Pointing Two URLs to the Same Website | cPanel Blog (2024)

* This post was originally posted on February 6, 2012, and has been updated for accuracy.

Pointing two URLs to the same website is a good way to direct traffic to your site from several different domain names. You can accomplish this in two ways: either redirect one of the URLs to your primary domain, or create an alias for one of the URLs. The alias would point that domain towards your primary domain.

What is a website redirect?

A redirect occurs when typing a web address in the address bar sends a visitor to another website (or URL) different from the one they typed in. For example, if you moved your website content to a new URL, you can direct your seasonal visitors (who may remember your old web address better than your new one) to your new location with a redirect.

How to create a redirect with the cPanel interface:

You can redirect a website from the Redirects interface in cPanel.

  1. Go to the Domains section and click Redirects on the cPanel home page, or type Redirects in the search bar.
  2. Follow the prompts to create the redirection. You’ll need the URL of the page you are redirecting to.
  3. If you need additional help, read our Redirects documentation.

Create an alias (aka parking a domain)

When the system creates an alias, it does the same thing as a redirect; except that the website name shown on the address bar does not change. Think of it as using two different picture frames for the same artwork. The website content is the same for both URLs (the artwork), but what changes is the URL shown in the address bar (the picture frame in the example). For example, example.org is an alias for example.com. Try it!

You can create an alias for several domains to show the same page. The domains have to be registered with a valid domain registrar before you can create the alias. Also, you’ll need to make sure the nameservers are the same as those for your primary domain (the domain that you are pointing towards).

Important: Make sure you know what type of hosting account or package your account has. If you have a reseller account, you will need to ask your provider if you have access or permission to create an alias.

  • If you do not have this permission, you may be able to redirect one of the URLs instead of creating the alias.
  • If you have permission, ask for the number of domains for which you are allowed to create an alias.

How to create an alias with the cPanel interface

To create an alias, go to the Domains section and click on Aliases in the cPanel home page, or type Aliases in the search bar. Type your domain name in the Domain text box and click Add Domain.

If there are no issues, you should see a message like the one below:

Pointing Two URLs to the Same Website | cPanel Blog (1)

If there are issues (like your domain having the wrong nameservers), you will get an error message. Make sure you have solved the issues highlighted in the Important section above to minimize your chances for errors.

Pointing Two URLs to the Same Website | cPanel Blog (2024)

FAQs

Can two URLs point to the same website? ›

Pointing two URLs to the same website is a good way to direct traffic to your site from several different domain names. You can accomplish this in two ways: either redirect one of the URLs to your primary domain, or create an alias for one of the URLs. The alias would point that domain towards your primary domain.

Is multiple domains pointing to single website good for SEO? ›

As you can see, a multiple domain strategy is all about adding more power to your SEO strategy. Instead of ranking with just one domain, you can rank with multiple domains. This increases the chances that a user will click on a result that links to a site you own. It's a bit of an outside-the-box SEO strategy.

How do I point a URL to another URL? ›

How To Redirect a URL in the Domain Tab
  1. After you click on the Manage button, locate the Redirect Domain section and click on Add Redirect: ...
  2. Type your domain in the Source URL field (e.g. yourdomain.tld / domain.com / newdomain.info) and the link to which you need to forward your domain in the Destination URL field.

Can multiple URLs point to the same IP? ›

Can multiple domain names point to the same IP? Simple answer, yes. A domain name is just an easy way to locate a resource, email and web hosts often have multiple domains, pointing at the same IP addresses, the server software handles traffic accordingly using the data sent to it.

Does Google penalize domain forwarding? ›

There is no penalty for changing domain names. There may be a temporary disruption in your indexing and ranking.

Do multiple backlinks from the same site help SEO? ›

Multiple Backlinks From The Same Domain Are Valuable For SEO

Yes, since the number of backlinks correlate highly with ranking, Google validates link value through the reasonable and random surfer models, and because it's more natural, multiple backlinks from the same website are valuable for SEO.

Can I use 2 domain names for 1 website? ›

With most registrars, it is easy to forward multiple domains to your website so that you can simply create one site and then redirect visitors who type one of your other domain names to that one website.

Is Too Many Links bad for SEO? ›

If a page has too many links, they may not follow all of them. Search engine crawlers may follow some of the page's links while ignoring others. If search engine crawlers don't follow a link to a page, they may fail to index that page.

Can I have two domains for one website WordPress? ›

Each WordPress.com site requires it's own plan (free or paid). you cannot have multiple sites under a single Premium plan. You can have multiple domains that point to your premium plan site. But the domains will all point to that one site, not to their own sites.

What is the difference between redirect and forwarding a domain? ›

To a web application developer, a Forward and a Redirect are indeed different things. A Forward changes URLs on the server without telling the browser, but a Redirect tells the browser to fetch the new URL.

What is a redirect URI? ›

A redirect URI, or reply URL, is the location where the authorization server sends the user once the app has been successfully authorized and granted an authorization code or access token.

Can a URL have double in it? ›

Why is this important? A double slash in the URL path is valid and will respond in the browser, but is typically unwelcome, as this could cause duplicate content issues if the CMS delivers the same content on two URLs (i.e. single slash and double slash).

Can two different URLs return the same resource? ›

Two URLs have the same origin if the protocol, port (if specified), and host are the same for both.

Can a domain have two IP addresses? ›

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the protocol used to translate human readable hostnames into IP addresses. By providing two or more IP address in a DNS record, each IP representing an identical server, you can move traffic from a failing server to a live, redundant server.

Is there can be multiple website addresses with the same domain name but with different sub domains? ›

That is, once you own the main domain, like google.com, you can add any number of subdomains you want, and have them point to different websites. Alternatively, you can also have them point to the same website if that's what you prefer.

Is domain redirect bad for SEO? ›

From an SEO perspective, temporary redirects can pass on some link juice. However, they also tell search engines that the new URL isn't canonical. In practice, you can use temporary redirects for testing purposes. Still, they won't pass on the same amount of link juice (if any) that a 301 does.

Do domain redirects hurt SEO? ›

Redirects are not bad for SEO, but — as with so many things — only if you put them in place correctly. A bad implementation might cause all kinds of trouble, from loss of PageRank to loss of traffic. Redirecting pages is a must if you make any changes to your URLs.

How many redirects is too many for SEO? ›

There are no limits in using 301 redirects on a site. You can implement more than 100k of 301 redirects without getting any penalty. But: Too many 301 redirects put unnecessary load on the server and reduce speed. Try to reduce direct redirects by using rules.

Is getting 100 backlinks from 100 different websites better for ranking? ›

if the links come from 100 different websites, those links are more likely to generate social sharing. the links from 100 different websites will generate more traffic, and traffic is the most important ranking determinant.

Is it possible to get more traffic without making backlinks? ›

“Roughly 5% from our sample of billion web pages get some organic traffic while having no backlinks. Meaning that only one in every ~20 pages without backlinks has traffic and the majority of these get 300 organic visits or less each month.”

How many domains can I point to my website? ›

Do not use more than one domain for a website. Using more than one domain for the same site or company confuses search engines and essentially spreads out your domain authority - an important ranking factor that communicates important information to Google about who you are, what you do, and how authoritative you are.

Do keyword domain names help SEO? ›

Does domain name matter for SEO? A domain name's length, keywords, and extension are critical components of an SEO strategy. A trustworthy, focused, and simple domain name will get more traffic and interest from people and search engines.

Can I have two domains for one website Godaddy? ›

You can do it from within the godaddy account. Login to your account, click on web hosting and then click manage. In the domains section click addon domains and fill in the details. You don't even have to change the DNS records, because the domain is registered with godaddy and they would update it for you.

How many links should my blog post have? ›

How Many Links Should a Blog Post Have? There is a simple answer to this question: use common sense and this rule of thumb: Don't: Overwhelm Your Reader. Try and stick to three to five (3-5 per 1000 words) inbound and outbound links per 1000 words.

How many internal links should appear in a blog post? ›

How many internal links should I include per post? There's no set number, but 5-10 for every 2,000 words is a good best practice. Remember, Google won't crawl pages with more than ~150 links, so be careful about overstuffing your content.

How many backlinks per day is safe? ›

You can safely build 1 link or even 500 links per day. There is no limit to how many links you can build so long as you follow the rules.

How do I point multiple domain names to one website in WordPress? ›

How to Set Up WordPress Multisite Domain Mapping in Six Steps
  1. Create your WordPress multisite install.
  2. Edit wp-config. ...
  3. Add network subsites.
  4. Edit network subsites' URLs to use custom domain names.
  5. Add custom domains as parked or alias domains at your host.
  6. Point custom domains to your host's nameservers.
Oct 5, 2022

Can I have two domains for one website on Wix? ›

Connect an unlimited number of domains (either Wix domains or up to 6 domains purchased elsewhere) to a single Wix site. Your primary domain connects directly to your site and is your site's main address (URL).

How many domains can I host on WordPress? ›

As long as you adhere to our user guidelines, you can create as many sites as you want, and post whatever you want on them. We have no problem with it if you pay other people to create content for you, as long as the content is original.

What is masking Godaddy? ›

Masking displays the forwarded url in the browser window at all times, hiding the real domain of the website. So, if olddomain.com is forwarding to newdomain.com with masking, visitors will only see olddomain.com in their browser.

What is domain masking vs redirect? ›

Domain forwarding redirects users to a new domain or website with straightforward responses to why they are being turned. But domain masking hides the URL of the new site or part from the users.

What is a website masking domain name? ›

Domain Masking (or URL Masking) is when you set up a website to display the content of another while hiding the destination's URL. For example, using Domain Masking makes the website examplemail.com show the content of mail.example.com/email/login , without the user knowing they're accessing mail.example.com .

What is the difference between callback URL and redirect URI? ›

The callback URLs, also known as redirect URIs, tell the server where to send the user with the proper tokens after authentication. For purposes within Skuid, you'll want the end user sent back to the Skuid site/org accessing the data.

What is the difference between redirect URL and URI? ›

URI identifies a resource and differentiates it from others by using a name, location, or both. URL identifies the web address or location of a unique resource. URI contains components like a scheme, authority, path, and query. URL has similar components to a URI, but its authority consists of a domain name and port.

What is a redirect hack? ›

What is the WordPress redirect hack? Attackers regularly exploit vulnerable plugins to compromise WordPress websites and redirect visitors to spam and scam websites. Hackers inject their malicious JavaScript into the compromised websites, leading to multiple redirect chains and unwanted ads in the process.

What makes a URL invalid? ›

The URL will not work if the page doesn't exist. Sometimes, a correct URL will not work because the host deleted it or it is removed from the server. This problem occurs if you write the URL wrong by adding additional characters or adding fewer characters. The URL is missing some characters.

What if there is two in a URL? ›

Save this answer. Show activity on this post. No, you can't have a second question mark in a URL. Furthermore, if you have ampersands in the redirect URL, they will be seen as separate parameters for the main URL, and not seen as connected to the redirect URL.

What is not allowed in a URL? ›

ASCII control characters (e.g. backspace, vertical tab, horizontal tab, line feed etc), unsafe characters like space , \ , < , > , { , } etc, and any character outside the ASCII charset is not allowed to be placed directly within URLs. Moreover, there are some characters that have special meaning within URLs.

Can a website have different URLs? ›

With most registrars, it's easy to forward multiple domains to your website so you can simply create one site and then redirect visitors who type one of your other domain names to that one website.

Which is the best way to redirect to a new different URL? ›

301 Redirects (Moved Permanently)

301 redirects signal to Google that the move is permanent. They're also considered the best way to pass link equity if you need to redirect a page. That's because they pass some page authority from the old URL to the new URL.

Why does one website have multiple IP addresses? ›

Advantages of Multiple IP Addresses

This can help to prevent malicious attacks, as attackers will not be able to target all websites on the same server. Furthermore, having multiple IP addresses assigned to a single web server can also improve performance, as it allows for better control over network traffic.

What is dynamic failover? ›

The failover process means that a failed node has just doubled the load on one of the three remaining nodes while not disrupting the other two nodes. Therefore, this process results in declining client performance, but not equally.

Why would you have 2 IP addresses? ›

Using different IP addresses segmented based on particular mail streams is another legitimate reason for using multiple IP addresses. Since each IP address maintains its own deliverability reputation, segmenting each mail stream by IP address keeps the reputation of each mail stream separate.

How do I host two websites on the same domain? ›

How to Host Multiple Websites on One Server
  1. Step 1: Buy domain names and a shared hosting plan.
  2. Step 2: Add a domain to the server/cPanel.
  3. Step 3: Update the nameservers.
  4. Step 4: Install WordPress on the server.
  5. Step 5: Set up the basics on your WordPress sites.
Feb 28, 2023

What is the difference between a domain and a subdomain? ›

To put things simply, you'll need a domain name whenever you want to create a website that's accessible via the internet. Subdomains are an extension of your primary domain name and are used for site organization or redesign purposes, or even to host your blog or eCommerce store.

What is the purpose of subdomains? ›

A subdomain name is a piece of additional information added to the beginning of a website's domain name. It allows websites to separate and organize content for a specific function — such as a blog or an online store — from the rest of your website.

How do I know if two URLs are the same? ›

Java URL equals() Method

The equals() method of URL class compares this URL for equality with another URL object. It returns false if the given object is not a URL. If IP address of two different is same, then it considered equivalent host.

Can two websites have the same content? ›

Internal duplicate content is when one domain creates duplicate content through multiple internal URLs (on the same website). External duplicate content, also known as cross-domain duplicates, occurs when two or more different domains have the same page copy indexed by the search engines.

Can you have two in a URL? ›

Save this answer. Show activity on this post. No, you can't have a second question mark in a URL. Furthermore, if you have ampersands in the redirect URL, they will be seen as separate parameters for the main URL, and not seen as connected to the redirect URL.

How would you resolve an issue involving two different URLs with the same content? ›

There are four methods of solving the problem, in order of preference:
  1. Not creating duplicate content.
  2. Redirecting duplicate content to the canonical URL.
  3. Adding a canonical link element to the duplicate page.
  4. Adding an HTML link from the duplicate page to the canonical page.
Dec 13, 2021

How many domains can you link to a website? ›

Do not use more than one domain for a website. Using more than one domain for the same site or company confuses search engines and essentially spreads out your domain authority - an important ranking factor that communicates important information to Google about who you are, what you do, and how authoritative you are.

What is a duplicate URL? ›

When Google finds multiple URLs on the same site that show essentially the same page contents, it considers these URLs to be duplicates.

How do I open two URLs at once? ›

Chrome and Opera users will need to click the Extension buttons in those browsers to select that add-on. Or select the Pin option for Open Multiple URLs to add it to Chrome's or Opera's URL toolbars. Clicking Open Multiple URLs brings up that extension's text box, where you can input URLs to open in separate lines.

Why have multiple URLs? ›

Using multiple domain names can improve your search engine optimization (SEO) results as well. In case you aren't familiar, SEO is a set of strategies designed to help you rank higher and get more visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Is having two websites bad for SEO? ›

You Run the Risk of Duplicate Content

Much like trying to rank for the same keywords across different sites, duplicate content can nullify your SEO progress. Essentially, when a search engine finds multiple pieces of the same content, it won't know which is the original piece to rank.

Is it legal to link other websites to my website? ›

Generally no, but you should check the website's 'Terms of Use' section to see whether it has any specific linking prohibitions. If there are none, you may link to the website but make sure that the webpage opens up in a different browser window.

Is it OK to add links to other websites? ›

But here are some key things to keep in mind when adding links from your website to another site: Never copy content from another website and put it onto your site without permission, as this could very well constitute copyright infringement, unless it's deemed “fair use.”

What is a URL rule? ›

A URL rule is an instance if yii\web\UrlRule. The urlManager components uses the URL rules declared in its rules property when the pretty URL format is enabled. To parse a request, the URL manager obtains the rules in the order they are declared and looks for the first rule.

What are the rules for URL design? ›

Keep a simple URL structure
  • Recommended: Simple, descriptive words in the URL: ...
  • Recommended: Localized words in the URL, if applicable. ...
  • Recommended: Use UTF-8 encoding as necessary. ...
  • Not recommended: Using non-ASCII characters in the URL: ...
  • Not recommended: Unreadable, long ID numbers in the URL:

What is the difference between URL and URI? ›

URI identifies a resource and differentiates it from others by using a name, location, or both. URL identifies the web address or location of a unique resource. URI contains components like a scheme, authority, path, and query. URL has similar components to a URI, but its authority consists of a domain name and port.

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