Set up Domain Redirection using a Redirect DNS Record

If your domain is registered with InstaWP, you can forward it — or any of its subdomains — to another URL without pointing it at a server first. The Redirect record type in your domain's DNS manager does this for you: InstaWP automatically provisions an accelerated, HTTPS-enabled redirect behind the scenes, so there is nothing else to configure.

Typical uses:

• Send a marketing subdomain such as promo.yourdomain.com to a landing page hosted elsewhere.
• Forward an old or alternate domain to your current website.
• Point www to your root domain (or the other way around).

Before you start: Redirect records only work while your domain uses InstaWP's nameservers (ns1.instawp.com and ns2.instawp.com). If you have switched to custom nameservers, set the redirect up at your DNS provider instead.

Add a Redirect record

Step 1: Log in to your InstaWP dashboard, open the Domains page from the sidebar, and click the domain you want to redirect.

Step 2: On the domain's Summary page, select DNS from the left menu. This is also where you can confirm the domain is still using InstaWP's nameservers.

Step 3: On the DNS Records page, select Redirect from the record-type tabs.

Step 4: Fill in the redirect and click Add.

• Name — the hostname you want to redirect. Use @ for the root domain, or a subdomain such as www or promo.
• Value — the destination. This must be an absolute URL including https:// (for example, https://instawp.com). A bare domain such as instawp.com will not be accepted.
• TTL (Second) — how long resolvers cache the record. The default 3600 (1 hour) is fine for most cases.

Step 5: The new Redirect record appears in the list below the form, showing its type, hostname, value and TTL. You can edit or delete it later using the icons in the Action column.

Verify the redirect

Once the record has propagated, opening the hostname in a browser should land you on the destination URL. You can also check it from a terminal:

curl -I https://promo.yourdomain.com

The response returns a redirect status (301 or 302) with a Location header pointing at your destination URL.

Propagation usually takes a few minutes but can take longer depending on the TTL you set and on DNS caching along the way.

Things to keep in mind

1. One record per hostname. A hostname can only have one record pointing it somewhere. If www already has a CNAME or A record — for example, because a site is linked to it — delete that record first, or use a different hostname for the redirect.
2. Don't redirect a hostname your site uses. Redirecting the hostname your InstaWP site is mapped to will take visitors away from the site.
3. HTTPS is handled for you. InstaWP provisions the certificate for the redirecting hostname automatically — you don't need to add one.
4. The destination can be anything. It doesn't have to be an InstaWP site; any public URL works, including a specific page such as https://example.com/offer.

💡 If your domain is registered elsewhere and its DNS provider doesn't support CNAME records on the root domain, see Using domain forwarding as an alternative to CNAME. For the other record types available here, see Add/ Update DNS Records.