What is Domain Forwarding?
Domain forwarding is a feature that allows you to automatically redirect anyone who visits your domain to another website or URL. When you set up domain forwarding, you point your domain (e.g.example.com) to another domain or webpage (e.g., newsite.com), so when someone types your domain name into their browser, they’re automatically taken to the new destination.
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This is useful if:
- You’ve changed your website to a new domain and want to direct users to the new site.
- You own multiple domains and want them all to point to a single website.
- You have a temporary page set up for an event or a promotion.
How to Set Up Domain Forwarding
Setting up domain forwarding typically depends on the domain registrar or hosting provider you use. However, the general steps remain consistent across most platforms:
- Log in to Your Domain Registrar: Sign in to the domain management dashboard of your registrar.
- Locate Domain Forwarding Settings: Find the domain you wish to forward and navigate to the domain forwarding settings. This is often found under sections like “DNS Settings,” “Domain Management,” or “Forwarding.”
- Choose the Forwarding Option: You will typically be asked to specify the destination URL where you want to forward traffic. This is the URL that users will be redirected to when they type your domain.
- Select Forwarding Type:
- 301 Permanent Forwarding: This tells search engines that the domain is permanently moved to another location.
- 302 Temporary Forwarding: This tells search engines that the move is temporary.
- Save Changes: After entering the destination URL and selecting the forwarding type, save your settings.
It might take a few minutes to a few hours for the forwarding to take effect across the web.
What is Domain Redirection?
Domain redirection is similar to domain forwarding but usually refers to more technical forms of redirection done on the server-side. The key difference is in how these redirects are implemented and handled by web servers and search engines.
There are several types of redirection commonly used:
- 301 Redirect (Permanent): This is a permanent redirect that tells search engines and browsers that the page or domain has moved permanently. It passes the SEO “link juice” or ranking power from the old URL to the new one.
- 302 Redirect (Temporary): A temporary redirect that indicates the domain or page is temporarily moved to a new location. SEO benefits are not passed in this case since the move is not permanent.
- Meta Refresh: A type of redirect that refreshes the page after a specific time interval. It’s less commonly used and generally slower than server-side redirects.
Differences Between Domain Forwarding and Domain Redirection
| Domain Forwarding | Domain Redirection |
|---|---|
| Primarily done at the domain registrar level. | Done at the server level or through .htaccess or code. |
| Used for forwarding an entire domain to a new destination. | Typically used to redirect individual pages or domains to specific URLs. |
| Minimal control over how the forwarding occurs. | Offers more control, including redirect status (301, 302, etc.). |
| Simple setup with few technical details. | More complex to set up, often requiring server access or coding knowledge. |
| SEO value may not always pass through depending on registrar options. | 301 Redirects ensure full SEO ranking transfer to the new URL. |
| Common for basic user-level needs, such as redirecting a domain to another site. | Common for developers and site administrators who need granular control over redirects. |
Example Use Cases
- Domain Forwarding: You bought multiple domain variations for your brand (like
mybrand.org,mybrand.net), and you want them all to redirect to your main websitemybrand.com. - Domain Redirection: You’re moving content from
oldsite.com/page1tonewsite.com/page1permanently and want search engines to know that the new URL is the primary one for this content.
Conclusion
Both domain forwarding and domain redirection achieve similar outcomes but differ in their technical implementation and purpose. Domain forwarding is a simpler, user-friendly way to redirect traffic, while domain redirection offers more flexibility and control, especially in terms of SEO and server-level management.