301 Redirect from non-www to ww -- Without Looping!

A non-www to www redirect loops when the rule keeps matching the address it just sent the visitor to. The usual culprits are a proxy such as Cloudflare that makes every request look like plain HTTP, two separate redirect blocks pointing different ways, or WordPress disagreeing with your .htaccess. The fix is one combined rule, placed at the top of .htaccess, that settles HTTPS and www in a single hop.

1. Why a www redirect loops

A redirect loop means the browser is sent from address A to address B, and then B sends it back to A (or to B again). The browser gives up with "too many redirects" (ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS). With www redirects, the loop almost always comes from one of these:

Older guides, including an earlier version of this page, used a rule that redirected to http://www. on its own. On a site that also forces HTTPS, that sends visitors from HTTPS back to HTTP and round again. Always redirect to the final https:// address.

2. The rule that does not loop

Paste this at the very top of the .htaccess file in your website's root folder (usually public_html), above any # BEGIN WordPress block. Take a copy of the file first so you can undo in seconds.

# Canonical host: https://www.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?(.+)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://www.%2%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

It redirects only when the request is on HTTP or the host lacks www., and always to the final HTTPS address. At https://www.yourdomain.in neither condition matches, so the rule cannot loop on its own. The third line captures your domain without www. into %2, so you never type your domain name.

If your file already has a separate "force HTTPS" block, delete it. Two blocks create a two-hop chain at best and a loop at worst. The same goes for cPanel's "Force HTTPS Redirect" switch: use either the switch or this rule, not both.

Keep subdomains and folders out of it

The rule redirects every host that does not start with www., which includes subdomains such as blog.yourdomain.in if their folders sit inside public_html. To leave some alone, or to skip a folder, add lines directly above the RewriteRule:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(blog|shop)\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/blog(/|$) [NC]

The first line excludes the blog and shop subdomains; the second excludes the /blog folder. Keep only the one you need, and use your own names.

3. Behind Cloudflare or another proxy

With a proxy switched on, your server sees the proxy's connection, not the visitor's. In Cloudflare's Flexible SSL mode that connection is plain HTTP, so %{HTTPS} is always off and the rule redirects every request. Set Cloudflare to Full (strict) under SSL/TLS, Overview. Your hosting's free SSL certificate satisfies it, and the rule above then works unchanged.

If you truly cannot use Full (strict), the full redirect guide has a variant of the rule that also trusts the X-Forwarded-Proto header most proxies send.

If you use WordPress, set both address fields under Settings, General to exactly https://www.yourdomain.in, and turn off any plugin that does its own www or HTTPS redirect.

4. Test it without being fooled by caches

Two caches can hide the result of your change:

• Your browser remembers 301 redirects. Test in a private window, or use R=302 while testing and switch to R=301 when it is right.
• Our cPanel servers run a caching proxy in front of Apache that keeps redirects and pages for up to 120 minutes (measured 22 September 2026). Add a unique ?t= value to each test URL so the request reaches your new rule.

curl -I "http://yourdomain.in/?t=1"
curl -I "https://yourdomain.in/?t=2"
curl -I "http://www.yourdomain.in/?t=3"
curl -sIL --max-redirs 5 "http://yourdomain.in/contact?t=4" | grep -Ei '^(HTTP|location)'

The first three should return 301 with a Location: header pointing at https://www.yourdomain.in/.... The last one follows the whole path: you want exactly one redirect, then 200. More than one redirect is a chain; hitting the limit of 5 is a loop.

5. Where Domain India fits

On Domain India's Linux shared hosting (cPanel, DirectAdmin and Webuzo), mod_rewrite is already loaded and .htaccess files are allowed, so the rules above work as soon as you save. Free SSL is included, which is what the HTTPS part needs. Windows (Plesk) hosting runs IIS, which ignores .htaccess; redirects there go in web.config.

Frequently asked questions

Ready to set it up? Follow the full non-www to www redirect guide, learn the rule syntax in how to enable the mod_rewrite module, or compare cPanel and DirectAdmin hosting. Still looping? Open a support ticket with your domain and the rule you added.