What Are the Types of Domain Hosting?

Domain hosting includes things like domain parking, domain forwarding, domain masking,  and domain locking. Not every hosting service offers all of these options, so you should never assume they’re available and check prices if you intend to use them.

Domain Parking

If you want to have and hold a domain name without building a website on it (temporarily or permanently) or having other services for it, such as email, the service that provides this facility is called domain parking. Domain parking can be used to signal an upcoming website using an “Under Construction” message. It is also used to register domains to prevent cybersquatting when a tradename or misspelling of it is involved in the domain name.

Another use of domain parking is for parked domain monetization, in which the domain name is connected to a page with advertising and links, often from a pay per click (PPC) agreement. For more information about domain parking, see the article “What Is Domain Parking?”

Domain Forwarding

The domain forwarding service provides the ability to point your domain name to a homepage or website with a different domain name. It is also referred to as URL redirection, URL forwarding, and domain redirection. Some of the reasons that people use domain forwarding are:

• to redirect customers who type a URL that is not the proper spelling of your site (for example, greatbusiness.com or gratebusiness.net instead of your site which is actually greatbusiness.net )
• to substitute a short, memorable name for one that is longer
• to link a domain name hosted on one server to content hosted on another server
• if you wish to move your page to a new domain but not lose old visitors
• if you wish to merge two sites that have heretofore been separate

It is possible to misuse domain forwarding to scam visitors or to fool search engines, but those caught doing this will suffer reduced page rank or banning.

Domain Masking

Also known as domain cloaking or URL masking, domain masking allows users to see the content of a forwarded site without seeing the URL: the URL that they typed in or chose from a search engine or link stays in the window. This is useful for not confusing visitors with a long or unwieldy name of a website that you may have built before a better, shorter name became available. You can also use it to conceal a free hosting sub-domain name, making your site appear more professional.

Domain Locking

Domain locking is a security system to prevent your domain name being transferred without authorization. When you wish to make changes yourself, you are able to unlock the site and do so. Some hosts lock domains as a matter of course, but others may offer domain locking as an add-on service.