DNS Forward
DNS means “the routing”… so this would be a bounce from one domain to another location on the internet. This happens at the domain level.
Hosting Redirect
Hosting means “where the website lives/loads from”… so this would mean the domain is pointed to a hosting server. The domain loads to the files and something on the files would trigger the redirect to the new location online or on the server.
DNS vs Hosting configuration
If you need the traffic to go directly from the domain to another location then you use the DNS option. If you don’t have hosting and want this to work then you use the DNS option.
If you need the HTTPS to load right or you need a specific path to load then it needs to be the hosting option. If you need tracking or advertising data to be sent then it needs to be the hosting option.
You can track the DNS option but it’s harder and you need to have the tracking info in the URL with hand off and pick up points. The hosting option makes it much easier to insert the code in the page to run during the redirect.
The easiest way to quickly set up hosting redirects would be using the ‘.htaccess’ file and intercepting traffic when the page initially loads.
I was asked: What’s the best way to get a domain to redirect to another URL, but when it loads there’s some extra tracking info that gets added to the URL; additionally we want the whole thing to work with https and load with all the browsers.
I explained that the DNS option is not even worth attempting in this scenario. The tracking info will probably not work the best and I can’t guarantee that the HTTPS load will work.
This needs to be a Hosting based solution. Point the domain to the hosting they already had in the account. The cpanel tier they had included the auto-SSL so they already can issue SSLs internally. So the last part would be to find a good htaccess code that handled the bounce as well as injected the marketing tracking snippet.
Domain > hosting with SSL issued > load the domain’s directory > htaccess will update to https and then reroute with 301 and tracking code > guest loads the destination site and everything should route correctly with https through the whole path.
Once I broke down why this specific approach was required for his needs, he accepted that any other way would be more effort with less confidence.