What is Web forwarding?

Web forwarding is a way for your domain name to be pointed to another web address or page. The main types of forwarders that you can set up are a 301 (Permanent), a 302 (Temporary) forwarder and a forward with masking, all of which are outlined below.

Important: you cannot forward a HTTPS domain to another HTTPS address. You may only forward a HTTP domain to a HTTP address, or a HTTP domain to a HTTPS address.

301

This is a permanent type of Web forwarding which tells search engines that your domain name will be permanently pointing at the new location. It ensures the final destination page is indexed correctly by search engines like Google.

You should use permanent Web forwarding unless you plan to point your domain elsewhere in the near future. (Despite the name, you can always change your permanent web forwarding settings if you need to.)

For more information on how to set this up, please see our guide: How do I add 301 (Permanent) Web forwarding?

302

This is a temporary type of Web forwarding that tells search engines your domain name forwarding may change again soon. It does this so that search engines can continue checking the domain name – which means the final destination page may not get indexed properly by search engines like Google.

You should only use temporary Web forwarding when you know you’ll be changing the forwarding settings again soon. If you’re not sure which type of forwarding to use, permanent Web forwarding is the safer option.

For more information on how to set this up, please see our guide: How do I add 302 (Temporary) Web forwarding?

Forwarding with Masking

This is a special type of forwarder that will direct people to your preferred URL while keeping the original domain name in the browser bar. For example, let’s say you have two domains: your-idea.org, which has a website associated with it, and your-idea.co.uk, which doesn’t. You could set your-idea.co.uk to forward with masking to your-idea.org, so that anyone using either domain is taken to the website and be none the wiser.

You can also add meta tags with this type of forwarder, helping to boost its ranking on search engines.

 

To find out how to remove a web forwarder instead, please see our guide: How do I remove web forwarding?