Forwarding, Pointing and Parking – Domain Name Alternatives

If you have purchased a domain name, but do not have a site that you wish to set up at this time, there are several options available to you. While it is very simply to purchase the domain and leave it at that, you may be able to do more with your domain until you are ready to implement it for your site.

Parking a domain refers to a process where your domain does not actually point to a hosted server account. Instead, it is parked, usually with the registrar of the domain, until you want to use it. This is very similar to the process of storing your car in a garage. You will have your own parking space for your domain.

A parked domain will commonly display a coming soon message. This page will be the only page associated with your domain. You will not be able to add or take away any of this content, unless your registrar allows you to customize your parked page.

Many people utilize domain name parking while they are setting up their new website. This will allow you to completely work out any bugs on your new site until you are ready to take it live. Once you are, you can simply change the nameserver for this domain to point to your new site. You can also use domain name parking to sell a domain for a profit.

Pointing a domain refers to the process of having a domain literally point to another location. For example, if someone were to type in yourcompany.com in their browser, and you were using a domain name pointer, they would be taken to your-companyname.com without really knowing what happened. This is useful if you have a domain name that is hard to remember, or if you found a better domain name after purchasing your existing one.

Most web hosting companies will allow you to set up your own domain pointer on your server. If you do not have this option in your control panel, you may need to request that your hosting company configures this for you.

If you have purchased multiple domains for one site, such as yourcompanyname.net and org, you can simply have these domain names point to your .com address instead of having to build a new site for each domain.

Forwarding a domain is very similar to pointing, but this is done with your registrar and not your web hosting company. Once you have purchased your domain, the majority of registrars will allow to you add a forwarder. Again, the forwarded domain will point to the existing site of your choice.

This can be used for hosting multiple domain names from one server, without having to purchase extra accounts for each one. If you have a variety of domains, this option is much cheaper than paying extra for parking these domains.