Using Cloudflare redirect rules

Redirect rules, like redirecting http to https, are done by the web server

On Cloudflare, which is does not use Nginx as a web server, but a custom build one, follow these steps:

Redirecting to the root domain To make your root domain (e.g., example.com) redirect to your www subdomain (e.g., www.example.com), you need to set up a forwarding rule within your Cloudflare dashboard. This ensures that anyone who types the root domain is automatically sent to the www version, which is considered a best practice for consistency and SEO.

Step 1: Configure Your DNS Records

• Before setting up the redirect, you must have a DNS record for the root domain that is proxied through Cloudflare. This allows Cloudflare to intercept and handle the redirect.
• In your Cloudflare dashboard, go to the DNS app.
• Create an A record for your root domain. Use @ as the name.
• For the IPv4 address, you can use a placeholder IP like 192.0.2.1. This is a reserved IP that won’t route traffic to an actual server but will allow Cloudflare’s rules to apply.
• Make sure the Proxy status is set to Proxied (the orange cloud icon should be enabled).

Step 2: Create a Redirect Rule

• Redirect rules are the modern and recommended way to manage redirects in Cloudflare.
• In your Cloudflare dashboard, go to Rules > Redirect Rules.
• Click Create rule and give it a descriptive name like “Redirect root to www”.
• Under the When incoming requests match section, set up a rule expression.
• Choose Hostname as the field.
• Set the operator to equals.
• Enter your root domain (e.g., example.com) as the value.
• If you are matching all traffic, including HTTP and HTTPS, you can use the expression: (http.host eq “example.com”).