Domains Help

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 GoDaddy and you use our nameservers, you can forward your GoDaddy 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.

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