the Apache one.

Before you edit: download a copy of your current .htaccess. One typo gives the whole site a 500 error, and putting the old file back fixes it instantly.

For SEO, use 301 for anything permanent. Browsers cache 301s hard, so while you are testing a new rule use 302, and switch to 301 once it works.

The simplest way is the Redirect line. It needs no RewriteEngine:

Redirect 301 /old-page https://example.com/new-page

Watch out: Redirect matches the start of the path, so /old-page/photos also goes to /new-page/photos. To redirect only that exact URL, use RedirectMatch or a RewriteRule:

# Exact match with RedirectMatch
RedirectMatch 301 ^/old-page/?$ https://example.com/new-page

# Same thing with mod_rewrite
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^old-page/?$ /new-page [R=301,L]

In .htaccess, the RewriteRule pattern is matched without the leading slash: write ^old-page$, not ^/old-page$. This is the most common reason a rule "does nothing".

Pick one method per file. Mixing Redirect lines with RewriteRule lines can give confusing results, because the two Apache modules do not run in the order they appear in the file.

List one line per page. Put the most specific rules first:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^about-us/?$ /about [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^contact-us/?$ /contact [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^services/web-design/?$ /web-design [R=301,L]

To move everything under /blog/ to /articles/ and keep the rest of the path:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^blog/(.*)$ /articles/$1 [R=301,L]

(.*) captures whatever comes after blog/, and $1 puts it back in the new URL, so /blog/my-post goes to /articles/my-post.

Put this in the .htaccess of the old domain. Every page goes to the same path on the new domain:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?old-domain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://new-domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Keep the old domain registered and the redirect in place for at least a year, which is what Google recommends for site moves. Then add the new domain in Search Console and use its Change of Address tool.

This sends every plain-HTTP request to the same URL on HTTPS. It is the rule our generator writes for the "Force HTTPS" preset:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

Behind Cloudflare (Flexible SSL), a load balancer or a proxy? The server only ever sees HTTP, so %{HTTPS} is always off and the rule loops ("too many redirects"). Check the header the proxy sends instead:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

Choose one version of your domain and send the other to it, so Google indexes each page only once. www to non-www:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%1/$1 [R=301,L]

Non-www to www:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

%1 is the part captured by the RewriteCond (the domain without www), the same way $1 is the part captured by the RewriteRule.

Two separate rules can send http://www.example.com through two redirects in a row (a redirect chain). This version does both in one step:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(?:www\.)?(.+)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L,NE]

A RewriteRule never sees the part after ?. Match it with a RewriteCond on %{QUERY_STRING}. To send /page?id=5 to /new-page:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=5$
RewriteRule ^page$ /new-page [R=301,L,QSD]

QSD drops the old query string (otherwise Apache adds ?id=5 to the new URL). Use QSA instead when you want to keep it and add your own. Our generator handles this automatically: type /page?id=5 in the "From" box of the path redirect preset.

A redirect (with R=) sends the visitor to a new URL, and the address bar changes. A rewrite (no R) serves a different file behind the scenes, and the address bar stays the same. Rewrites are how "pretty" URLs work. Serve /product/42 from product.php?id=42:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^product/([0-9]+)/?$ product.php?id=$1 [L,QSA]

Serve /about from about.html, and redirect old .html links to the clean URL:

RewriteEngine On

# 1. Redirect /about.html to /about (THE_REQUEST stops this from looping)
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \s/([^.\s?]+)\.html[\s?] [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1 [R=301,L]

# 2. Serve /about from about.html
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.html -f
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ $1.html [L]

For PHP files, change .html to .php in both rules.

If a page is deleted and has no replacement, a 410 tells search engines to drop it faster than a 404:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^old-promo/?$ - [G]

Every rule has the form RewriteRule pattern target [flags], and the RewriteCond lines above it must all match for it to run.

1. Put RewriteEngine On once near the top of the file. Repeating it is harmless, but once is enough.
2. Put redirects before rewrites. Domain-wide rules (HTTPS, www) come first, then single-page redirects, then clean-URL rewrites.
3. On WordPress, put your rules above # BEGIN WordPress. WordPress rewrites everything between # BEGIN WordPress and # END WordPress when you save permalinks, so rules inside that block get deleted.

• Use a private window, or clear your cache: browsers remember 301s and keep using an old one even after you change the rule.
• Check the status code with curl: curl -I http://example.com/old-page shows the code (301, 302…) and the Location it points to.
• Count the hops. Each URL should reach its final page in one redirect. Chains (A → B → C) waste crawl budget and slow visitors down.
• Then check the page itself: our free SEO Score Checker confirms the final URL loads over HTTPS with the right canonical.

Our free htaccess rewrite rule generator writes these rules for you. Choose a preset, enter your domain, and copy the result:

• Force HTTPS, www to non-www, non-www to www, and single-page redirects (including URLs with query strings)
• Your choice of 301, 302, 307 or 308
• Apache .htaccess and Nginx versions side by side
• Warnings for redirect loops and for sites behind a proxy or CDN
• Extra presets: block image hotlinking, gzip compression with browser caching, and custom 404 and 500 pages
• For anything else, describe the rule in plain English and the AI writes it

Yes. Google treats a 301 (and a 308) as a strong signal that the new URL should replace the old one in search results, and the old page's ranking signals move to it. Temporary 302 and 307 redirects keep the old URL indexed.

Google recommends at least one year. If other sites still link to the old URL, keep it for good: a redirect costs almost nothing.

Redirect (mod_alias) is simple and fine for moving single pages. RewriteRule (mod_rewrite) can check conditions such as the domain, HTTPS or the query string, capture parts of the URL and rewrite internally, so it is what you need for everything else.

In your site's root folder, usually public_html or www. Its name starts with a dot, so it is hidden: in cPanel File Manager open Settings and tick "Show Hidden Files". If there is none, create a plain text file named exactly .htaccess.

No. Nginx ignores .htaccess, so the rules go in the server block of your Nginx config, followed by nginx -s reload. The .htaccess Redirect Generator gives you the Nginx version of each rule.