Domain Forwarding

A business might forward an old domain after a rebrand or direct a secondary domain to its primary site. Server-side 301 and 308 redirects communicate that a move is intended to be permanent; 302 and 307 indicate a temporary move. Google uses permanent redirects as a canonicalization signal, although it evaluates other signals too. Domain forwarding is not the same as copying every page to a second domain.

Good migrations preserve page intent. Redirecting an old service page to the most relevant new page is typically more useful than sending every legacy URL to the homepage. Test the protocol and hostname variants, redirect chains, HTTPS certificates and whether query parameters should be retained. A DNS record alone does not perform a full HTTP redirect; the hosting or forwarding service must deliver the redirect response.

A domain registrar may offer a forwarding setting, but teams should still verify the actual HTTP status and final destination. Domain forwarding is distinct from email forwarding, which changes where messages arrive. It also differs from an alias domain that serves duplicate content without redirects.