Cloudflare DNS: How to 301 Redirect all traffic from Sub Domain to Main Domain with URL path?

Question

I am using cloudflare to manage my domain, and I wanted to add a subdomain. I tried to do this:

But it gives me an error. How would I add a subdomain like blog.example.com that sends to example.com/blog ?

Solution

The error you are receiving is because CNAME's only support domain names and not URL paths. You can setup a redirect using your hosting account or Cloudflare Page Rules.

14 Step Cloudflare Process in redirecting traffic from subdomain to main domain using Page Rules:

1. Login to Cloudflare
2. Use the drop-down menu in the upper left of your screen and click your domain that you want the redirect to take place on.
3. Click the DNS icon at the top of the screen.
4. Select CNAME using the drop-down options
5. Add the sub domain in NAME
6. Add your domain name in Domain name
7. Leave TTL as automatic and Cloudclare enabled, click Add Record button.
8. Click Page Rules icon
9. Click Create Page Rule button
10. Add alexa.example.com/* in the URL match field
11. Click + Add a Setting, find Forwarding URL and click it
12. Select the status code 301 - Permanent Redirect
13. Add the Enter destination URL as http://example.com/alexaSkillDemo
14. Click Save and Deploy button.

Comments

[Simon Hayter]

Do you mind if the URL redirects or do you want it masked? you won't be able to use Cloudflares free SSL if you want it to MASK. Mask = blog.example.com appears in the address bar, redirect = blog.example.com changes to example.com/blog

[Stephen Ostermiller]

Yet another question from somebody who is confused between DNS CNAME and HTTP redirects. :( I feel like we get two of these a week.

[user4358892340]

Not sure what you mean with option 2. I'm hosting on github pages, so not really sure what to do

[Simon Hayter]

I've updated the answer... just follow those 14 steps and your good to go.

[user4358892340]

Is there any way to do it without using a page rule, as I only have one left, and I was hoping to add other subdomains

[Simon Hayter]

Okay so you want to use a GitHub Repository with your sub domain?

[user4358892340]

Here it is webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/105899/…

[phfeiler]

If things still don't work, try setting up an HTML redirect like this github.com/deepdrive/smooth-redirect - I think doing so allowed the page rule to take effect as the underlying CNAME link was now returning, meaning the HTML redirect is not used at all, but serves as a kind of backup I guess.