This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Segun Aderinola
Do you have a new domain name for your website and you are thinking of how to link the old and the new domain together such that if people visit the old domain it will forward or redirect the user to the new domain name?
In this article, we will be learning domain forwarding, how we can handle domain forwarding, and the reason why it is necessary.
What is Domain forwarding?
Sometimes a website is so good you have to name it twice, three times, or more. Included in the cost of the domain name, domain forwarding allows you to point one or more domain names to an existing website. You may be wondering why or how you would use additional domain names to drive traffic to your primary website. Misspellings, alternate extensions, abbreviations, or keywords are all popular examples of different domain names pointing to the same website.
For example;
If your domain is registered with GoDaddy (one of the most popular web hosting companies where you can host your websites) and your website is hosted by another web hosting company, you can forward your
GoDaddy domain to a site you've created with Wix, WordPress, or any other URL.
Reasons why you need domain forwarding
Misspelling: How many times have you accidentally typed facebok.com into your web browser? Think about how much traffic a domain name like that gets from people mistakenly entering the wrong address.
Facebook combats this by redirecting facebok.com, fasebook.com, and many other misspellings to their main website, facebook.com. If they hadn’t their users could end up on someone else’s website, a competitor perhaps. Web forwarding creates a seamless experience for users who might not have even realized their mistake.Abbreviations: Businesses, universities, and other such cases can use abbreviations as their main domain name or as their redirect. Kelly Blue Book uses web forwarding for this purpose. When you type kellybluebook.com into your web browser you will be redirected to their main website address kbb.com.
Keywords or Phrases: We don’t always get our first choice when it comes to usernames for our social media profiles or domain endings. If you didn’t get your name in .com you can always find a short and keyword-specific new domain ending to redirect to.
With the introduction of hundreds of new generic domains, web forwarding (also known as “Domain forwarding” or “URL forwarding”) is a great tool to have.
Why do we use hosting?
To build a website you will need both a domain name and a web hosting account. You need web hosting to store your website’s files. After you get hosting, you need to update your domain name settings and point it to your web hosting service provider. You can also buy both the domain and hosting from the same company.
Why webpage redirection is useful for website development?
A website redirect points your old URL to a new page. When anyone types in or click on that original URL they’ll be taken to the page you set the redirect up to instead. It ensures visitors don’t end up on a 404 page and instead find something relevant to what they were originally looking for.
Different types of Domain forwarding
There are two main types of domain forwarding;
1. Forward Only or HTTP 301 Forwarding
Forwarding as 301/redirect forwards your domain name to another URL while changing the name to the forwarded-to site’s address in the browser location bar. This is the most popular option of web forwarding.
Redirects visitors to a destination URL of your choosing
Keeps the destination URL in the browser address bar
For example, you have a domain name called www.old.com and you forward the domain to another domain say www.new.com. If the user visits www.old.com, the user will be redirected to www.new.com, but www.old.com will be displayed in the URL bar.
2. Forward with Masking (Cloaking Forwarding)
Forwarding with masking forwards your domain name to another URL while keeping the original name in the browser location bar. This prevents visitors from seeing your forwarded-to domain name.
Redirects visitors to a destination URL of your choosing
Keeps your domain name in the browser address bar
Allows you to enter meta-tags for search engine information
For example, you have a domain name called www.this.com and you forward the domain to another domain say www.new.com. If the user visits www.old.com, the user will be redirected to www.new.com, and www.new.com will be displayed in the URL bar.
How do I redirect a domain to another?
Redirecting a new domain or subdomain (legacy)
- log in to your domain hosting account.
- Navigate to the Manage Domains page. The Manage Domains page opens.
- Click the Add Hosting to a Domain / Sub-Domain button.
- Scroll down to the Redirect section.
- Enter the information in the following fields:
- Click the Redirect this domain button to complete the setup.
I hope you found this article helpful 🙂.
Thanks for reading ❤️.
Happy coding 💻!
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Segun Aderinola
Segun Aderinola | Sciencx (2022-04-16T05:34:14+00:00) How to Forward a domain to another domain. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2022/04/16/how-to-forward-a-domain-to-another-domain/
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