Forward your Google domain

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

How to 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. In the left navigation panel, click the Website icon .
  4. Under "Forward to an existing webpage," click Forward.
  5. Enter a URL or IP address in the "Website URL" field.
  6. If you’re happy with the default values, click Forward.
    1. 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 (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.

How to forward your subdomain

You can also forward your subdomain 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. In the left navigation panel, click the DNS icon .
  4. Scroll down to “Synthetic Records.”
  5. Click Subdomain forward from the list of synthetic record types.
  6. Enter the subdomain you want to forward and the URL or IP address you want to forward it to.
  7. Click Add to add the record. 

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. You should see a small image or preview of your website. To open the website in a new tab, click the image. 
It may take several minutes for your changes to update. If your website doesn't show, 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. In the left navigation panel, 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 (>) . 

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)

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.
Was this article helpful?
How can we improve it?