Can someone tell me the difference between domain forward and domain pointing? What are the benefits and drawbacks?

I have a client who has multiple domain addresses with Goddaddy that she want to direct to her website which is hosted with Yahoo.

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Genevieve Lachance
VA Simple Services

There is also something called masking you forward your domain name.

I too would like this explained.

Domain forwarding and domain pointing are the same thing:
Example: you have mysite.net, mysite.org & mysite.com
You only want to maintain one site so you would point the .net & .org domain names to .com. In other words; if someone types mysite.net into the URL address bar it will point them to mysite.com and that is what will show in the address bar. They will know they were redirected.

Domain masking is an extension of the above.
You would use masking if you did not want the visitor to know they were redirected. So when they typed in mysite.net, that is what would stay in the address bar but they would be viewing mysite.com. So they have no idea.

Hope that helps,

~C

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~Christina

This is what I found on the godaddy website but it doesn't explain the benefits or downfall of it all? I'm not sure that I understand the domain pointing either? Christina says that forwarding and pointing are the same but I'm not sure since it gives you two different instructions?? I use domain forward masking for my own site and I know that masking is not good for search engines (I use it for personal reasons). I'm just wondering if my client should use forward (no masking) or pointing?

• Domain forwarding lets you automatically direct your domain's visitors to a different website.
• Masking prevents visitors from seeing your domain forwarding by keeping your domain name in the Web browser's address bar & lets you specify Meta Tags for search engine crawlers by completing the following fields: Title — Displays at the top of the browser window and in search results. Description — A short description of your website to display in search engine results. Keyword — A list of comma-separated keywords that describes the content and purpose of your website.
• Pointing Your Domain Name to a Third-Party Host Company's Servers. For a domain name to work with any hosting account, the domain name's DNS (Domain Name Servers) must be pointed to the hosting account's nameservers. Your hosting company provides the correct DNS addresses (minimum of 2). Frequently, hosting companies also provide an IP address for the nameservers. We do not require an IP, only the nameservers.

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Genevieve Lachance
VA Simple Services

Ok I was trying not to get too detailed with my original answer.
Pointing and forwarding are the same, in which you are directing one domain to "hop" to another.
Pointing is when the two domains are on the same hosting account- forwarding is when they are not.
So for better examples:
Pointing: Both mysite.net and mysite.com are owned by you and hosted on HostGator. mysite.net points to mysite.com visitors can type either URL and it takes them to the same place.

Pointing is the term also used for when you prefer to switch hosts but want to keep your domain under the same registrar. You would notify your registrar to change your current DNS settings to those of the new host account.(you can, most times, do this step yourself if you want)

Forwarding: You have another website hosted elsewhere for an ebook for sale at ebooksale.com. You want people to click from mysite.com to get to ebooksale.com but when they hover over the link on your site you want them to see mysite.com/ebook so it looks like they are not leaving your site. You would forward mysite.com/ebook to ebooksale.com. They click and it sends them to your ebook site.

As for SEO purposes, you'll have to check with Tess on that, she's the expert.

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~Christina

Thanks so much Christina! That's very helpful.

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Genevieve Lachance
VA Simple Services

Thanks, Christina! I was confused about this too.

Man, she's a wiz, isn't she, that Christina. I learn so much every time she posts ...

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

Christina, could not have explained this more clearly. I knew the difference but you put just the right words to it.

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Lee Drozak

Great information. I kinda knew what this all was, but it's so much better to have a comprehensive explanation.

I have a question that one of you might know the answer to.

A friend of mine had bought one of his domain names from Yahoo, but he said he wasn't able to transfer it - what does that mean?

I'm researching different providers to buy my domain names from, but after hearing this, now I'm not sure what to do or what to look for when deciding on who to purchase my domain names from.

Does anyone know what my friend means? I thought I did, but the more I thought about it, it didn't make sense to me.

Thanks.