Knowledgebase

How Do I Add URL Forwarding / 301 vs 302 Redirect

Free URL Forwarding is provided by your domain name's registrar but you can manage it directly with us.  Begin by navigating to the "Free DNS Management" interface.

If you need to change the URL of a page as it is shown in search engine results, we recommend that you use a server-side 301 redirect. This is the best way to ensure that users and search engines are directed to the correct page. The 301 status code means that a page has permanently moved to a new location.  More information about 301 redirects from Google.

Adding Redirection

Enter a "*" (asterisk) in the "Host Name" field, select "URL Redirect", and then enter the destination website URL address into the address field like http://www.namesonic.com.  This ensures everything points to the new site.

Separate Redirection

You can also specify just "@" in the "Host Name" for http://website.com and "www" for http://www.website.com if you want them to redirect to different places.

You should have no more than one of each "www", "@", or "." record with "URL Redirect" type or your website will not function correctly.

301 vs 302 Method

When using our FREE DNS services, by default, a "302 Object Moved" redirect is issued.  To issue a "301 Moved Permanently" for your domain (http://www.yourdomain.com), you must add the variable "redir_mode=301" to the end of your address.

For eg. http://www.yourdomain.com?redir_mode=301 or http://www.yourdomain.com?p=page&redir_mode=301. If a user specifies a path or filename after the domain name when requesting a host that is URL Redirected, that path information is intelligently appended to the destination URL. In the example above, if a user had entered “www.myname.com/someotherpage.html” in a browser, this would redirect to “http://www.yourdomain.com/someotherpage.html”.

Host Name

• *   Means all third level domains (http://www.yourdomain.com, http://shop.yourdomain.com, etc...)
• @   Means second level domain only (http://yourdomain.com)
• www   Means only the www third level domain (http://www.yourdomain.com)

Record Type

• URL Redirect     This causes a 301 redirect to the specified address
• URL Frameset     This causes a frameset to retain your URL but display the destination page

Address

• http://www.newwebsite.com/The destination redirection URL.
• redir_mode=301   *forces 301 redirect