---
title: Adding custom redirects with custom-redirects.php
url: "https://pressable-staging.mystagingwebsite.com/knowledgebase/adding-custom-redirects-with-php/"
published: 2019-01-07
modified: 2025-09-11
author: Wayne McWilliams
---

Although there are plugins (such as [Redirection](https://wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/)) that can help you create redirects on your site, there is a way to have more (programmatic) control over redirects on our platform: `custom-redirects.php.`

`custom-redirects.php` is called before our must-use page caching plugin ([Batcache](https://pressable-staging.mystagingwebsite.com/knowledgebase/how-does-batcache-page-caching-work/)), the PHP rendered in this file is exempt from page caching by default. In other words, using `$_SERVER['GEOIP_COUNTRY_CODE']` or another variable, which will vary from user-to-user, won’t be cached in custom-redirects.php, but it would be cached if used in a plugin or a theme.

To implement redirects on a Pressable site without using a plugin, first, you need to add the `custom-redirects.php` file in your site’s web root (`htdocs`) by using your [SFTP](https://pressable-staging.mystagingwebsite.com/knowledgebase/setup-and-use-sftp-to-connect-to-your-wordpress-site/) or [SSH](https://pressable-staging.mystagingwebsite.com/knowledgebase/connect-to-ssh-on-pressable/) access. First, connect to the site, change the directory to `htdocs` and then create or place the `custom-redirects.php` file there.

Once you have created the file, you must add your PHP code.

## Examples

Below are some example code snippets that can be used in `custom-redirects.php`.

**Note: Don’t forget to add an opening `<?php` PHP tag to your code.**

## Page Redirect

You want to redirect `https://test.mystagingwebsite.com/subdir` to `https://test.mystagingwebsite.com/subdir-new`. In this case, you could insert the following code into custom-redirects.php:

```
if ( $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] == '/subdir' ) {
    header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
    header('Location: /subdir-new');
    exit;
}
```

## Site Redirect

You want to redirect a root domain or sub-domain for ex https://your-domain.site.com to an external URL https://externeral-url.com/news. In this case, you could insert the following code into custom-redirects.php:

```
if ( $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == 'your-domain.site.com' && 
    $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] == '/' ) {
    header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
    header('Location: https://externeral-url.com/news'); 
    exit;
}
```

## Geographic Blocking by Country Code

In the example below, we’ll restrict access via country codes ([Alpha-2 ISO 3166-1 country codes](https://href.li/?https://www.geonames.org/countries/) from MaxMind’s DB). Specifically, this example allows access from the United States and Canada while also permitting requests from CLI.

```

/**
 * GEOGRAPHIC ACCESS RESTRICTION
 * 
 * This segment of code is designed to restrict access to the website based on the geographic location of the user.
 * It checks the server API to ensure that the geographic checks are only applied in web contexts, not CLI or FPM.
 * Allowed countries are defined in the $allowedCountries array. Requests from other countries are blocked with a 404 response.
 *
 * Dependencies: Requires server variables set by the GeoIP module.
 * 
 * @author Joshua Goode, Automattic
 * @date 2024-04-29
 * @version 1.0.0
 */

// Array of allowed country codes
$allowedCountries = ['US', 'CA'];

// Get the current server API
$api = php_sapi_name();
// Bypass geo checks for non-web server APIs
if ($api == 'cli') {
    return; // Early exit for CLI or FPM contexts
}

// Retrieve the country code or default to blocking access
$countryCode = $_SERVER['GEOIP_COUNTRY_CODE'] ?? 'Unknown';  // Using null coalescing operator for clarity

// Block access if the country code is not allowed
if (!in_array($countryCode, $allowedCountries)) {
    header('HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found', true, 404);
    exit;
}

// End of Geographic Access Restriction code 
```

## Custom Headers

You may also use custom-redirects.php to add custom headers to PHP requests. Visit our 
[Adding Custom Headers to Your WordPress Site](https://pressable-staging.mystagingwebsite.com/knowledgebase/adding-custom-headers-to-wordpress-site/) guide for more on this usage.