One Website, Several Domains - Aliases, Redirects and SEO

If you own more than one domain, such as example.co.za and example.com, an old brand name or a common misspelling, you can make all of them reach the same website. There are two ways: a website alias, where the extra domain shows the same site, or a 301 redirect, where the extra domain sends visitors to your main domain. For search engines and for your visitors, the cleanest result is usually the same: one primary domain that everything ends up on.

This guide explains why businesses own several domains, the difference between aliases and redirects, and how to set them up without creating duplicate content.

Why own more than one domain?

• The .co.za and the .com. Many South African businesses use .co.za as their main domain and own the .com so that nobody else can use it. See .co.za vs .com for how to choose which is primary.
• An old name. After a rebrand, the old domain still appears on printed material, invoices and links from other sites for years.
• Typos and variations. Hyphenated and unhyphenated versions, or a common misspelling of your name.
• Campaigns and products. A short, memorable domain on a billboard or radio advert that lands on a specific page.
• Protection. Owning obvious lookalikes makes it a little harder for fraudsters to imitate you. Our guide to invoice fraud and email compromise explains why that matters.

Alias or redirect?

For most extra domains, a redirect is the better final state: visitors, bookmarks and search engines all end up on one address. An alias is useful when the extra domain itself should stay in the address bar, or as the hosting side of a redirect, as described below.

The duplicate content trap

If example.com and example.co.za both show the full website and neither says which one is primary, search engines see two copies of every page. Usually they pick one to show, but you may not like their choice, and links pointing at the other domain help less than they could.

Fix it with one of these:

1. Canonical tags. Every page includes <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.co.za/the-page"> pointing at the primary domain, whichever domain the visitor used. Most CMSs and frameworks do this when you set the site URL correctly.
2. A redirect rule on the alias. The site answers on the alias, but immediately 301-redirects to the same path on the primary domain. Search engines and visitors end up in one place.

Website aliases on NewHost

On NewHost web hosting, an alias is added to the hosting account in the dashboard:

1. Open the web hosting account and go to Website aliases.
2. Enter the extra domain and click Check domain. You see whether its DNS already points to NewHost, the records to add if it doesn't, and the price for the rest of the current billing period.
3. Add alias creates an invoice. Once it is paid, the alias is set up, and it goes live with SSL as soon as its DNS points to us.

After that, each alias is billed together with the hosting account's renewals. If you remove an alias later, the unused paid days go back to your wallet. The current alias price is on the pricing page.

If the domain is registered with NewHost and uses NewHost DNS, the records are a few clicks in the domain's DNS editor. If it's registered elsewhere, add the records at your registrar or DNS provider. How to point your domain to your hosting covers both cases.

Turning an alias into a redirect

To send visitors from the alias to your main domain, add a redirect rule to the site. On Apache-based hosting with an .htaccess file, this redirects example.com and www.example.com to the same page on your primary domain:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?example\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://www.example.co.za%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

For a Next.js app, the same idea goes in next.config.ts:

async redirects() {
  return [
    {
      source: "/:path*",
      has: [{ type: "host", value: "(www\\.)?example\\.com" }],
      destination: "https://www.example.co.za/:path*",
      permanent: true,
    },
  ];
},

Keep the path when you redirect (/contact should land on /contact, not the homepage), so old links and bookmarks still work. And redirect in one hop: straight to the final https:// address on your primary host. Our guide to www or non-www and HTTPS redirects explains why.

Campaign domains

For a campaign domain that should land on one specific page, redirect the whole domain to that page and add tracking parameters if you use analytics:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?winterspecial\.co\.za$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://www.example.co.za/specials?utm_source=radio [L,R=301]

Don't forget email and renewals

• Email stays a separate decision. Adding a domain as a website alias doesn't create mailboxes on it. Most businesses keep one email domain, the primary one, and that is the simplest for customers.
• Renew every domain you rely on. A redirect domain that lapses stops working, and someone else can register it and point it wherever they like. Turn on auto-renew. What happens when a domain expires explains the timeline.
• Keep a list of all your domains, where each is registered, what it does and when it renews.

Frequently asked questions

Will owning several domains help my SEO?

Not by itself. Extra domains that redirect to your main site don't add ranking power on their own. Their value is protecting your name and catching visitors who type the other version.

Should every extra domain be an alias?

Only if the domain should keep showing in the address bar. For typos, old brands and the other extension, a 301 redirect to your primary domain is usually cleaner.

Do I need a separate SSL certificate for an alias?

The alias's name has to be covered by a certificate, or visitors see a warning before any redirect runs. On NewHost, an alias goes live with SSL once its DNS points to us.

Can I point a domain at a specific page instead of the homepage?

Yes, with a redirect rule that sends every request on that domain to the page you choose, as in the campaign example above.

Own more than one domain? Manage them all in one place with NewHost domains, and add them to your web hosting as website aliases with SSL included.