How to Redirect a WordPress Website to HTTPS for Linux Hosting

Website Security

After installing an SSL certificate on your Linux Hosting account, there are some modifications you’ll need to make to.htaccess file to automatically redirect visitors to the HTTPS version of a WordPress website.

 Note: These instructions don’t apply to Managed WordPress accounts with an SSL certificate as it automatically takes care of HTTPS redirection after installing the certificate.

  1. Log into your WordPress Dashboard.
  2. Hover over Settings on the left navigation panel, then click General.
  3. Locate the following fields on the new page:
    • WordPress Address (URL)
    • Site Address (URL)
  4. In each field, update your URLs to include https instead of http.
    • For example, http://myonlinefurniture.com would become https://myonlinefurniture.com.
  5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.
  6. Open your current .htaccess file in the /public_html/ folder with the cPanel file manager for editing. If you don’t already have a .htaccess file, you’ll need to create one.
  7. Insert the following code at the top of your .htaccess file:
# BEGIN GD-SSL
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^(.+)$
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} ^coolexample\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} ^www\.coolexample\.com$
RewriteRule .* https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
Header add Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=300"
</IfModule>
# END GD-SSL


# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

8. Click Save Changes at the top-right corner of the screen.

In this way, http requests of a WordPress website can be redirected to the https protocol.

Thanks for visiting. For queries and suggestions, emails are welcome at learnweb@hostingcolumn.com.

Subscribe to Hosting Column for latest updates and posts.