🔍 Overview
Two of the most common questions we receive about the Search Atlas redirections and hosting features are: Can Search Atlas enable a wildcard SSL certificate for my site? and Can Search Atlas automatically redirect 404 pages to the homepage? This article explains the current state of both features and how to get the best results today.
🔐 Wildcard SSL Certificates
A wildcard SSL certificate secures a root domain and all of its subdomains under a single certificate (for example, *.yourdomain.com). This eliminates the need to issue and renew separate certificates for each subdomain.
Here is what you need to know about wildcard SSL in Search Atlas:
- Search Atlas infrastructure: Our own platform already uses consolidated wildcard TLS certificates across *.searchatlas.com subdomains, ensuring secure and reliable connections to all platform services.
- Your site's SSL: Wildcard SSL for customer-owned domains is managed at the hosting or DNS provider level — for example, through Cloudflare, your web host, or a certificate authority such as Let's Encrypt. Search Atlas does not issue or manage SSL certificates for external domains.
- What to do: If you need a wildcard SSL certificate for your own domain, contact your hosting provider or DNS service. Most modern hosts offer free wildcard certificates via Let's Encrypt or similar services.
↩️ Redirecting 404 Pages to the Homepage
A 404-to-homepage redirect automatically sends visitors who land on a broken or non-existent URL to your homepage instead of seeing an error page. This is a common request for protecting user experience and preserving link equity.
The Search Atlas Redirections module (available through the WordPress plugin) allows you to create and manage redirect rules for your site. Here is how to set up a catch-all redirect for 404 errors:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Search Atlas plugin.
- Open Settings from the Search Atlas plugin menu and locate the Redirection toggle in the SEO Controls area.
- Click Add New Redirect.
- In the Source URL field, enter the pattern for the URLs you want to catch. For a broad catch-all, use a regex pattern that matches invalid URL paths on your site.
- Set the Destination URL to your homepage (for example, https://yourdomain.com/).
- Choose 301 (permanent) or 302 (temporary) as the redirect type, depending on your needs. A 301 is recommended for SEO purposes when the content is permanently gone.
- Save the rule and test it by visiting an invalid URL on your site to confirm the redirect works as expected.
Important: Use catch-all redirect rules with care. Redirecting every 404 to the homepage with a 301 can dilute your site's crawl budget and may send mixed signals to search engines about your site structure. Consider whether a custom 404 page or targeted redirects to relevant content would be a better fit for your situation.
⚠️ Known Limitations to Be Aware Of
We are committed to transparency about current platform limitations. Please keep the following in mind when working with the Redirections module:
- Wildcard redirect patterns: Full wildcard pattern matching (using * as a pattern type) is not currently supported in the Redirections module due to a technical constraint in how redirect pattern types are stored. Our team is aware of this limitation and is actively working on a resolution.
- Regex patterns: As an alternative to wildcard patterns, you can use regular expressions (regex) in the Source URL field to match a broad range of URL patterns. This gives you flexible control over which URLs are caught by a redirect rule.
- Testing redirects: Always test new redirect rules on a staging environment before applying them to your live site, especially when using broad patterns.
✅ Quick Reference: What Search Atlas Handles vs. Your Hosting Provider
- Search Atlas handles: Redirect rules via the Redirections module, HTTP-to-HTTPS redirects for platform URLs, and secure TLS for all Search Atlas services.
- Your hosting provider handles: SSL/TLS certificates for your own domain and subdomains, server-level redirect configurations (such as .htaccess or Nginx rules), and wildcard certificate issuance and renewal.
💬 Need More Help?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.