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Many things happen behind the scenes as we navigate the internet. Our browsers work overtime, sending and receiving DNS requests to bring us to the websites we want to view. And sometimes the URLs we see mask others, disguising which website we’re on without us knowing.
Oh, what a tangled world wide web we weave. Welcome to the world of domain masking.
Domain masking is a technique many companies use to achieve different goals. One common use is for companies with several domain names to point all their different web addresses to the main website. This streamlines their web addresses, prevents confusion, and ensures that visitors always land on the correct website.
Another everyday use of domain masking is where internet marketers redirect website traffic to an affiliate link while making it appear that the affiliate site is part of the marketer’s main domain.
But what exactly is the dark art of domain masking? Let’s pull back the curtain.
What is Domain Masking?
Domain masking, also known as URL cloaking or a masked redirect, is a type of domain forwarding that hides the destination URL from the web user.
When you set up domain masking, the browser redirects the user to a new domain but maintains the previous URL in the browser bar so the user does not appear to have changed location.
For instance, our former domain was “squadhelp.com,” and we want to redirect visitors to a new domain, “atom.com,” via domain masking. We can set up a redirect on our server for “squadhelp.com” to “atom.com.”
If we were using domain masking, you would find that when you type in “squadhelp.com” in your web browser, you will be redirected to atom.com, but the URL in your browser bar could still show “squadhelp.com.”
How Does Domain Masking Work?
Domain masking works by routing domain name system (DNS) lookups through a special proxy server. When visitors type in or click the “cloaked domain,” they get redirected behind the scenes to the “target domain.”
Domain masking happens seamlessly on your web browser. However, on the back end (the server side), the web hosting provider associates the masked domain with the primary domain via masking software or configurations.
So, when you enter or click the masked domain, it appears you are interacting directly with it. But in reality, that domain name is just an alias for the original URL and IP address.
How to Mask a Domain Name
Two common ways of masking a domain are by configuring your website’s “.htaccess” file or using a full-page iframe to fetch content from an external document while maintaining your domain name in the browser address bar.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to masking a domain using iframes.
Things to note:
- You will need access to the cPanel of your website’s hosting account.
- You will need to edit and paste a code snippet into your site’s index.html file.
Here’s the code snippet:
<html>
<head>
<title>The Title of the Page</title>
</head>
<frameset rows=”100%,0″ border=”0″>
<frame src=”http://mydestinationurl.com” frameborder=”0″>
<frame frameborder=”0″>
</frameset>
</html>
Note: In the code snippet above, you must replace “mydestinationurl.com” with your target URL—that is, where you want to forward your original domain.
Here’s how to access and edit your index.html file:
- Log into your cPanel.
- Click on “File Manager.”
- Search for the “index.html” file and double-click to open it (you can use the “Ctrl + click” or “Command + click” buttons on PC or Mac, respectively to locate the file quickly.
- If you can’t find any “index.html” file, create a new one.
- Right-click the “index.html” file and select “edit.”
- Copy and paste the code snippet above into your index.html file and save the changes.
- Visit your original domain to test the redirect.
Take note that minor typos in your index.html file can break your website.
If you are not comfortable making changes to this file, you should ask your web developer — or hire one — to make the edits.
What’s the Difference Between Domain Forwarding and Domain Masking?
While domain forwarding and domain masking direct site visitors to a new domain or destination, there are distinctions between both terms.
Domain forwarding, sometimes called pointing or connecting, involves redirecting website visitors to a different URL, with the destination domain or URL visible in the browser bar. The two main types of domain forwarding are 301 permanent and 302 temporary redirects.
On the other hand, domain masking or cloaking is when you redirect users to a different destination while maintaining the original URL in the address bar.
So, the critical difference between domain forwarding and masking is that forwarding reveals the domain of the new destination while masking displays content from another domain while concealing that domain from the address bar.
While domain masking has its use, it could adversely affect a website’s Google ranking and user experience. It increases a site’s bounce rate and could lead to duplicate content and URLs.
Reasons to Use Domain Masking
While domain masking has some potential drawbacks that often outweigh its benefits, there are still legitimate cases where it provides value for developers and website owners. Masking is most useful in situations such as:
- Link Shortening: Long, complicated links can be a handful for visitors. Website owners use masking to shorten and beautify links without changing their domain name or site link structure.
- Concealing Free Web Hosting Addresses: When you use a free web hosting provider, your content is hosted on a subdomain of the company. As a result, your web address will often be a long, clunky URL.
Some free web hosting customers resort to domain masking to conceal the long subdomain address, display their own unique domain name, and make it appear as if their website is on a standalone hosting account.
- Link Tracking: Tracking links often contain several identifier tags that make the URL appear long, complex, and ugly. Tracking software usually uses masking to conceal tracking tags in the original URL.
- Cloaking Affiliate Links: Most visitors don’t trust affiliate links, knowing that site owners are likely incentivized to post them. Website owners often use domain masking to conceal affiliate links and increase link click-through rates.
- Domain Parking: Domain name owners use domain parking to generate revenue from fallow domains. Income is made through clicks on ads and links related to the new domain placed on a “parking page.” You can use domain cloaking to hide the actual URL of the “parking page” and make it appear as if it’s hosted on the original domain.
- Phishing: Some hackers maliciously use domain masking to conceal the true origin of a cloned website or make a scam/spam website appear trustworthy.
Wrapping Up
As we have seen, domain masking provides web developers and site owners with a flexible approach to leveraging multiple domain names and subdirectories through a single, seamlessly linked domain.
While masking is not always preferable to other domain forwarding methods, it fills critical needs in cases such as link shortening and tracking, branding unification, domain parking, and privacy.
Don’t forget that launching any successful website or online project starts with buying the right domain name. So are you looking for the perfect business name to build and leverage your online presence? Check the Atom Premium Marketplace for quality brandable domain names.
