Redirects

Set up server-side 301 and 302 redirects for your site with a _redirects file.

Need an old URL to point somewhere new? Add a _redirects file to your site and we’ll serve proper server-side 301 and 302 redirects — the real thing, sent by the server before your page loads, not a slow client-side meta refresh.

The _redirects file

Create a plain text file named _redirects and make sure it ends up in your published output (the folder we serve). One rule per line:

# Moved a page
/old-page          /new-page          301

# Send an old section to a new one
/blog/*            /articles/         301

# A temporary redirect
/launch            /                  302

Each line is FROM TO [CODE]:

  • FROM and TO are paths on your own site, starting with /.
  • CODE is optional and defaults to 301 (permanent). Use 302 for a temporary move.
  • A trailing /* on FROM matches everything beneath that path.
  • Lines starting with # are comments; blank lines are ignored.

Redirects take effect on your next deploy, and you can have up to 500 per site.

Getting _redirects into your output

The file has to be in the folder we publish, so it depends on your generator:

FrameworkWhere to put it
Hugostatic/_redirects — Hugo copies everything in static/ to the output root.
JekyllAdd _redirects to your repo and either list it under include: in _config.yml, or copy it after the build: jekyll build && cp _redirects _site/.
StaticPut _redirects in the directory you serve.

You can confirm it shipped by opening https://yoursite/_redirects after a deploy.

Notes

  • Redirects are same-site (path to path on your own domains). To move a whole domain to another, set your primary domain instead — we redirect the others to it automatically.
  • If you’ve set a primary domain, test on it. Your other addresses (including the free *.my.statichost.uk one) already redirect everything to the primary domain first, so your path rules apply once a request lands there. Checking a rule on the my.statichost.uk address will just show that whole-domain redirect, not your path rule.
  • 301s are cached hard by browsers. If you get one wrong, fix the _redirects line and redeploy, then test in a private window (your browser may have cached the old one).