In classic SharePoint sites, it was possible to redirect users to a different site using a few different approaches. However modern SharePoint sites are more restrictive (for good) and offer different features that require different approaches.
Fortunately, if you need to redirect users when they try to access the homepage of a specific site, this can be easily achieved using a simple no-code solution.
I asked the question on Twitter to try to understand what other people were doing and Mahmoud Hassan came up with this great suggestion. Kudos to him!
News link for site redirect
The solution for modern SharePoint site redirect consists of creating a News link to the target site and setting the News link as the homepage of the site. When users try to access the site (homepage), they get immediately redirected.
On a modern site, you can easily create a News link from the New menu on the site
Or from the Add menu on the News web part
Provide the URL to the target site that you want to redirect users to, and the page data will be pre-loaded on the panel. Click Post to create the news link.
Next, simply access the Site Pages library, open the context menu for the newly created page, and make it the site homepage. It’s that simple!
Works for Classic sites too
But what if the site is a classic site? Well, you can still use the same approach as it’s so simple.
But how do you create a News link on a classic site?
If modern pages are not enabled on the site, activate the Site Pages feature
Next, simply go to the Site Pages library and create a new modern page on the site.
Add the News web part to the newly created page and click on the Add menu within the web part to create a News link
From this point, the steps are the same as modern sites.
Provide the URL to the target site that you want to redirect users to, and the page data will be pre-loaded on the panel. Click Post to create the news link.
Next, simply access the Site Pages library, open the context menu for the newly created page, and make it the site homepage.
And voilà, redirect on classic sites using a modern page feature.