← Back to Blog

How to Redirect a Subdomain URL to a URL Subdirectory on Amazon AWS

As a data scientist or software engineer working with web applications, you may have found yourself in a situation where you need to redirect a subdomain URL to a URL subdirectory on Amazon AWS. This can be a complex task if you’re unfamiliar with the process, but with this guide, it will become a breeze.
By Saturn Cloud | | Miscellaneous

How to Redirect a Subdomain URL to a URL Subdirectory on Amazon AWS

As a data scientist or software engineer working with web applications, you may have found yourself in a situation where you need to redirect a subdomain URL to a URL subdirectory on Amazon AWS. This can be a complex task if you’re unfamiliar with the process, but with this guide, it will become a breeze.

What is URL Redirection?

Before we delve into the how-to, let’s quickly understand what URL redirection is. URL redirection, also known as URL forwarding, is a technique used to make a web page available under more than one URL address. When a web browser attempts to open a URL that’s been redirected, it opens a different URL.

Why Redirect a Subdomain URL to a URL Subdirectory?

There can be multiple reasons for this:

  1. SEO Purposes: Search engines generally treat subdomains as separate websites, which can dilute your SEO efforts. By redirecting to a subdirectory, all SEO value is consolidated on the main domain.
  2. Site Structure: You may want to move your content around without breaking links.
  3. Rebranding or Migration: If you’re migrating to AWS or rebranding, you may want to keep old URLs functional.

How to Redirect a Subdomain URL to a URL Subdirectory on Amazon AWS

You can achieve this redirection using AWS services like Amazon Route 53 and AWS CloudFront along with S3 for storage.

Step 1: Set Up an S3 Bucket

Amazon S3 is a simple storage service that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data.

1. Navigate to the S3 service in your AWS Management Console.
2. Click on 'Create Bucket'.
3. Name your bucket. Ensure that it matches the name of the subdomain you wish to redirect.
4. Uncheck 'Block all public access' and acknowledge the warning.
5. Create the bucket.

Step 2: Enable Website Hosting

After creating the bucket, you need to enable static website hosting and set the redirection rules.

1. Click on your newly created bucket and navigate to the 'Properties' tab.
2. In the 'Static website hosting' box, click on 'Edit'.
3. Select 'Redirect requests' and in the 'Target bucket or domain' field, enter the domain name of your website, followed by the subdirectory.
4. Set the 'Protocol' to 'https' to ensure secure communication. Click 'Save changes'.

Step 3: Set Up a CloudFront Distribution

AWS CloudFront is a fast content delivery network (CDN) service that securely delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs to your viewers with low latency and high transfer speeds.

1. Navigate to the CloudFront service in your AWS Management Console and click 'Create Distribution'.
2. In the 'Origin Settings', set the 'Origin Domain Name' to the endpoint of your S3 bucket.
3. In the 'Distribution Settings', set the 'Viewer Protocol Policy' to 'Redirect HTTP to HTTPS'.
4. Create the distribution.

Step 4: Configure Route 53

Amazon Route 53 is a scalable and highly available domain name system (DNS). It’s designed to give developers a reliable way to route end users to internet applications by translating names into the numeric IP addresses.

1. Navigate to the Route 53 service in your AWS Management Console.
2. In your hosted zone, create a new record set.
3. Set the 'Name' to match your subdomain and the 'Alias Target' to your CloudFront distribution.
4. Save the record set.

And voila! You’ve successfully redirected a subdomain URL to a URL subdirectory on Amazon AWS. This technique not only helps streamline your site structure but also consolidates your SEO efforts, making it a valuable addition to your data science or software engineering toolkit.

Conclusion

Understanding how to redirect a subdomain URL to a URL subdirectory on Amazon AWS is a critical skill for any data scientist or software engineer. With this guide, we hope you’ve gained the confidence to implement this process quickly and efficiently in your projects.

About Saturn Cloud

Saturn Cloud is your all-in-one solution for data science & ML development, deployment, and data pipelines in the cloud. Spin up a notebook with 4TB of RAM, add a GPU, connect to a distributed cluster of workers, and more. Join today and get 150 hours of free compute per month.

Try Saturn Cloud Now