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We provide a free or discounted domain name with every Web hosting account, and you can also add more domain names that "point to" the same website files and email mailboxes as an existing domain name you have hosted with us.

We call these extra domain names "domain name aliases". They let people access your existing website files and email addresses using a different domain name.

(This is not the same thing as adding a new domain name that shows different website content, or has different email addresses. If you want that, see our Add-On Hosting page.)

On this page:

• Why would I use a domain name alias?
• Domain name aliases with websites
• Domain name aliases with email addresses
• Setting up domain name aliases
• Using an alias with WordPress

Why would I use a domain name alias?

Common uses for extra domain names are:

• to cover all the various versions of your domain name (example.com, example.net, example.org, etc.);
• to make sure people who mistype your domain name can still reach you (making sure that both example-theater.com and example-theatre.com work, for example);
• to provide domain names for each product or service your company offers; and
• to make sure that a domain name you're phasing out still continues working for a couple of years.

You don't need to pay any extra monthly fee for additional domain names, and you can have as many additional domain names as you want — there's no limit. The only cost is our annual "domain name registration only" fee if you buy the domain name from us, which includes registration and renewal of the domain name. (There’s no charge at all if you register the domain name through another company, although doing that means we won’t be able to provide support for problems with the domain name.)

Domain name aliases with websites

As an example, let's say you have an existing website at www.example.com. You could add an extra domain name called a-second-domain.com and have us set it up as a domain name alias for example.com.

If you do that, people visiting either of these two addresses will see the exact same pages:

www.example.com

www.a-second-domain.com

The visitor's Web browser address bar will continue to show whichever address he or she typed; the visitor won't even know about the other domain name unless you display it on the page somewhere. (Compare this to a domain name redirect, in which the visitor's address bar changes to show the "main" Web hosting domain name.)

Domain name aliases with email addresses

Domain name aliases work for email, too. If you currently use the email address address@example.com, any messages sent to address@a-second-domain.com will also reach you.

In fact, mail sent to any address @a-second-domain.com will be handled exactly as if it had been sent to the same address @example.com.

In addition, you can set up your email program or Webmail to use either domain name as the "From" address.

Setting up domain name aliases

To add a domain alias:

1. Login to the “My Account” control panel (having trouble?) for your existing domain name
2. Click Add Domain Names and follow the instructions to add the new domain name with “parking/alias/redirect” service
3. Wait a minute or two for the new domain name to be added to your account, then choose it from the list of domain names in the top-right of the control panel pages
4. Click Domain Name Features
5. Choose the Domain Name Alias option and follow the instructions

Be sure you choose “parking/alias/redirect” service in step 2: you should not choose an option with “hosting” service. The alias will usually be working within 15 minutes.

By the way, if you don't see "Domain Name Features", make sure you're logged in as the domain name you want to make an alias. (If you're logged in under a different domain name, you may need to click Logout, then login under the correct domain name.)

If you still don't see “Domain Name Features”, the domain name probably has hosting service. To fix this, cancel the hosting service. If the domain is registered with us, you can choose to park it as part of the cancellation and “Domain Name Features” will immediately appear. If the domain name is not registered through us, use Add Domain Names as described above to re-add it with “parking/alias/redirect” service.

Using an alias with WordPress

If you set up an alias domain name and you’re using WordPress, it will show pages for either domain name, but will “prefer” the domain name in its settings when generating links to other pages.

You can change the WordPress settings to prefer to use the aliased domain name:

1. Login to the WordPress administration dashboard (e.g., “http://www.example.com/wp-admin/”).
2. Click Settings.
3. Change the WordPress Address (URL) to the new URL that you want to use (e.g., https://www.a-second-domain.com).
4. Change the Site Address (URL) to the same value.
5. Click Save Changes.

After you do this, WordPress will “prefer” links for “www.a-second-domain.com”. (It will do this using a 302 redirect by default, but you can make that be a 301 redirect by adding a redirect in our control panel if you prefer.)