You might want to temporarily redirect your Thinkific Home page to another page of choice if your site is not ready yet or maybe you currently have only one course published and would like visitors to be sent directly to your Course Landing Page. Redirecting your Home page is a simple set up within your theme!
This article is for anyone using a Site Builder compatible theme.
This article will cover:
What Does Redirecting Your Home Page Do?
How to Redirect Your Home Page
What Does Redirecting Your Home Page Do?
When you redirect your Home page, 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. If you would like an overview of what redirects are used for, see HERE.
How to Redirect Your Home Page
- Go to Design Your Site
- Select Site Builder
- In the left menu, select Home page
- Select Redirect under the Home page heading
- Search or choose your desired page in the dropdown menu (see available options HERE)
- Once selected, 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 including:
Checkout page
This page is specific to any of your Thinkific products (courses or bundles) at a particular price. When redirecting visitors to a Checkout page, they will need to sign in or create a new account before proceeding to the payment details if they are not logged in.
When redirecting to a Checkout page, please be aware of the following:
- Do not select a course that is set as Private, as this will lead to a 404 error as all Private courses have their payment gateways disabled.
- Only set up redirects to courses that are published, as unpublished course will also lead to a 404 error.
Course page
You can redirect to your course landing page (also called sales page) of a selected course.
Bundle page
You can redirect to your bundle landing page (also called sales page) of a selected course.
Student dashboard
This is where students can select their course 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.
All Courses
The 'All courses' page is a Default page in Site Builder and will display all public courses and bundles. It can be accessed at yoursite.thinkific.com/collections
Coming Soon
The Coming soon page is a Default page in Site Builder that can be used for lead capture.
Custom Pages
You can redirect your Home page to any Custom page you have created. In the following example, you can see pages named Member's Area, Webinars and Blog. 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 be aware of 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.
- Make sure that your custom pages are published to prevent a 404 error.
Custom URL
This can be used for any URL you prefer like an external site for example. You can select the small blue square icon after saving this change to see what the destination URL will be.
Please keep in mind that this is a free text field and any site can be entered into this field (regardless of whether it exists or not). Make sure you should double check that it is the correct URL you want.
Testing Your Redirect
Once you have the redirect in place, you will see the page redirect preview as you first enter Site Builder:
Alternatively, if redirecting to a Custom URL, you will see a message confirming where the redirect is pointed to. For example:
To see what page you have the redirect pointing to, you can hover over the redirect. If this is a Site Builder page, when clicking on this, you will be taken directly to this page within Site Builder:
We also recommend testing your redirect by visiting your site using an incognito window or 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.
More About Redirects
Understanding Home Page Redirects
How to Delete Your Home Page Redirect