URL Forwarding v. URL Redirecting

URL Forwarding and URL Redirecting can both take the visitor to the desired web page, but there are important differences in what search engines see.

• URL Forwarding is set up at the domain name registry and uses a frameset file to open the target web page. Search engines only see the limited contents of the frameset file and not the content of the target web page. Therefore this has very limited value to a search engine.
  However, the address bar in the browser shows the address of the forwarding file, not the target website.
  e.g. www.yourname.com.au will show in the browser's address bar even though the actual website is at www.myspace.com/yourname
   
• URL Redirecting is set up with code in the index file of a website and becomes the alias of another web page, as it opens that web page. The code can be in PHP, ASP, VBScript, etc. For this to work, domain name parking or a domain name alias on a hosting is required.
  Search engines then see the whole contents of the target web page which can then be indexed for searches.
  Redirection can be to an inside page of the website or to another website.
  The address bar in the browser shows the address of the target website, not the forwarding file.
  Within cPanel you can also set parked domains to forward to another address or web page.
  You can also edit your .htaccess file to redirect addresses, but check the formats required, they are specific.
• Domain name parking or domain name aliases can be without redirection. They can be used for the parked domain name to open the same website as the main domain name.
  e.g. www.yourname.com and www.yourname.net.au can both open the website at www.yourname.com.au.
  Because they are hosted, parked domain names can also have email accounts.
  e.g. you can have [email protected] as well as [email protected]

Both URL Forwarding and URL Redirecting can only work successfully to actual web pages, not to dynamic links such as http://www.targetsite.com/items.asp?Category=XYZ+Products. If that is what you want the redirection to open then a static page XYZproducts.asp must be created.

Domain name parking and URL Redirecting is free in our basic hosting plans and upwards.

URL forwarding is free with domain names registered through Platypus Websites.