I have four domain names and three of them are parked and point to one domain. I brought them all at the time when cybersquatting was very active but now there are so many tld options around I was going to let two of them expire.
I will be left with two domain names ( the same name just a different tld ) and up until now I have not bothered about Google rank etc. as it is just a reference site and I was not really bothered if anyone found it or not.
Now looking into it I can see parked domains are not a good idea and so I was going to setup a redirect but I can not find the answer to a basic question:
Can you redirect a domain name on its own or does it have to be hosted on a server? For example do I need to setup a one page website with a redirect on it?
It may not make any difference but the website is on a VPS.
The registrar I use has options for A records, CNAME records, TXT records, 301 redirects, and a few others. Any domains that I need redirected but aren’t configured on an actual host anywhere, I use the 301 redirect record. Not that not all registrars have this option, but most of the poplar ones (ie, namecheap, godaddy) should have it.
I have looked at my account on the registrars website and I have a “custom DNS” which means I can not change some settings - none of them were redirects but Host, MX, MXE and SRV.
I can change from the using the custom DNS to the registrars DNS but am not sure of the implications.
It might be just as easy to setup each domain as a website on the VPS and then redirect them as I have plenty of free space.
It sounds like you’re using your host’s DNS, rather than your registrar’s DNS.
If that’s the case, see what your DNS options are in your host’s control panel. There might be a place where you can actually configure DNS entries like at a registrar. If not, you might have to set up the domain on your host and use a redirect feature (if it’s available) or simply fall back on an htaccess URL redirect.
It sounds like you’re using your host’s DNS, rather than your registrar’s DNS.
Yes you are correct @Force_Flow ; but there are less options on the host’s DNS control panel.
I have just been looking at the cpanel for the main URL and noticed under the “Parked domains” section there is a “Manage Redirection” link. I have added the main URL to all the parked domains there and they now redirect.