How to Redirect Non-WWW Requests to WWW Using Nginx

Post Date: March 3, 2017
Last Updated: September 28, 2026

Introduction

In this post, we will explain how to configure Nginx to redirect all non-www requests to the www version of a domain. This configuration ensures that visitors accessing the website without the www prefix are automatically redirected to the corresponding www URL.

Prerequisites

Before implementing this configuration, ensure that:

• Nginx is installed and running on the server.
• You have root or sudo access to the server.
• A valid domain name is configured and pointing to the server.
• You have access to the Nginx configuration file located at /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default.
• If Nginx is not installed, refer to the installation guides for Ubuntu 16.04 or CentOS 7 mentioned in this post.

Implementation

The default Nginx configuration file is /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default.

Open the Nginx configuration and add the following lines.

vi /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name domain.tld;

    return 301 http://www.domain.tld$request_uri;
}

Check for syntax errors

nginx -t

If there are no errors, restart the nginx service to make the changes take effect.

/etc/init.d/nginx restart

Conclusion

By adding the appropriate server block to the Nginx configuration, all non-www requests can be automatically redirected to the www version of the domain. After updating the configuration, use nginx -t to verify the syntax and restart Nginx to apply the changes. This provides a consistent URL format for accessing the website.

FAQs

1. Why should I redirect non-www requests to www?
Redirecting non-www requests to www ensures that visitors consistently access the website using a single URL format.

2. Where is the default Nginx configuration file located?
On Ubuntu systems, the default Nginx configuration is generally located at /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default.

3. How can I check whether the Nginx configuration has any errors?
Run the following command:

nginx -t

If the configuration is correct, Nginx will report that the syntax is OK.

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