How to Redirect HTTP to HTTPS in Nginx & Apache?

In what cases is it worth using a 301 redirect?

• If there are several identical versions on different subdomains or folders, for example, http://domain.site.tld or http://site.tld or httpS://domain.site.tld, to redirect the visitor to the main version of the site.
• Due to rebranding (or for other reasons), when you want users to not notice the difference when they click on the same URL. When gluing (combining) two sites so that links from all pages of the first redirect to a new one.

How to configure 301 Redirect from HTTP to HTTPS in Apache

Normally, there are at least two virtual hosts in use when you are using an SSL certificate. Ordinary server requests should be served by port 80, and SSL requests served by port 443. Use ordinary redirect directive in you wish to redirect users from non-SSL to SSL site. In order to enable redirection using Apache, you must enable mod_rewrite:

LoadModule rewrite_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_rewrite.so
                                

For the changes to take effect, you reboot the Apache web server:

apache2ctl restart
                                

In .htaccess to redirect from HTTP to HTTPS add:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$
    RewriteRule ^/(.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [NC,R,L]
</VirtualHost>

Save and close the file, then restart the HTTP sever using next command:

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2 [Ubuntu/Debian]
$ sudo systemctl restart httpd [RHEL/CentOS]
                                

One page redirect, instead entire website

<VirtualHost *:80>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule ^apache-redirect-http-to-https.html$ https://www.domain.tld/apache-redirect-http-to-https.html [R=301,L]
</VirtualHost>

Hints about .htaaccess redirects

• Do not duplicate RewriteEngine On;
• The RewriteCond and RewriteRule must immediately follow the RewriteEngin on/

NGNIX redirect from HTTP to HTTPS

Use this tutorial to redirect all your visitors to HTTPS with WWW domain prefix using. That method uses 301 redirect techniques and is safe for SEO according to Google best practices. You will need to edit the Nginx virtual host configuration file to forcefully redirect all users to HTTPS://www.domain.tld using the described example below.

# Force all users to https://www.domain.tld

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name domain.tld www.domain.tld;
    return 301 https://www.domain.tld$request_uri;
}
server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name domain.tld;

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/www.domain.tld.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/www.domain.tld.key;
    return 301 https://www.domain.tld$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name www.domain.tld;
    root /var/www/html

    error_page 403 /error/404.html;
    error_page 404 /error/404.html;
    error_page 500 502 503 504 /error/50x.html;

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/www.domain.tld.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/www.domain.tld.key;
}

Restart the Nginx web server to put the changes into effect using the command:

sudo systemctl restart Nginx
                                

Conclusion

Today it is mandatory to use the HTTPS protocol to protect all the traffic between your website visitors and the server. We suggest Nginx web server as the most powerful and simplest way to set up your website with permanent 301 redirects.