What is the difference between "parking" and "redirecting" and an "add-on" domain?

Park, Redirect, and Add-on are 3 methods of having one domain lead to another domain. Each is useful, but for different things.

We would PARK a domain "on top of" one you already have hosted. Let's say you have hosted a website at "car.com" and you want "auto.com" to show the same content. If you PARK auto.com on top of car.com, when someone types in auto.com in their browser, they will SEE the content from the car.com site, but see "auto.com" as the URL. You can make email accounts and control email for the parked domain with this option.

(For techies, parking is a function of a DNS entry, whereby the DNS zone for the "parked" domain resolves at the same location as the original domain. With Park, the system actually recognizes one domain to be the other domain.)

When we set up a REDIRECT, the websurfer types in one domain, and shows up at another. If we REDIRECT auto.com to point to car.com, then when the websurfer types in auto.com, he just shows up at car.com. This is often perfect for domains you purchased because they were mispellings or alternate spellings of your main domain. There is no email control with this option. Many registrars provide this service for free when you register a domain name. They will ask you if you want to point it at another domain, at GoDaddy, for instance. It is sometimes called DOMAIN FORWARDING.

(Techies: Redirect is a function of .htaccess, usually used for temporary redirection to another location or when moving a site. Redirect means you show up at one address and you get sent to another. You enter one domain in the browser, and end up at a different domain. It can also be done with an HTML redirect, from an existing website.)

An ADD-ON domain is the same as parking a new domain to a SUBDOMAIN. If you made auto.com an Add-on Domain, it would point to auto.car.com. and display the content of that subdomain while the user sees "auto.com" in the browser window. This is great for making microsites and landing pages for extra keyword domains you want to promote in search engines, since each domain has its own content.

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