Domain redirection is a process that involves forwarding one domain to another. This is similar to a URL redirect. However, domain redirection involves redirecting all URLs from one domain to another. This can be useful in a variety of situations, such as when you have changed your website's domain name or want to redirect traffic from the old domain to the new one. This is especially useful for mergers and acquisitions. In this article, we will explore the different components of domain redirection and how you can implement it for your domain and/or site.
In this article, you'll find:
- What domain redirects are
- Ways to implement domain redirects
- How to redirect a domain using redirect.pizza
Domain redirects: forwarding traffic from one domain to another
There are two primary components of domain redirection: the source domain and the target domain. The source domain is the original domain that you want to redirect traffic from, while the target domain is the new domain that you want to redirect traffic to. In the interface of redirect.pizza, we also call the target domain a “destination” domain.
Generally, there are two different types of redirects used by most websites:
- 301 redirects: this is a permanent redirect that tells search engine crawlers that the source URL has permanently moved to a new location (destination URL). This type of redirect is the best in terms of search engine optimization (SEO) as it passes on link equity from backlinks generated for the old domain. This means that any backlinks pointing to the old page will now point to the new one. Search engines, such as Google, use link equity (backlinks) to rank the pages in their index.
- 302 redirects: this is a temporary redirect that tells search engines and browsers that the source URL has temporarily moved to a new location. Unlike a 301 redirect, a 302 redirect does not pass on link equity. This type of redirect is generally used for A/B testing, or when performing maintenance on the site.
- URL frame (masked redirect): in some situations, it’s useful to use URL frame redirects (also called URL masking). This type of redirect is similar to a URL redirect. However, instead of redirecting the user to the destination URL, the destination URL is displayed in an iframe on the domain itself. So the user still sees the same domain name, but the web page is from another domain.
Learn more about the difference between 301 and 302 redirects and all the other different types of redirects and forwarding options you can use with redirect.pizza.
How to implement domain redirects?
Implementing domain redirects can be done manually on your own hosting solution, but requires some expertise. Aside from that, domain redirects can be implemented using plugins and other tools. Here are three ways they can do it:
