HTTP redirects in Nginx

HTTP redirects tell browsers and search engine crawlers to go from one URL to another. They're used in all kinds of situations: moving to a new domain, forcing HTTPS, cleaning up URL structure, consolidating duplicate content, and more. Done right, redirects preserve your search rankings and keep users from hitting dead ends.

Nginx handles redirects through the built-in ngx_http_rewrite_module, which comes installed by default.

Where to configure redirects

Nginx redirects live in the server's configuration files:

• /etc/nginx/nginx.conf — the main configuration file
• /etc/nginx/sites-available/site_name — per-site configuration
• /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ — symlinks to active configs from sites-available

Make your changes in sites-available, then always validate the syntax before reloading:

nginx -t

301 redirect from www to non-www

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.domain.com;
    rewrite ^ http://domain.com$request_uri? permanent;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name domain.com;
    ...
}

301 redirect from non-www to www

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name domain.com;
    rewrite ^ http://www.domain.com$request_uri? permanent;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.domain.com;
    ...
}

301 redirect from HTTPS to HTTP

server {
    listen 443;
    server_name www.domain.com;
    rewrite ^ http://www.domain.com$request_uri? permanent;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.domain.com;
    ...
}

301 redirect from HTTP to HTTPS

For a new domain:

server {
    listen SERVER_IP:80;
    server_name www.domain.com;
    rewrite ^ https://www.domain.com$request_uri? permanent;
}

server {
    listen SERVER_IP:443 ssl;
    server_name www.domain.com;
    ...
}

For an existing domain:

server {
    listen SERVER_IP:80;
    server_name www.domain.com;
    rewrite ^ https://www.domain.com$request_uri? permanent;
}

Redirecting a specific page to a new URL

server {
    ...
    if ($request_filename ~ oldpage/) {
        rewrite ^ http://www.domain.com/newpage/? permanent;
    }
    ...
}

301 redirect for an entire directory

server {
    ...
    if ($request_filename ~ oldfolder/.+) {
        rewrite ^(.*) http://www.domain.com/newfolder/$1 permanent;
    }
    ...
}

301 redirect from one domain to another

server {
    server_name domain.com www.old-domain.com;
    rewrite ^ $scheme://www.new-domain.com;
}

Remove trailing slashes from URLs

server {
    ...
    rewrite ^/(.*)/$ /$1 permanent;
    ...
}

location ~ .+/$ {
    rewrite (.+)/$ $1 permanent;
}

Redirect away from index.php

if ($request_uri ~* "^(.*/)index\.phpquot;) {
    return 301 $1;
}

Fix double slashes (//) in URLs

merge_slashes off;

location ~* "//" {
    rewrite ^(.*)//(.*)$ $1/$2;
    rewrite ^ $uri permanent;
}

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After making any changes, reload Nginx to apply them:

service nginx restart