Forward your Google domain

This article will show you how to forward your Google domain and other forwarding options:

Forward your domain to a URL or IP address

Google Domains lets you forward your domain to any URL (e.g. social media site or company homepage) or IP address. To forward your domain, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to Google Domains.
  2. Click the domain name.
  3. Open the menu Menu, if applicable.
  4. Click Website .
  5. Under "Forward to an existing webpage, click; Add a forwarding address.
  6. Enter a URL or IP address in the "Website URL" field.
  7. If you’re happy with the default values, click Forward.
  • If you want to change the redirect type, path forwarding, or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) options, click Advanced options. A set of default values will appear, listed in the following table:
Option Default value
Redirect type Temporary redirect (302)
Path forwarding Do not forward
SSL SSL

Check that your domain is forwarded to the intended location.

When you set up web forwarding, Google Domains creates a web forwarding synthetic record. If you delete this record, web forwarding stops. Learn more about synthetic records.

Forward your subdomain

You can forward your subdomain, a domain that is part of a larger domain, to any URL or IP address. To forward your subdomain, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to Google Domains.
  2. Click the domain name.
  3. Open the menu Menu, if applicable.
  4. Click Website.
  5. Click Add a forwarding address.
  6. Click Edit.
  7. Click + Forward a subdomain.
  8. Enter the subdomain you want to forward.
  9. In the Forward to field enter the URL or IP address you want to forward it to.
  10. Click Forward. 

Verify domain forwarding

After you set up domain forwarding, verify that your domain is forwarded to the correct location. To verify that your domain is forwarded correctly, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to Google Domains.
  2. On the domain list, click the domain you forwarded.
  3. Scroll down to “My website.”
  4. Click the website image or preview to open it in a new tab.
 
Domain forwarding may take up to 48 hours to update. If your website doesn't show after 48 hours, check the URL and try again.

View the Domain forward DNS records

When you set up web forwarding, Google Domains creates a synthetic record that contains all the necessary DNS records.

To view the Domain forward DNS records, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to Google Domains.
  2. On the domain list, click the domain you forwarded.
  3. Open the Menu Menu, if applicable.
  4. Click DNS DNS icon.
  5. Scroll down to "Synthetic records." 
  6. To view the details of a synthetic record, click Expand and then next to the record.

Domain forwarding values

These are examples of possible values for domain forwarding:

Root domains:

  • example.com
  • https://example.com
  • http://example.com

Subdomains

  • www.example.com
  • https://support.example.com
  • http://info.example.com

Folders

  • www.example.com/marketing
  • https://www.example.com/products
  • http://www.example.com/services

Webpages

  • www.example.com/welcome.html
  • https://www.example.com/login.aspx
  • http://www.example.com/page1.htm

IP addresses

  • 123.123.123.123 (IPv4)
  • 2002:db80:1:2:3:4:567:89ab (IPv6)

More Google Domain forwarding options

Google Domains has different forwarding options that users can choose to best fit their needs.

Redirect type

The redirect type determines how routers and browsers store your web forwarding information. You can choose one of the following redirect types:

  • A temporary (HTTP 302) redirect allows changes to occur to your forwarding address quickly. When you use a temporary redirect, you can force a lookup to the routing table or DNS server every time.
  • A permanent (HTTP 301) redirect allows browsers to cache the forwarding address. When you cache the forwarding address, you may help resolve the address faster on subsequent visits from the same browser. However, changes made to the forwarding address may take longer to occur.
If you’re unsure of which redirect to choose, use a temporary (HTTP 302) redirect.

Path forwarding

Path forwarding lets you forward the path after the domain name to the same path at the new domain. Use path forwarding when the domain you’re forwarding to has the same structure as the current domain.


domain is to the left of the / path is to the right

For example, if you're forwarding documentationexample.com to example.com, your domain could be forwarded in the following ways:

With path forwarding on: documentationexample.com/about.html redirects to example.com/about.html.
With path forwarding off: documentationexample.com/about.html redirects to example.com.

Forwarding over SSL

You have 2 options with forwarding over SSL:

  • When SSL is on, forwarding works for both HTTP and HTTPS requests. 
  • When SSL is off, forwarding only works for plain HTTP requests.

Tip: You can’t forward the wildcard address “*” over SSL.

When SSL is on, Google Domains will provision & configure an SSL certificate for the redirect automatically. To ensure SSL coverage end-to-end, the destination URL should begin in https://.

You can learn more about SSL at Get an SSL certificate for your domain.
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