How to Avoid Nginx Redirect Chaining for Cleaner URL Management

Learn how to achieve a direct URL redirect in Nginx without unnecessary redirections using regex expressions. Improve your site’s efficiency and SEO!
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/73004413/ asked by the user 'Dushyanth Manicks' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/18517830/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/73046908/ provided by the user 'Dushyanth Manicks' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/18517830/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Understanding Nginx Redirect Chaining

If you are managing a website using Nginx, you've probably encountered the issue of redirect chaining. This occurs when browser requests are sent through multiple redirects before reaching the final destination. In many cases, this not only adds unnecessary complexity but can also slow down your website and negatively impact search engine optimization (SEO).

The Problem: Unwanted Redirects

Consider a simple redirect chain that looks like this:

http://example.com

redirects to

https://www.example.com

and then

redirects to

https://example.com

In this scenario, you start with a non-HTTPS URL, redirect to a version that includes www, and then finally reach the desired non-www HTTPS version of the website.

What you ideally want is a single, straightforward redirect:

From http://example.com directly to https://example.com

The Solution: Simplifying Your Nginx Configuration

To achieve a more streamlined redirection, you can utilize the map directive in your Nginx configuration, which allows you to create variables based on the domain being accessed:

Step 1: Set Up the Map Block

The first part of the solution is correctly defining a map variable that captures the non-www version of the domain. This will simplify how we handle redirects:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In this code:

map $host $nonwwwhost defines a new variable $nonwwwhost based on the host of the incoming request ($host).

The regular expression ~*^www.(?P<domain3>\S+ )* captures any domain that starts with www. and stores the non-www part in the $domain3 variable.

Step 2: Implement the Redirect Logic

Once you have the map set up, you'll need to apply the redirect when the original request is using HTTP. You can do this with a simplified if statement:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In this statement:

When the incoming request scheme is http, Nginx will perform a 301 redirect to the HTTPS version of the non-www host.

Final Configuration Example

Putting it all together, the revised Nginx configuration could look like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This configuration effectively handles the redirection in a single step, eliminating the need for multiple hops from http to https and from www to non-www.

Conclusion

By understanding and applying the proper Nginx configurations, you can significantly streamline the redirect behavior of your website. This not only improves loading times but can also enhance your overall SEO rankings by creating a more direct path for users (and search engines) to reach your content.

If you find yourself dealing with similar issues, utilizing regex expressions in your map blocks is a powerful tool for enhancing your site's performance.

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