Domain Forwarding vs. Pointing a Domain

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Domain Forwarding vs. Pointing a Domain

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Point, forward, redirect

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What route to choose?

If you want to… Do this:
Use your new domain for your new website Register or transfer the domain name, then point that domain to your website.

  • If you use free shared hosting and your provider allows you to map a custom domain, search for and follow their instructions OR
  • If your shared hosting charges a premium for this service (example: wordpress.com), pay up and follow their instructions OR
  • If you are self-hosted, look for your host’s DNS servers (do a search if needed) and enter this information in the domain’s account backend.
Use the same site with a different domain name Register or transfer the domain name, then forward that domain to your existing website.
Use the same domain name with a different website on a different host Provided that the website exists,

  • AND your free shared hosting allows you to map a custom domain, search for and follow their instructions OR
  • AND your shared hosting charges a premium for this service (example: wordpress.com), pay up and follow their instructions OR
  • AND you are self-hosted, look for your host’s DNS servers (do a search if needed) and change this information in the domain’s account backend.
Use the same domain name with a different website on the same host (you are hosting more than one website within the same account and one website now gets a new domain name). Have the hosting company transfer your files and installed applications.
Forward traffic from an inactive or changed URL to an active page Create a URL redirect.
Direct a primary domain to a different page on your site Set a new homepage.
Direct a subdomain to the homepage on the same site Create a subdomain and set it as the primary domain.
Forward or point a domain/subdomain you registered through a third party Follow your provider’s documentation.

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Domain vs. URL

Reminder from our discussion on domain registration:

Everybody gets the two confused all the time. As we said, a DOMAIN is your marker on the map that is the world wide web. URL stands for “Universal Resource Locator”, which is the address any web PAGE gets/has on the Internet. In other words, the URL is the whole string of, say, “https://techresources.shoestringcollective.com/aboutus/” where the DOMAIN would simply be “techresources.shoestringcollective.com”. Which is to say, without a proper domain, this URL would not look like that. The two are related, but not the same.

Forward a domain Point a domain
When to use it To direct the domain URL to the new site or page’s URL To display the domain’s URL on the new site or page
What the visitor sees The domain URL changes to the second site or page’s URL The domain URL stays visible in the second site or page’s browser bar
What you need
  • The domain or subdomain name
  • A target URL, either on your site or any other site
  • The domain or subdomain name
  • A target URL to enter as a CNAME OR an IP address to enter as an A Record, from any external site.
How to set up your records Search for and follow your domain registrar’s instructions. Search for and follow your domain registrar’s instructions.

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301 and 302 redirects

What is the difference between a  permanent (301) and a temporary (302) URL redirect? When should you use them?

301 redirects

301 redirects are permanent. They tell browsers to go to a different URL when someone clicks a link to a nonexistent page. They tell search engines that a page has moved, and search engines transfer the old page’s Page Rank to the new page. To use a 301 redirect, the original URL can no longer exist.

Most likely, when creating a URL redirect, you’ll use a 301.

302 redirects

302 redirects are temporary. They tell browsers to go to a different URL when someone clicks a link to the old page. They tell search engines that a page has temporarily moved. Search engines don’t give the new page the same Page Rank as the old one. However, since this is temporary, it lets search engines know that the original page should keep its rankings, as it will be back online.

302 redirects are commonly used in eCommerce when a store or restaurant changes its products and offerings seasonally.

If you want to… Use this:
If you changed a page’s URL (in its Page Settings) 301 (permanent)
If you deleted a page from your site and want to redirect to your homepage 301 (permanent)
If URLs are different after importing content. In this scenario, it’s usually because your previous site didn’t have a page slug for the blog page, just posts. 301 (permanent)
If you’re redirecting to another domain 301 (permanent)
Note: To make sure that the permanent redirect is successful, ensure the old URL doesn’t exist and that the new URL does. You can do this by deleting the old page, disabling it, or changing its URL.
If you need to temporarily take down a page to update it for your new offerings 302 (temporary)
If you want to temporarily replace a page with another page as you cycle through different offerings through the year 302 (temporary)

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