Custom Domains·4 min read·

Redirect extra domains to your main domain

Send an old or extra domain to your main domain with a permanent 301 redirect: where to add it, the DNS records, plan limits and what to expect.

A redirect domain is an extra domain that sends every visitor to your main domain. Use it for an old site address you are retiring, or for a close variant of your name that you want to keep working. Visitors, bookmarks and search results that still use the old address land on the same page of your main domain.

Before you start

  • Connect your main domain first, as described in the custom domain guide. A redirect domain always points at it, so the form stays blocked until a main domain is connected.
  • Only the site owner can add, check or remove redirect domains.
  • Your plan decides how many redirect hosts you can have: Pro includes 2, Business includes 5 and Agency includes 10. A plan with no redirect hosts shows a notice with a link to Billing.

Add a redirect domain

  1. Go to Admin → Settings → Branding. The Redirect domains section sits directly below the Custom domain section.
  2. Type the domain in the Domain to redirect field, for example old-site.com, and click Add.
  3. The new domain appears in the list with the DNS records to create. Copy each record with its Copy button and add it at your DNS provider.
  4. Click Check now to re-check, or wait for the status to move from DNS pending through Verifying to Active.

The section shows how many hosts you have used, for example 1 of 2 hosts used. Each registered host counts once.

Root domain or www

If you enter a bare root domain such as old-site.com, VeloCMS registers the www version, www.old-site.com, and the list reminds you to forward the root at your registrar to https://www.old-site.com. Most registrars offer URL forwarding for this. The registrar does the forwarding for the root, so check that your registrar's forward also works over HTTPS, because we have not verified that for every registrar.

If you want the root domain itself to redirect, tick Register this root domain directly before you click Add. That mode only accepts a root domain such as example.com, not a subdomain, and your DNS provider must be able to point a root domain at a CNAME target (ALIAS, ANAME or CNAME flattening). If you enter a subdomain such as shop.old-site.com in the normal mode, that exact host is registered.

The DNS records

Each redirect domain shows its records in a Type, Host and Value layout: a CNAME record pointing at the target shown, and, when one is needed, a TXT record that proves ownership. Always copy the values from the panel rather than typing them, because they are specific to your domain. If your DNS is on Cloudflare, set the record to DNS only (the gray cloud), as for the main domain.

What visitors get

Once a redirect domain is Active and your main domain is live, the row reads Redirecting to followed by your main domain. A visitor opening a page gets a permanent 301 redirect to the same path and the same query string on your main domain, so old-site.com/shop/hat?color=red lands on your-main-domain.com/shop/hat?color=red. Requests that are not plain page loads, such as form posts, get a 308 redirect, which keeps the request method.

If your main domain is removed or not live

Your redirect domains stay in the list. While the main domain is missing or not active, the row reads Will start redirecting once your main domain is live, and visitors to the redirect domain get a temporary "unavailable" response instead of being sent anywhere else. Connect the main domain again and the redirects resume without re-adding the domains.

Remove a redirect domain

Click Remove next to the domain and confirm. Visitors to that domain stop being redirected. You can also delete its DNS records at your DNS provider.

If you see an error

  • Redirect domains are not included in your plan: upgrade in Billing to add them.
  • Your plan allows a set number of redirect hosts: remove one to add another.
  • This domain is already connected to another site: a domain can belong to one site at a time.
  • This is already your main domain, or already one of your redirect domains: nothing to add.
  • Redirect domains are not available right now: the feature is switched on in stages and may be unavailable until it is enabled for your site. Try again later.

Related pages