How do I redirect/forward my domain name?

Web Forwarding

Please note that if you want to set up a web forwarding rule, and the domain name is not added to a web hosting package, the domain’s nameservers need to be pointed to ours.

If you do not have hosting:

1. In your Customer Area, select ‘Manage Domain Names’.
2. Select the domain you wish to forward from the drop-down list under ‘Manage Domain Parking’.
3. Click the ‘Manage Now’ button.
4. Select ‘Web Forwarding’.

For web forwarding, you can choose between two options – Automatic or Framed.

Automatic redirection sends the user’s browser to the specified URL that displays the target address in the target bar.

For example, if you forwarded my-domain.net to your-domain.com, the visitor would type in my-domain.net into their browser, and once the page had loaded, see your-domain.com in the address bar.

Framed redirection sends the user to your target address, but keeps your domain in the address bar.  You can also set the title, meta keywords, and meta description for search engines to index your site under that domain name.

For example, if you forwarded my-domain.net to your-domain.com and used framed redirection, the visitor would type in my-domain.net into their browser, and see the website for your-domain.com, but the title, meta keywords, description, and address would all relate to my-domain.net.

To set up a Web Forwarding:

1. Select if you want Automatic or Framed redirection
2. Enter the website you want the domain name to redirect to
3. Click on “Update Now”
4. Your domain name will now redirect to that website

Web Redirect

If you have a hosting package and want to move visitors from one domain name to another, you can set up a web redirect. This redirects everything from one domain name to another automatically.

For example, if your visitor typed in your-domain.com and you had set up a redirect, it would automatically refresh and go to my-domain.net. 

You can also redirect directories to websites or to directories on other websites.  For example, you can set your-domain.com/store to automatically redirect to my-domain.net/store.

To set up a Web Redirect:

1. Log into your eXtend Control Panel
2. Click ‘Website Redirect’ under ‘Web Tools’
3. Enter in the directory you want to redirect from (if you want to redirect the entire site, leave it blank)
4. Enter in the website you want to redirect to
5. Choose whether this is a permanent or temporary redirection
6. Click ‘Create Redirect’

This creates an .htaccess file in your public_html directory, which sets up the redirects.  You can edit this file in any text editor, as well as in your File Manager.

You can add or edit redirects in your .htaccess file at any time.

To edit your .htaccess file:

1. Log into your hosting account using FTP or the eXtend Control Panel File Manager
2. Download the .htaccess file onto your computer
3. Open the .htaccess file in a text editor, such as Notepad++
4. Make your changes
5. Save your .htaccess file
6. Re-upload to your public_html directory

In your .htaccess file, you can:

To redirect your entire site to a new URL:

redirect 301 / [DOMAIN]

Replace [DOMAIN] with your new URL.

To redirect a directory to a new URL:

redirect 301 /[DIRECTORY] [DOMAIN/DIRECTORY]

Replace [DIRECTORY] with the directory name and [DOMAIN/DIRECTORY] with the new URL and directory on the new site.

To redirect a single page to a new URL:

redirect 301/[DIRECTORY/PAGE] [DOMAIN/DIRECTORY/PAGE]

Replace [DIRECTORY/PAGE] with the page address within the directory and [DOMAIN/DIRECTORY/PAGE] with the new URL, down to the page address, on the new site.

Please note: Redirects will not work if you try to redirect back to the same domain name. You cannot redirect your-domain.com to your-domain.com. However, you can redirect pages and directories to new pages and directories within the same domain.

Web browsers also cache 301 redirects, so if you remove or change the redirect, you will need to clear your browser’s cache to see the effect.