Forwarding a Domain Name Properly

You may have a domain name that you do not use, or you would like to point it to another domain without having to create an entirely new site. You may also want two domain names to show the same site but do not want to mirror the site on two hosts. the same site.

Or maybe you changed the name of your site, hence changed the domain name and you do not want to lose the traffic and links that are pointing to the old domain name. There are many reasons you may want to divert traffic to another site.

Here are two ways you can do just that, masking and forwarding, offered by most domain registrars or hosting providers that also provide domain registration and management.

The first option is to forward a domain. Let's say that you have the domain name Dogs.com and you have it at a hosting company with an associated website. You then buy a website that has been around for years and has decent site traffic and links in, their site is DogsAreMansBestFriend.com.

You do not want to keep the website at DogsAreMansBestFriend.com, so they remove the site and the domain is now at your registrar. You now want all the traffic to go to your site Dogs.com. One way to accomplish this is to forward the domain.

At GoDaddy you simply choose the domain (DogsAreMansBestFriend.com) and the Forwarding tab. First, check the box to "enable forwarding" then in the "forward to" box you place the URL to forward the domain to. In this example you would enter http://www.dogs.com.

Next you choose either the radio button for "301 Moved Permanently" or "302 Moved Termporarily", in this case and most it is best to use the "301" redirect type.

Now here is what will happen, when someone clicks a link to http://www.DogsAreMansBestFriend.com, they will be taken to the http://www.dogs.com website. In the browser they will see the domain http://www.dogs.com and know that the old domain has forwarded them to this new one.

Another option is masking. While a forward will show the URL of the site you were forwarded to in the address bar, masking will not. This is the difference.

As an example you may have a domain such as the acronym MCC.com. However you prefer your customers to see links and in your email signature and on letterhead you like to show MyCoolCompany.com. Your website may reside at a host with the domain MCC.com.

Now you provide the link http://MyCoolCompany.com to others and they click it. They are now directed to your site at http://MCC.com, however in the browser the visitor sees the URL http://MyCoolCompany.com.

Here is how to set it up, in the GoDaddy account you would choose to Mask the domain. You also have the options to add a Title, Description and Keywords to show in the search engine.