Use a home page redirect if you want to temporarily redirect your audience from your Thinkific Home page to another page of your choice. It is useful if your site is not ready yet, or you currently have only one product published and would like visitors to be sent directly to your product or landing page. Redirecting your Home page is simple to set up!
In this article:
Redirect Your Home Page to Another Page
Redirect Your Home Page to a Custom URL
About This Feature
When you have a redirect in place for your Thinkific Home page, anyone who goes to your Home page will immediately be taken to the new destination. If a visitor navigates to your Thinkific URL (yoursite.thinkific.com), they will automatically be taken to the redirected page instead, so your Home page will never be visible. Essentially, the redirect will send site visitors and search engines to a different URL than the one they originally accessed in their browser.
One way to think of it is like mail forwarding. When you move to a new home, the post office has an optional service called mail forwarding, which will make sure that you don't lose any mail as you transition from your old house to the new location. This applies to websites as well. If you are moving from one URL to another or have a temporary page you would like your visitors to see when they access your site, a redirect can be used to make sure they get sent to the right place without the need to type in a unique URL in their browser!
There is a range of different reasons as to why you may want to redirect your Thinkific Home page:
- Maybe you only plan to launch with one product and want students to navigate straight to that landing or product page
- Perhaps you already have an external site and would like your Thinkific site to only show the checkout for a particular Thinkific product
- You might have a Coming Soon or Lead collection page that you would like temporarily displayed while you get ready for the launch
Either way, our Home Page Redirect feature can help you achieve that redirect without needing to dive into your theme code!
Important Considerations
- Make sure that the page that you have the redirect pointed to is a published/live page, whether it is on Thinkific or another site. If the page is not live, visitors will see a 404 error.
- When a redirect is in place, you will still be able to access your Home page through the Website section and edit it in Site Builder even though it will not be displayed to visitors. This means it can still be customized in case you would like to use your Home page at a later date.
- If you set up a Home Page redirect and change your mind later, that is no problem. It can be removed in a few quick steps!
Add a Home Page Redirect
In Thinkific you can redirect your Home Page to another Thinkific page or to a custom URL. A page set as a home page redirect will have a house icon on its card.
Redirect Your Home Page to Another Page
If you'd like to redirect your homepage to a different page, follow the instructions below.
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Channels
- Select Landing Pages or Website
- Find the page that you want to set as your redirected Home page
- Click the ellipses (three dots) and select Set as Home
- Your changes will be automatically applied!
Redirect Your Home Page to a Custom URL
If you'd like to redirect your homepage to a different page outside of Thinkific, follow the instructions below.
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Channels
- Select Website
- Verify that your default Home page is set as your current Home page
- Once you have verified your default Home page, click the ellipses (three dots) and select the Redirect to Custom URL option
- Type in your custom URL and click Save to apply changes!
Redirect Page Options
With the home page redirect, you can select your Thinkific URL to be navigated to a range of pages. Click on a section to learn more.
Checkout Page
This page is specific to any of your Thinkific products at a particular price.
When redirecting to a checkout page, please be aware of the following:
- Do not select a product that is set as Private. Private products intentionally have the checkout blocked, so any redirect to a Private product will simply display your product page instead.
- Only set up redirects to products that are published, as unpublished products will load the product page instead.
- If your product has only one price, the checkout link will default to the primary price. If you have created additional pricing options, you can select one specific pricing option. If you would prefer visitors to view all pricing options before purchase, we recommend redirecting to your product landing page instead.
To redirect your homepage to a checkout page, you will need to copy the URL for that checkout page, and set up a custom URL redirect (as outlined above), with the checkout page URL entered as the custom URL to redirect.
Course Page
You can redirect to your course product page of a specific course.
Community Page
You can redirect to your community product page of a specific community.
Digital Download Page
You can redirect to your digital download landing page of a specific digital download.
Coaching & Webinars Page
You can redirect to your coaching or webinar landing page of a specific event.
Membership Page
You can redirect to your membership product page of a specific membership.
Bundle Page
You can redirect to your bundle product page of a specific bundle.
Custom URL
You can redirect your home page to any Custom page you have created. For example, you can create a page named About Me and redirect your visitors there. Your custom page names will vary from this example and display the custom names you have given them.
When redirecting to a Custom page, please note the following:
- If your custom pages are restricted to only students who are signed in or enrolled in certain products, they will need to sign in before accessing that page.
- Your custom pages need to be published to prevent a 404 error.
Custom Pages
You can redirect to your course product page of a specific course.
All Products
The All Products page is a default page on your Website and will display all products. It can be accessed at yoursite.thinkific.com/collections, where yoursite is your Thinkific subdomain.
Coming soon
The Coming soon page is a default page on your Website that can be used for lead capture. It can be accessed at yoursite.thinkific.com/pages/coming_soon, where yoursite is your Thinkific subdomain.
Sign in page
The Sign in page is a default page on your Website where students can log in to access their purchased products. It can be accessed at yoursite.thinkific.com/users/sign_in, where yoursite is your Thinkific subdomain.
Sign up page
The Sign up page is a default page on your Website where new students can create an account. It is not common to direct visitors to this page because, be default, creating an account does not automatically enrol users into products. We only recommend this option if you specifically want visitors to sign up, but do not have access to any products just yet. However, consider other options to capture leads first: How to Generate Leads and Capture Emails.
This page can be accessed at yoursite.thinkific.com/users/sign_up, where yoursite is your Thinkific subdomain.
Custom Pages
This is where students can select their products and begin learning immediately. A redirect to the Student Dashboard is often used if you already have an external site and are simply using Thinkific for your learning portal. A student will need to sign in or create a new account before accessing their Student Dashboard. This page can be accessed at yoursite.thinkific.com/enrollments, where yoursite is your Thinkific subdomain.
Test Your Redirect
Once you have saved your redirect, you will see a redirect icon when opening a Home Page in Site Builder.
To test your redirect, visit your Thinkific site using an incognito window or a different browser where you are not currently logged in!
When a redirect is in place, you will still be able to edit your Home page in Site Builder even though it will not be displayed in the case you would like to use your Home page at a later date.
Remove Your Redirect
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Channels
- Select Website
- Locate your Home page
- Click the ellipses (three dots) and choose Set as Home
Be mindful of removing the redirect if you have one to ensure it does not disrupt your students' access or purchase workflow.