Make Every Domain Count: What is Domain Forwarding?
Domain forwarding lets you send visitors to your main website, even if they’ve typed in a different address. You can be sure that anyone landing on an old or alternative domain gets directed to the right place — no lost traffic or confused visitors. This is obviously really useful for any business that’s decided to rebrand and switch to a new online address. You might also choose to buy a few different domain names just to point them all to the same website. This helps with local search visibility and ensures customers always find you, from your local .co.uk to your global .com and everywhere in between. What is domain forwarding? Domain forwarding is a simple way to make sure anyone who types in your old or alternative web address lands on the right site. It’s useful if you’ve rebranded or bought a few extra domains and want them all to lead to the same place. You can forward multiple domains to one main website, so all your addresses send visitors to the correct site. This can also help capture local traffic from different UK-specific domains. For example, you could forward your-great-idea.com to yourgreatidea.com. Or if your company has a presence both in the UK and globally, you might forward a .co.uk address to a main .com site so customers always find the right website. How does domain forwarding work? Domain forwarding works by updating your domain’s settings so any request to your address is sent to another URL. When someone types your domain into a browser, their request goes through the Domain Name System (DNS), which checks the forwarding rules you’ve set. The DNS then tells the browser to load the destination address. Setting up forwarding usually involves logging into your domain provider, selecting the domain you want to forward, and entering the address you want it to go to. Once these changes propagate across the internet, anyone visiting your domain will automatically be sent to the correct site. Forwarding can work in different ways depending on the settings you choose — for example, if you want the redirect to be permanent or temporary, or if the original domain should stay visible in the browser. For more, check out: What is DNS? How Websites Get Found Online What are the different types of domain forwarding? ✓ 301 (permanent) redirect – This tells browsers and search engines that your domain has permanently moved to a new address. It’s the best choice when you’ve rebranded or changed your main site, so visitors and search engines always end up in the right place. ✓ 302 (temporary) redirect – Use this if the redirect is only short-term. Browsers and search engines understand it’s temporary, so your original site won’t lose its ranking or get replaced in search results. Good for short campaigns or temporary landing pages. ✓ Forwarding with masking – This keeps your original domain visible in the browser’s address bar while showing content from another site. It’s handy if you want to keep your branding or a specific URL while sending people to a different site behind the scenes. ✓ Forwarding over HTTPS – This means there’s an SSL Certificate in place and that the redirect therefore uses a secure connection. Visitors see the padlock in their browser. If you’d like to know more about sorts of redirect you can set up, check out: What Forwarding Types are Availalable? Why choose domain forwarding? ☐ To redirect visitors from an older site If your old site was myoldshop.co.uk and you’ve moved to myshop.co.uk, forwarding makes sure anyone visiting the old address ends up on your new site. ☐ To keep all your domains together If you own multiple variations of your domain, forwarding keeps everything pointing to the same main site. For instance, if you own 123reg.co.uk, 123-reg.co.uk, and 123-reg.com, you can forward them all to your favoured web address so customers always find the right one. ☐ So you catch common typing mistakes Typos happen. Make sure visitors still find your site, even if they’ve got butterfingers (or had a few drinks). You can buy up common misspellings (123regg.co.uk, 123-peg.co.uk, etc) and forward them to your main site so you’re never out of reach. ☐ To protect your online brand Forwarding variations of your domain helps keep your brand consistent and prevents others from taking any similar names. It makes sure visitors always reach your official site and protects your brand identity online. ☐ So you can send local visitors to the right place You can forward a UK-specific domain or other local variations to make it easier for people in different areas to find you (or vice versa!). For example, you could forward 123-reg.com to your main .co.uk site so UK customers always end up in the right place. ☐ To use shorter links that are easier for promotions You might need to use a shorter domain for adverts, email links, or elsewhere, then forwarding visitors to your full web address. ☐ So you don’t need to spend money on having extra websites Forwarding means you don’t need to create, host, and publish a page for each and every domain. It redirects visitors from that domain to your main site automatically. Remember, you can always buy lots of domain names, if you like! What’s the difference between domain forwarding and masking? Domain forwarding is the general process of sending visitors from one domain to another. By default, when someone visits your forwarded domain, the browser will show the address of the destination site. Masking is a specific type of forwarding. It still sends visitors to the destination site, but it keeps the original domain visible in the browser. For example, mysale.co.uk could display content from myshop.co.uk, while the address bar stays on mysale.co.uk. So, all masking is forwarding, but not all forwarding uses masking. Masking is mainly used to maintain branding or keep the URL looking consistent. Search domains with 123 Reg! Does