# How to Use CloudFlare to Redirect www to Non-www

Have you ever needed to make sure your website works with both www and non-www versions?

I did too!

My website is served at [https://thesshguy.com](https://thesshguy.com), but I also wanted [https://www.thesshguy.com](https://www.thesshguy.com) to work.

### The Problem with Two Versions

The first thing I tried was to add `A` and `AAAA` DNS records for both versions. While that does *work*, there's a problem with this approach. Google and other search engines get confused because it looks like there are two versions of my website.

When [Google tries to index my website, there's no clear answer to which is the canonical version](https://blog.thesshguy.com/google-search-indexing#heading-google-analyzes-content-and-collects-signals).

So what can we do instead?

### Improve Things with Redirects

Since we have two versions, we can redirect one to the other to improve things. This tells web crawlers which version is the main one. I used a Cloudflare rule to redirect the www version to the non-www version.

> Note: I had to include DNS records and add a redirect rule for things to work correctly.

Here's how you can do it too.

### Steps to Set Up the Redirect

> Note: Make sure to use your own website in place of mine.

1. Log into your Cloudflare account
    
2. Go to **Rules > Redirect Rules**
    
    ![A menu displaying various rule options including "Rules," "Configuration Rules," "Transform Rules," "Redirect Rules" (highlighted), "Origin Rules," "Page Rules" (marked as Deprecated), and "Settings."](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1717096501580/2d4966a1-3488-4185-a44f-41f3de40a15e.png align="center")
    
3. Click **Create rule** under Single Redirects
    
4. Name your rule (I named mine "**WWW to Non WWW**")
    
5. Set up a custom filter like this:
    
    * Field: `Hostname`
        
    * Operator: `equals`
        
    * Value: `www.thesshguy.com`
        
    * URL redirect Type: `dynamic`
        
    * Expression: `concat("https://thesshguy.com", http.request.uri.path)`
        
    * Status Code: `301` (permanent redirect)
        

Here's what my rule looks like:

![Screenshot of a web interface for creating a new dynamic redirect rule. The rule is named "WWW to Non WWW". The interface includes options for matching incoming requests, with a custom filter expression set to match the hostname "www.thesshguy.com". The redirect type is dynamic, with an expression to concatenate "https://thesshguy.com" with the request URI path. The status code for the redirect is set to 301.](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1717097047277/4023efe3-05d2-4375-9564-64fe26f29243.png align="center")

And that's it!

Now your www version will redirect to the non-www version. Hopefully, this helps you set up your own Cloudflare redirects!