Redirect my website to HTTPS in cPanel/Linux

If you have a secure certificate (SSL) on your website, you can automatically redirect visitors to the secured (HTTPS) version of your website to make sure their information is protected.

How you redirect traffic depends on the type of hosting you have.

Note: These instructions do not apply to WordPress installed on cPanel. For more information, see Redirect my WordPress website to HTTPS in cPanel hosting

Linux-based accounts use .htaccess files to handle redirection.

If you do not have a .htaccess file:

Start by creating a .htaccess file in your public_html or webroot folder. Inside of the .htaccess file, you can use the following code to redirect visitors as long as you do not already have a .htaccess file set up:

RewriteEngine On 
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?coolexample\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.coolexample.com/$1 [R,L]

If you are hosting multiple websites on the same account, you will need to make sure that you have a .htaccess file set up in the directory of the website that has a SSL certificate issued.

If you have an existing .htaccess file:

  • Do not duplicate RewriteEngine On.
  • Make sure the lines beginning RewriteCond and RewriteRule immediately follow the already-existing RewriteEngine On.

More info