What's the difference between domain forwarding and masking?
Domain forwarding (sometimes called connecting, pointing or redirecting) lets you automatically direct your domain's visitors to a different location on the web. If your domain is registered with GoDaddy and you use our nameservers, you can forward your GoDaddy domain to a site you've created with Wix, Wordpress or any other URL.
Domain forwarding has two options: forwarding only and forwarding with masking. Both options will redirect your visitors, but forwarding with masking has additional features you can use.
Forwarding only
- Redirects visitors to a destination URL of your choosing
- Keeps the destination URL in the browser address bar
Example: Assign coolexample.com to forward only to coolwebsite.net. When a visitor types coolexample.com in a browser address bar, they will be redirected to the site for coolwebsite.net. The browser address bar will update to show coolwebsite.net.
Forwarding with masking
- Redirects visitors to a destination URL of your choosing
- Keeps your domain name in the browser address bar
- Allows you to enter meta-tags for search engine information
Example: Assign coolexample.com to forward with masking to coolwebsite.net. When a visitor types coolexample.com in a browser address bar, they will be redirected to the site for coolwebsite.net. The browser address bar will continue to show coolexample.com, effectively masking the destination URL.
Related step
- Is domain forwarding right for you? Set up forwarding in your GoDaddy account.
More info
- Want to build your own website instead? Take a look at our do-it-yourself Websites + Marketing features.
- Keep your domain active and avoid expiration by turning on auto renew.
