Menu
How to Redirect to Another Page in HTML. To redirect one HTML page to another page, you need to add a <meta> tag inside the <head> section of the old HTML page. The <head> section of an HTML document contains metadata that is useful for the browser, but invisible to users viewing the page.
Redirects allow you to forward the visitors of a specific URL to another page of your website. In Site Tools, you can add redirects by going to Domain > Redirects. Choose the desired domain, fill in the URL you want to redirect to another and add the URL of the new page destination. When ready, click Create.
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that passes full link equity (ranking power) to the redirected page. 301 refers to the HTTP status code for this type of redirect. In most instances, the 301 redirect is the best method for implementing redirects on a website.
// use this to avoid redirects when a user clicks "back" in their browser
window.location.replace('http://somewhereelse.com');
// use this to redirect, a back button call will trigger the redirection again
window.location.href = "http://somewhereelse.com";
// given for completeness, essentially an alias to window.location.href
window.location = "http://somewhereelse.com";
edit: looks like the user who posted the better answer has left SO, i've consolidated his answers here.
Most advised? To not do it. HTTP is far better suited to the job than JavaScript is (search engines follow them, you can state if it is permanent or not, they are faster, etc).
Failing that…
If you want an immediate redirect:
window.location.replace('http://example.com/');This will replace the current URI with the new URI in the browser history, so the back button won't land the user on a page that immediately throws them forward again.
If you don't really want to redirect, but want to send the user somewhere in response to an event:
window.location.href = 'http://example.com/';Remember to have a non-JavaScript fallback. A link is usually the best option, but it does depend on context.
Time delayed redirects are an even worse idea. The only reason to use them is if you want to display a message to the user - and users read things at different speeds (and have them sitting in another tab while they do something else). If the message is important enough to show, then it should be important enough to leave on screen until the user has read it and clicked a link to the next page.
One important thing to remember when redirecting a page using JavaScript is, always provide a non-JavaScript redirect as well! A link would do, or better a <META> tag, for example: <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="2;url=http://example.com">
These days, I think the most advised method is not to do javascript (or meta) redirects. Do you really need it ? Could you use a redirect HTTP header instead ?
The W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (7.4) also discourage the creation of auto-refreshing pages, since most web browsers do not allow the user to disable or control the refresh rate
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With