The Web Redirect (WR) record (also known as URL redirect or HTTP forwarding) allows you to redirect the requests for http://yourdomain.com to http://anotherdomain.com. It is a common technique for making a web page available under more than one URL address.
Why do you need a Web redirect record?
Web Redirects are used for various reasons:
- To allow multiple domain names belonging to the same owner to refer to a single web site
- To prevent broken links when web pages are moved
- To forward your customers to another domain of yours if your site is temporarily or permanently not reachable
- For URL shortening
How to create a Web redirect record?
Go to your DNS zone management page and click on Add new record. For Type choose Web Redirect and type as follows:
- Type: Web Redirect
- TTL: 1 Hour
- Points to: http://anotherdomain.com
301 Redirect
This type of redirect is a constant type of unmasked redirect. It is used if your website is permanently moved to a new address and you want it to be indexed by search engines and routed to the new URL. It is considered to be the most efficient and search engine-friendly method for webpage redirection.
302 Redirect
This is a temporary type of unmasked redirect. It is used if a certain URL has been changed to a different address temporarily. Search engines will index the original URL and not the destination URL and display the original URL in search results.
Redirect with frame
Redirect with frame (also known as URL masking or URL cloaking) is similar to Web Redirect, except that instead of redirecting the client to your web page, the web page is displayed in a frame from the server. With this type of redirection, the visitor’s browser will display your domain name (for example, www.yourdomain.com) and the pointed web site.
Note: Redirect with frame is available only for Premium, DDoS Protected and GeoDNS subscriptions.
Save path
You can choose to redirect and/or to save the request path for example — if your user request yourdomain.com/path, “/path” will be saved on redirect). For example if you use Web Redirect record with “Save path” option checked the result will be — when you open yourdomain.com with a certain path behind it (yourdomain.com/path1/path2/) you will be redirected to your target with the same path (anotherdomain.com/path1/path2/).
Variables
You can use these variables for your record:
{*host*} = The current host (ex. www.yourdomain.com)
{*domain*} = The current domain (yourdomain.com)
{*subdomain*} = The value of the field Host (ex. your-name)
Example 1:
Host: www
Points to: http://{*domain*}/?ref={*host*}
What will happen?
When a user goes to http:// www.yourdomain.com he will be redirected to http://yourdomain.com/?ref= www.yourdomain.com
Example 2:
Host: ref-id-123
Points to: http://some-referal-site.net/?ref={*host*}
What will happen?
When a user goes to http:// ref-id-123.yourdomain.com he will be redirected to http://some-referal-site.net/?ref= ref-id-123.yourdomain.com
Example 3:
Host: your-name
Points to: http://some-referal-site.net/?ref={*subdomain*}
What will happen?
When a user goes to http:// your-name.yourdomain.com he will be redirected to http://some-referal-site.net/?ref= your-name
How to start managing Web redirect records?
- Open a free account from here — free forever
- Verify your e-mail address
- Log into your control panel
- Create new Master DNS from the [add new] button — read more here
- Add the Web Redirect records you need as it is described in this article
Support of Web redirect records
ClouDNS provides full support for Web Redirect records for all our DNS services, including the listed below. Just write to our technical support, if you need any assistance with your Web Redirect records configuration. Our Technical Support team is online for you 24/7 via live chat and tickets.
FAQ
Question: My users often mistype my domain. Can I register these “misspelled” domains and redirect them to the “correct” domain via Web Redirect record?
Answer: Yes, absolutely. This is one of the main benefits of using web redirects.
Originally published at https://www.cloudns.net.
