How to redirect naked domain to www in cPanel

Some websites are available on both naked/bare domain and in the www subdomain, especially in automated system such as cPanel. This could cause confusion to the end user and if not configured correctly could also cause Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) issues.

While you can expect your website visitors to consciously choose whether to use the one with or without www, the better option is to pick one that you prefer and automatically redirect all your visitors to the preferred domain.

This could be done in a few ways, but cPanel users can configure this redirection from the cPanel dashboard.

Steps to to redirect naked domain to www (and vice versa) in cPanel:

1. Log in to your cPanel account.
2. Click on Redirects from the Domains section.
3. Select redirection type from the select list.

   This is normally to tell bot visitors such as Googlebot if the redirection is only for temporary or permanent. Naked-to-www redirection or vice versa is normally permanent.

4. Select the domain that you want to perform the redirect on from the list.
5. Leave the path empty.

   This applies the redirect to the whole domain.

6. Enter the full URL including http(s) and www in Redirects to field.

   Enter the domain without www if you're redirecting www traffic to non-www (bare/naked).

7. Select Do Not Redirect www. in www. redirection option.

   This is to exclude already-www traffic to also be redirected

   Select Only redirect with www. if you're redirecting www traffic to non-www (bare/naked).

8. Check on Wild Card Redirect checkbox.

   This pass full request path to the target instead of just redirecting to the specified path in Redirects to.

9. Click on Add button to apply the changes.
10. View generated .htaccess file in your public_html directory.

    .htaccess is a hidden file so you'll need to enabe Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) in the File Manager setting to see the file.