How to redirect visitors to SSL connections

This article demonstrates how to redirect users to secure (https://) web site connections, even if they type a non-secure URL (http://) in their web browser. This article applies to servers using Apache or Apache-compatible web servers (such as LiteSpeed).

This article assumes that you already have a valid, functioning SSL certificate on your web site.

Redirecting users to SSL-enabled connections

You may want to ensure that visitors to your web site always use a secure connection. To do this, you can use rewrite rules in a custom .htaccess file.

If you are using WordPress, you can enforce SSL-enabled connections from the WordPress administration dashboard instead. For information about how to do this, please see this article.

If you use the rewrite rules in an .htaccess file in the web site's root directory, all requests will be redirected to HTTPS connections. Alternatively, you can modify the rewrite rules in a specific directory's .htaccess file to limit redirection to files in that directory.

Add the following lines to the desired .htaccess file to redirect users from a non-secure URL (http://) to a secure URL (https://). 

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

Get SSL Certificate

Article Details

  • Operating System: Linux Hosting
  • Level: Intermediate

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