What's the difference between domain forwarding and masking?
Domain forwarding (sometimes called connecting, pointing or redirecting) lets you automatically direct your domain's visitors to a different location on the web. If your domain is registered with Secureserver.net Domain Name Web Hosting and you use our nameservers, you can forward your Secureserver.net Domain Name Web Hosting domain to a site you've created with Wix, Wordpress or any other URL.
Domain forwarding has two options: forwarding only and forwarding with masking. Both options will redirect your visitors, but forwarding with masking has additional features you can use.
Forwarding only
- Redirects visitors to a destination URL of your choosing
- Keeps the destination URL in the browser address bar
Example: Assign coolexample.com to forward only to coolwebsite.net. When a visitor types coolexample.com in a browser address bar, they will be redirected to the site for coolwebsite.net. The browser address bar will update to show coolwebsite.net.
Forwarding with masking
- Redirects visitors to a destination URL of your choosing
- Keeps your domain name in the browser address bar
- Allows you to enter meta-tags for search engine information
Example: Assign coolexample.com to forward with masking to coolwebsite.net. When a visitor types coolexample.com in a browser address bar, they will be redirected to the site for coolwebsite.net. The browser address bar will continue to show coolexample.com, effectively masking the destination URL.
Related step
- Is domain forwarding right for you? Set up forwarding in your Secureserver.net Domain Name Web Hosting account.
More info
- Want to build your own website instead? Take a look at our do-it-yourself Website Builder features.
- Keep your domain active and avoid expiration by turning on auto renew.