Domain Redirect Guide: How to Forward Domains Correctly

When You Need to Redirect a Domain

Domain redirects are one of the most common operations in web management, but they are also one of the easiest to get wrong. A misconfigured domain redirect can kill your SEO rankings, confuse users, and create redirect loops that make your site inaccessible.

There are several scenarios where redirecting an entire domain is the right move.

Rebranding. Your company changes its name from oldcompany.com to newcompany.com. Every URL on the old domain needs to redirect to the corresponding page on the new domain.

Typo domains. You own exmple.com to catch misspellings of example.com. Users who type the wrong domain should land on the right site.

Domain consolidation. You acquired a competitor or merged two products. Traffic to acquired.com needs to go to yourdomain.com.

TLD variations. You own example.com, example.net, and example.org. All of them should resolve to a single primary domain.

www to non-www (or vice versa). Your canonical domain is example.com, but users typing www.example.com need to reach the same site.

HTTP to HTTPS. All HTTP traffic should redirect to the HTTPS version of your site. This is a protocol redirect, not a domain redirect, but the mechanics overlap.

Each scenario has different requirements for how the redirect should be configured and what method works best.

Domain Redirect Methods

There are three primary ways to redirect a domain. Each operates at a different layer of the stack and has different tradeoffs.

DNS-Level Approaches

DNS records alone cannot perform HTTP redirects. DNS resolves domain names to IP addresses; it does not send HTTP status codes. However, DNS plays a role in domain redirection.

CNAME records can point one domain at another, but they only work for subdomains (not the root/apex domain) and do not issue an HTTP redirect. A CNAME from www.old.com to new.com makes the old domain resolve to the new domain's IP, but the URL in the browser still shows www.old.com.

ALIAS or ANAME records (supported by some DNS providers) function like CNAME records but work for root domains. Same limitation: no HTTP redirect, just DNS-level resolution.

DNS-level pointing is not a substitute for proper HTTP redirects. You need it as the first step (to route traffic to the right server), but you still need a web server or service to issue the actual 301 redirect.

Registrar Forwarding

Most domain registrars offer a "domain forwarding" or "URL redirect" feature. This is the simplest method but offers the least control.

How it works: You configure the registrar to forward old-domain.com to new-domain.com. The registrar sets up DNS to point the old domain to their own servers, which issue an HTTP redirect to the destination URL.

Advantages of registrar forwarding:

• No server required
• Quick to set up (usually takes effect within DNS propagation time)
• Works for parked domains and simple redirects

Disadvantages:

• Limited control over redirect type (301 vs 302)
• May not support path-level forwarding
• Cannot add custom headers
• Depends on the registrar's infrastructure being available

Server-Level Redirects

Server-level redirects give you full control. You configure your web server to accept requests on the old domain and respond with a 301 redirect to the new domain. This is the recommended method for any redirect where SEO matters.

Nginx Configuration

server {
    listen 80;
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name old-domain.com www.old-domain.com;

    ssl_certificate /path/to/old-domain-cert.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /path/to/old-domain-key.pem;

    # Redirect all requests, preserving the path and query string
    return 301 https://new-domain.com$request_uri;
}

Apache Configuration

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName old-domain.com
    ServerAlias www.old-domain.com
    Redirect 301 / https://new-domain.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName old-domain.com
    ServerAlias www.old-domain.com
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /path/to/old-domain-cert.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/old-domain-key.pem
    Redirect 301 / https://new-domain.com/
</VirtualHost>

Caddy Configuration

old-domain.com, www.old-domain.com {
    redir https://new-domain.com{uri} permanent
}

CDN and Edge Redirects

Modern CDNs and hosting platforms offer redirect rules that work without managing a traditional web server.

Cloudflare: Use Page Rules or Bulk Redirects to configure 301 redirects. Point the old domain's DNS to Cloudflare, and the redirect happens at the edge.

Vercel: Use the redirects configuration in vercel.json or next.config.js to handle domain redirects.

Netlify: Use _redirects file or netlify.toml to configure domain-level redirects.

AWS: Use CloudFront with S3 redirect rules, or set up an Application Load Balancer with redirect actions.

These methods are fast, reliable, and do not require maintaining a server, making them ideal for redirecting domains when you do not want to keep a server running just for redirects.

301 Redirects for Domain Moves: The SEO Perspective

When moving to a new domain, the redirect type matters enormously for SEO. A 301 (permanent) redirect tells search engines that the move is permanent and that ranking signals should be transferred to the new URL. A 302 (temporary) redirect tells search engines the move is temporary and to keep indexing the old URL.

What a 301 Redirect Transfers

• PageRank / link equity: The majority of link equity passes through a 301 redirect. Google has confirmed that 301 redirects pass full PageRank (they removed the historical ~15% loss).
• Rankings: The new URL inherits the ranking position of the old URL for the same queries.
• Indexed pages: Over time, Google replaces the old URLs in its index with the new URLs.
• Anchor text: The anchor text from inbound links to the old URL benefits the new URL.

What a 301 Redirect Does Not Transfer

• Google Search Console data: You need to use the Change of Address tool in Google Search Console to explicitly tell Google about the domain move.
• Third-party metrics: Domain Authority, Domain Rating, and similar third-party metrics do not transfer automatically. These metrics are recalculated based on the new domain's link profile.
• Social shares and bookmarks: Social media share counts and user bookmarks still point to the old URLs. They will follow the redirect, but the counts do not consolidate.

Path Mapping for Domain Moves

For rebranding and domain consolidation, you want to redirect each old URL to its equivalent on the new domain. This is called path-preserving redirection.

old-domain.com/about      -> new-domain.com/about
old-domain.com/blog/post1 -> new-domain.com/blog/post1
old-domain.com/pricing    -> new-domain.com/pricing

If your URL structure is changing at the same time as your domain, you need a redirect map that pairs each old URL with its new destination.

# Nginx map for custom path redirects
map $request_uri $new_uri {
    /old-blog/post-title   /blog/post-title;
    /products/old-name     /solutions/new-name;
    /team                  /about/team;
}

server {
    server_name old-domain.com;
    if ($new_uri) {
        return 301 https://new-domain.com$new_uri;
    }
    # Default: preserve path
    return 301 https://new-domain.com$request_uri;
}

Common Domain Redirect Mistakes

These mistakes cause SEO problems, user confusion, or outright errors.

Redirect Chains

A redirect chain occurs when URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects to URL C. Each hop adds latency and loses a small amount of link equity. Chains of three or more hops can cause search engines to stop following the redirect entirely.

old-domain.com -> www.old-domain.com -> new-domain.com -> www.new-domain.com

That is three redirects when there should be one. Audit your redirect configuration to ensure every old URL reaches the final destination in a single hop.

Redirect Loops

A redirect loop occurs when URL A redirects to URL B, and URL B redirects back to URL A. The browser cycles between them until it gives up and shows an error (ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS).

Loops commonly happen when:

• The www and non-www versions each redirect to the other
• HTTP redirects to HTTPS, but the HTTPS server redirects back to HTTP
• A CDN redirect conflicts with a server-level redirect

Using 302 Instead of 301

A 302 redirect is temporary. It tells search engines to keep the old URL in their index. For permanent domain moves, this means your SEO equity stays with the old domain instead of transferring to the new one. Always use 301 for permanent domain redirects.

Forgetting HTTPS on the Source Domain

If old-domain.com does not have a valid SSL certificate, any user or crawler that tries to access https://old-domain.com will hit an SSL error before the redirect fires. You need to maintain a valid SSL certificate on the old domain for as long as the redirect is active.

Not Updating Internal Links

After a domain move, update all internal links on the new domain to use the new domain's URLs directly. Do not rely on redirects for internal navigation. Redirected internal links add latency and consume crawl budget.

Monitoring Redirect Health

Setting up a domain redirect is not a one-time task. Redirects break over time, and the consequences are silent until someone notices.

What Can Go Wrong

What to Monitor

How Long to Maintain Domain Redirects

A common question is how long you need to keep the old domain redirecting. The answer depends on the use case.

Rebranding: Keep the redirect active for at least 2-3 years. Google needs time to fully process the domain change, and users with bookmarks or cached links need the redirect to work. Some companies maintain brand redirects indefinitely because the cost of renewing a domain is trivial compared to the SEO loss of dropping it.

Typo domains: Maintain indefinitely. Typo domains exist specifically to catch misspellings, and people will always make typos.

Domain consolidation: At least 1-2 years. After that, evaluate search console data to see if Google has fully transitioned. If the old domain still shows impressions in search results, the redirect is still needed.

www/non-www canonicalization: Permanent. This is not a temporary migration; it is an ongoing configuration.

Domain redirects are simple in concept but have long-term SEO and security implications. The redirect itself takes minutes to configure. Monitoring it to make sure it keeps working takes a tool that checks automatically.