Use a homepage redirect if you want to temporarily redirect your audience from your Thinkific Home page to another page of your choice (useful if your site is not ready yet, or 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 simple to set up within your theme!
In this article:
What does redirecting your home page do?
How to Redirect Your Home Page to Another Page
How to Redirect Your Home Page to a Custom URL
What does redirecting your home page do?
When you set up a redirect, your old URL will redirect your visitors to a new page. Visitors who type in or click on your Thinkific URL (yoursite.thinkific.com) will be automatically taken to the page you set the redirect up to instead. This means your home page will never be visible. If you would like an overview of what redirects are used for, check out: Understanding Home Page Redirects.
How to Redirect Your Home Page to Another Page
If you'd like to redirect your homepage to a different page within your Thinkific course, follow the instructions below.
- Go to Design Your Site
- Select Site Pages
- 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!
How to 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.
- Go to Design Your Site
- Select Site Pages
- 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 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. If they are existing students and currently logged in, they will simply need to input payment details.
When redirecting to a checkout page, please be aware of the following:
- Do not select a course that is set as Private. Private courses intentionally have the checkout blocked, so any redirect to a Private course will simply display your course landing page instead.
- Only set up redirects to courses that are published, as unpublished courses will also load the course landing page instead.
- If your course has only one price, the checkout linked 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 view all pricing options before purchase, we recommend redirecting to your course 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 landing page (also called sales page) of a specific course.
Bundle page
You can redirect to your bundle landing page (also called sales page) of a specific bundle.
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.
Custom pages
You can redirect your home page to any Custom page you have created. In the following example, you can see a page named About Me. 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.
All courses
The All courses page is a default page in Site Builder and will display all 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. It can be accessed at yoursite.thinkific.com/pages/coming_soon
Sign in page
The Sign in page is a default page in Site Builder where student can login to access their courses. It can be accessed at yoursite.thinkific.com/users/sign_in
Sign up page
The Sign up page is a default page in Site Builder where new students can create an account. It is not common to direct visitors to this page because they are required to create an account when enrolling in any of your courses. We only recommend this option if you specifically want visitors to sign up, but not have access to any courses just yet. It can be accessed at yoursite.thinkific.com/users/sign_up
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. This page can be accessed at yoursite.thinkific.com/enrollments
Testing Your Redirect
Once you have saved your redirect, you will see a redirect icon and the name of the page by hovering over the Redirected to URL icon from within your Site pages menu:
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