There are several different reasons behind someone needing to forward a domain. For instance, maybe you’ve upgraded to a better domain name or want to use them for SEO purposes. Whatever the reason might be, forwarding and redirecting your domains from within GoDaddy is fast and simple. While the GoDaddy control panel isn’t as user-friendly as other domain registrars out there, with the help of this blog post you will be able to walk through each step of the process and figure out how it’s done. Before we jump in, let’s look at a few more of the reasons why someone might need to forward their domain in the first place.
As the term suggests, domain forwarding is useful anytime you are wanting to redirect people from one domain to another. Here’s just one common example: Someone is new to the world of blogging and decides to setup their first website with WordPress.com. It’s completely free, but they’re stuck with the website address someusername.wordpress.com. It was great early on, but now their blog has grown and gained some success, so at this point they decide it’s time to get an actual domain name for it. Well, thanks to domain forwarding they could register the domain at GoDaddy and simple forward it to their WordPress blog. It’s a simple solution to what otherwise might be a difficult task, especially for someone who is inexperienced.
How To Forward Or Redirect A Domain In GoDaddy
1. First, visit the GoDaddy homepage and login.
2. Once logged in you should be at the All Products and Services page. If not, Click Here to access that page once logged.
3. Next to the domain you wish to forward, click DNS.
4. You should now be on the DNS Management page. Scroll down and find the Forwarding section. Here you will be able to setup domain forwarding (forwarding domainA.com to domainB.com) or subdomain forwarding (forwarding blog.domainA.com to domainB.com).
5. When setting up domain forwarding in GoDaddy, you will be presented with some options and settings, such as masking and 301 or 302 redirects. Continue reading below to see what these options and settings mean.
Difference Between 301 and 302 Redirect
When you setup domain forwarding it will ask whether you want to use a 301 or 302 redirect. Basically, a 301 redirect means that the page has permanently moved to it’s new redirected location. A 302 redirect means that the move is only temporary. Search engines need to figure out whether to keep the old page, or replace it with the one found at the new location. Those wanting to setup domain redirects for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes will want to use the 301 redirect option.
What Is GoDaddy Domain Masking?
Domain masking will prevent visitors from seeing that your domain name is being forwarded by keeping your domain name in the web browser’s address bar. So, if you setup forwarding to go from domainA.com over to domainB.com, the user would be redirected to your desired location (domainB.com), but would still only see domainA.com in their address bar. This means they would be redirected without even knowing it.
