Redirects are a simple tool, but tricky to manage. I like to think of them like the person of interest boards you see in crime shows that connect peoples’ headshots to one another with a red string.
The more connections you create, the more difficult it becomes to manage, and harder to remember it begins and ends.
The same can be said for redirects… which is why you should only use a redirect when it’s absolutely necessary. The last thing you want to do is create a redirect loop or increase your load times because of too many redirects.
Most modern websites use redirects. For example, if you go to our homepage, there are a handful of redirects being used to funnel traffic to the right version of our homepage.
These redirects are considered “internal” and operate on the same FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name), dnsmadeeasy.com. You can create them using simple CNAME records that point one hostname to another or on your web server using 301 redirects.
But what if you want to redirect one domain to another?
For any redirects that point outside of your FQDN, you need to use a special kind of DNS record called an HTTP Redirection record.
These records are actually an A record that points to a dedicated web server containing the 301 redirect to the external FQDN.
How an HTTP Redirection Record Works
All you have to do is create two HTTP redirection records.
You can learn how to create HTTP redirection records on our
Want to read more? Check out this blog on HTTP redirects and why