URL Rewrites and Redirects

This guide will go over enabling URL rewrites or setting up redirects for your domain.

What is a URL Rewrite?

It's a function that automatically adds https:// or www. after someone visits domain.com. Thus, making your domain load the SSL immediately or making it look like http://www.domain.com

You will have to modify your web.config. If this file does not exist, create one inside your root directory.

HTTP to HTTPS rewrite

This rule will enable your SSL to load when someone visits your domain. If you're using a CMS, it's likely that you will have to enable that function within its panel instead.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
<rewrite>
  <rules>
<rule name="HTTP to HTTPS redirect" stopProcessing="true">
  <match url="(.*)" />
<conditions>
  <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="off" ignoreCase="true" />
</conditions>
  <action type="Redirect" redirectType="Found" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" />
</rule>
  </rules>
</rewrite>
  </system.webServer> 
</configuration> 

Non-WWW to WWW rewrite

This rule will enable WWW. on your domain.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
<rewrite>
  <rules>
<rule name="Redirect to WWW" stopProcessing="true">
  <match url=".*" />
  <conditions>
<add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^YOURDOMAIN.COM$" />
  </conditions>
  <action type="Redirect" url="http://www.YOURDOMAIN.COM/{R:0}"
  redirectType="Permanent" />
</rule>
  </rules>
</rewrite>
  </system.webServer>  
</configuration>

Redirect to destination url

This rule will make your domain.com redirect to any other domain you want.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
<rewrite>
  <rules>
<rule name="Redirect to another url" stopProcessing="true">
  <match url=".*" />
  <conditions>
<add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^yourdomain.com$" />
  </conditions>
  <action type="Redirect" url="http://www.destinationurl.com/{R:0}"
  redirectType="Permanent" />
</rule>
  </rules>
</rewrite>
  </system.webServer> 
</configuration>

Alternatively, you can use HTML to redirect if that's easier for you.

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://destinationurl.com/" />

You can create url redirects to load a certain directory instead.

<rules>	
	<rule name="about to about directory" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="aboutus.asp" />
<action type="Redirect" url="/home/about" appendQueryString="true" />
				</rule>
			</rules>

Tip: If you're creating multiple redirect rules in your web.config be sure to create a different rule name for each one.