Turn on web forwarding

Web forwarding directs your domain and www.<your domain> to an existing URL. 

How to forward your domain

To forward your domain, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to Google Domains.
  2. On the list of domains, find the domain you want to forward.
  3. To the right of the domain's name, click the Website icon .
  4. Click Forward under Forward to an existing webpage.
  5. Enter a URL or IP address in the Website URL field.
  6. If you’re happy with the default values, click Forward. If you want to change the redirect type, path forwarding, or SSL options, click Advanced options. The default values for each option are listed in the following table:
    Option Default value
    Redirect type Temporary (HTTP 302)
    Path forwarding Off
    SSL Off

  7. 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.

Verify domain forwarding

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

  1. Sign in to Google Domains.
  2. On the domain list, find the domain you forwarded.
  3. Go to the Website tab  . You should display a small image or preview of your destination site. 
  4. To open the destination site in a new tab, click the image. 
It may take several minutes for your changes to update. If your destination doesn't display, check the URL and try again.

View the Domain forward DNS records

When you set up web forwarding, Google Domains creates a domain forward synthetic record that contains all the necessary A, AAAA, and CNAME record values.

To view the Domain forward record, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to Google Domains.
  2. On the domain list, find the domain you forwarded.
  3. Click the DNS icon  .
  4. Scroll down to Synthetic records. 
  5. To view the details of a synthetic record, click the expand icon expand icon (>) . 
  6. Note the A, AAAA, and CNAME resource records within the synthetic record that are created for you.

Domain forwarding values

The following 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)

Redirect type

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

  • Temporary (HTTP 302) redirect allows changes to occur to your forwarding address quickly. Because browsers don't typically cache HTTP 302 redirects, selecting this option can force a lookup to the routing table or DNS server for the redirect every time.
  • Permanent (HTTP 301) redirect allows browsers to cache the forwarding address. Caching the forwarding address may help the address resolve slightly 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 HTTP 302.

Path forwarding

Path forwarding forwards the path after the domain name to the same path at the new domain. You should only use path forwarding when the domain you’re redirecting 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

Forwarding over SSL allows redirects to work over HTTPS. You can choose to turn SSL on or off.

  • When SSL is off, your forward only works for plain HTTP requests.
  • When SSL is on, your forward works for both HTTP and HTTPS requests.
Was this article helpful?
How can we improve it?