Redirect from an HTML page

1670

votes

Is it possible to set up a basic HTML page to redirect to another page on load?

To follow modern web standards and provide cross-browser functionality, I prefer to use this advanced redirect generator – Patartics Milán

Use .htaccess or IIS equivalent to do a server-side redirect. That way, even if your physical page disappears, the redirect will still work. – flith

insider.zone/tools/client-side-url-redirect-generator Is a nice little tool that ensures compatability. – mackycheese21

That insider.zone tool made my redirects all lower case, causing 404s. Plus there is no way to contact whoever made the page about it. – Dan Jacobson 積丹尼

2244

votes

Try using:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://example.com/" />

Note: Place it in the head section.

Additionally for older browsers if you add a quick link in case it doesn't refresh correctly:

<p><a href="http://example.com/">Redirect</a></p>

Will appear as

Redirect

This will still allow you to get to where you're going with an additional click.

1145

votes

I would use both meta, and JavaScript code and would have a link just in case.

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en-US">
    <head>
        <meta charset="UTF-8">
        <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://example.com">
        <script type="text/javascript">
            window.location.href = "http://example.com"
        </script>
        <title>Page Redirection</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <!-- Note: don't tell people to `click` the link, just tell them that it is a link. -->
        If you are not redirected automatically, follow this <a href='http://example.com'>link to example</a>.
    </body>
</html>

For completeness, I think the best way, if possible, is to use server redirects, so send a 301 status code. This is easy to do via .htaccess files using Apache, or via numerous plugins using WordPress. I am sure there are also plugins for all the major content management systems. Also, cPanel has very easy configuration for 301 redirects if you have that installed on your server.

137

votes

JavaScript

<script type="text/javascript">
    window.location.href = "http://example.com";
</script>

Meta tag

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://example.com">

40

votes

I would also add a canonical link to help your SEO people:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish"/>

29

votes

The following meta tag, placed between inside the head, will tell the browser to redirect:

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="seconds; url=URL">

Replace seconds with the number of seconds to wait before it redirects, and replace URL with the URL you want it to redirect to.

Alternatively, you can redirect with JavaScript. Place this inside of a script tag anywhere on the page:

window.location = "URL"

29

votes

This is a sum up of every previous answers plus an additional solution using HTTP Refresh Header via .htaccess

1. HTTP Refresh Header

First of all, you can use .htaccess to set a refresh header like this

Header set Refresh "3"

This is the "static" equivalent of using the header() function in PHP

header("refresh: 3;");

Note that this solution is not supported by every browser.

2. JavaScript

With an alternate URL:

<script>
    setTimeout(function(){location.href="http://example.com/alternate_url.html"} , 3000);
</script>

Without an alternate URL:

<script>
    setTimeout("location.reload(true);",timeoutPeriod);
</script>

Via jQuery:

<script>
    window.location.reload(true);
</script>

3. Meta Refresh

You can use meta refresh when dependencies on JavaScript and redirect headers are unwanted

With an alternate URL:

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="3; url=http://example.com/alternate_url.html">

Without an alternate URL:

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="3">

Using <noscript>:

<noscript>
    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="3" />
</noscript>

Optionally

As recommended by Billy Moon, you can provide a refresh link in case something goes wrong:

If you are not redirected automatically: <a href='http://example.com/alternat_url.html'>Click here</a>

Resources

28

votes

If you are looking forward to follow modern web standards, you should avoid plain HTML meta redirects. If you can not create server-side code, you should choose JavaScript redirect instead.

To support JavaScript-disabled browsers add a HTML meta redirect line to a noscript element. The noscript nested meta redirect combined with the canonical tag will help your search engine rankings as well.

If you would like to avoid redirect loops, you should use the location.replace() JavaScript function.

A proper client-side URL redirect code looks like this (with an Internet Explorer 8 and lower fix and without delay):

<!-- Pleace this snippet right after opening the head tag to make it work properly -->

<!-- This code is licensed under GNU GPL v3 -->
<!-- You are allowed to freely copy, distribute and use this code, but removing author credit is strictly prohibited -->
<!-- Generated by http://insider.zone/tools/client-side-url-redirect-generator/ -->

<!-- REDIRECTING STARTS -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://stackoverflow.com/"/>
<noscript>
    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; URL=https://stackoverflow.com/">
</noscript>
<!--[if lt IE 9]><script type="text/javascript">var IE_fix=true;</script><![endif]-->
<script type="text/javascript">
    var url = "https://stackoverflow.com/";
    if(typeof IE_fix != "undefined") // IE8 and lower fix to pass the http referer
    {
        document.write("redirecting..."); // Don't remove this line or appendChild() will fail because it is called before document.onload to make the redirect as fast as possible. Nobody will see this text, it is only a tech fix.
        var referLink = document.createElement("a");
        referLink.href = url;
        document.body.appendChild(referLink);
        referLink.click();
    }
    else { window.location.replace(url); } // All other browsers
</script>
<!-- Credit goes to http://insider.zone/ -->
<!-- REDIRECTING ENDS -->

26

votes

It would be better to set up a 301 redirect. See the Google's Webmaster Tools article 301 redirects.

18

votes

You could use a META "redirect":

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://new.example.com/address" />

or JavaScript redirect (note that not all users have JavaScript enabled so always prepare a backup solution for them)

<script language="javascript">
  window.location = "http://new.example.com/address";
</script>

But I'd rather recommend using mod_rewrite, if you have the option.

14

votes

As soon as the page loads, the init function is fired and the page is redirected:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Example</title>
        <script>
            function init()
            {
               window.location.href = "www.wherever.com";
            }
        </script>
    </head>

    <body onload="init()">
    </body>
</html>

10

votes

Place the following code between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags of your HTML code:

<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://example.com/index.html">

The above HTML redirect code will redirect your visitors to another web page instantly. The content="0; may be changed to the number of seconds you want the browser to wait before redirecting.

9

votes

Put the following code in the <head> section:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://address/">

9

votes

I found a problem while working with a jQuery Mobile application, where in some cases my Meta header tag wouldn't achieve a redirection properly (jQuery Mobile doesn't read headers automatically for each page so putting JavaScript there is also ineffective unless wrapping it in complexity). I found the easiest solution in this case was to put the JavaScript redirection directly into the body of the document, as follows:

<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
        <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=myURL" />
    </head>

    <body>
        <p>You are not logged in!</p>
        <script language="javascript">
            window.location = "myURL";
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

This seems to work in every case for me.

8

votes

The simple way which works for all types of pages is just to add a meta tag in the head:

<html>
    <head>
        ...
        <meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="seconds; url=your.full.url/path/filename">
        ...
    </head>
    <body>
        Don't put much content, just some text and an anchor.
        Actually, you will be redirected in N seconds (as specified in content attribute).
        That's all.
        ...
    </body>
</html>

8

votes

You can auto redirect by HTTP Status Code 301 or 302.

For PHP:

<?php
    Header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
    Header("Location: http://www.redirect-url.com");
?>

8

votes

I use a script which redirects the user from index.html to relative url of Login Page

<html>
  <head>
    <title>index.html</title>
  </head>
  <body onload="document.getElementById('lnkhome').click();">
    <a href="/Pages/Login.aspx" id="lnkhome">Go to Login Page<a>
  </body>
</html>

7

votes

You should use JavaScript. Place the following code in your head tags:

<script type="text/javascript">
 window.location.assign("http://www.example.com")
</script>

6

votes

Just for good measure:

<?php
header("Location: [email protected]", TRUE, 303);
exit;
?>

Make sure there are no echo's above the script otherwise it will be ignored. http://php.net/manual/en/function.header.php

6

votes

Just use the onload event of the body tag:

<body onload="window.location = 'http://example.com/'">

5

votes

Razor engine for a 5 second delay:

<meta http-equiv="Refresh"
         content="5; [email protected]("Search", "Home", new { id = @Model.UniqueKey }))">

5

votes

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <meta charset="UTF-8">
        <title>Redirect to a page</title>
    </head>
    <body onload="window.location.assign('http://example.com')">

    </body>
</html>

4

votes

You don't need any JavaScript code for this. Write this in the <head> section of the HTML page:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=example.com" />

As soon as the page loads at 0 seconds, you can go to your page.

3

votes

As far as I understand them, all the methods I have seen so far for this question seem to add the old location to the history. To redirect the page, but do not have the old location in the history, I use the replace method:

<script>
    window.location.replace("http://example.com");
</script>

2

votes

This is a redirect solution with everything I wanted but could not find in a nice clean snippet to cut & paste.

This snippet has a number of advantages:

lets you catch and retain any querystring params folks have on their url
makes the link unqiue to avoid unwanted caching
lets you inform users of the old and new site names
shows a settable countdown
can be used for deep-link redirects as retains params

How to use:

If you migrated an entire site then on the old server stop the original site and create another with this file as the default index.html file in the root folder. Edit the site settings so that any 404 error is redirected to this index.html page. This catches anyone who accesses the old site with a link into a sub-level page etc.

Now go to the opening script tag and edit the oldsite and newSite web addresses, and change the seconds value as needed.

Save and start your website. Job done - time for a coffee.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="CACHE-CONTROL" CONTENT="NO-CACHE">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="PRAGMA" CONTENT="NO-CACHE">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="EXPIRES" CONTENT="Mon, 22 Jul 2002 11:12:01 GMT">
<style>
body { margin: 200px; font: 12pt helvetica; }
</style>

</head>
<body>

</body>
<script type="text/javascript">

// Edit these to suit your needs.
var oldsite = 'http://theoldsitename.com'
var newSite = "https://thenewsitename.com";
var seconds = 20;  // countdown delay.

var path = location.pathname;
var srch = location.search;
var uniq = Math.floor((Math.random() * 10000) + 1);
var newPath = newSite + path + (srch === '' ? "?" + uniq : srch + "&" + uniq); 


document.write ('<p>As part of hosting improvements, the system has been migrated from ' + oldsite + ' to</p>');
document.write ('<p><a href="' + newPath + '">' + newSite + '</a></p>');
document.write ('<p>Please take note of the new website address.</p>');
document.write ('<p>If you are not automatically redirected please click the link above to proceed.</p>');
document.write ('<p id="dvCountDown">You will be redirected after <span id = "lblCount"></span>&nbsp;seconds.</p>');

function DelayRedirect() {
    var dvCountDown = document.getElementById("dvCountDown");
    var lblCount = document.getElementById("lblCount");
    dvCountDown.style.display = "block";
    lblCount.innerHTML = seconds;
    setInterval(function () {
        seconds--;
        lblCount.innerHTML = seconds;
        if (seconds == 0) {
            dvCountDown.style.display = "none";
            window.location = newPath;
        }
    }, 1000);
}
DelayRedirect()

</script>
</html>

0

votes

You can do it in javascript:

location = "url";

Redirect from an HTML page

25 Answers

JavaScript

Meta tag