How do I point my new domain at my site?

Q: How do I point my new domain at my site?

Either redirect it to your main site or build on it directly. Both are standard DNS work, and the dashboard covers the basics.

The two common approaches

Redirect it. Point the domain at an existing site with a 301 redirect, which passes the domain's accumulated authority through to the destination. This is the fastest route and the usual choice when you already have a main site.

Build on it. Use the domain as the home for a new site instead. Slower to set up, but it keeps the history and the content on the same name, which is the stronger option if the domain's past subject matter is close to what you're building.

Doing it well

If you redirect, redirect to a relevant page rather than dumping everything on the homepage. A domain whose history is about one subject passes more usefully to a page about that subject. Use 301s, not 302s: a temporary redirect signals that the move isn't permanent and is treated accordingly. Our guide to setting up redirects walks through the mechanics.

Timing

Search engines need to recrawl the domain and its referring sources before any of this shows up in rankings, so expect a lag between making the change and seeing an effect. How soon you'll see an impact goes into what affects that.