Redirect www and apex to one host on nginx

Why it matters

Both names serve the site, so search engines see duplicate pages and logins, cookies and HSTS are split between two hosts. Pick one canonical host and permanently redirect the other to it.

The fix

1. Remove www.example.com from the server_name of the main server, add the server below (the certificate must cover both names), run sudo nginx -t and reload.

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    listen [::]:443 ssl;
    server_name www.example.com;
    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
    return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;
}

The examples use example.com. Replace it with your own domain.

Read the documentation ↗(opens in a new tab)

Related

• Reported by the HTTP to HTTPS redirect check
• Serve the site over HTTPS
• Stop redirecting HTTPS to HTTP
• Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
• Fix the broken HTTPS redirect chain
• Shorten the redirect chain
• Fix the HTTP redirect chain
• Redirect HTTP straight to HTTPS
• Answer HTTP with a redirect to HTTPS
• Make the www or apex name work over HTTPS