Pointing your domain at a social page or WhatsApp link: redirects on your hosting

The short answer: if you have a hosting account, cPanel has a Redirects tool that sends whoever types your domain to another address, such as your Facebook page, Instagram or a WhatsApp link. In two minutes, without building a site. It is a quick way to start, and it has limits worth knowing.

How to do it, in cPanel

1 In cPanel, open Domains and then Redirects.
2 Choose the type: temporary (302) if you may change your mind, permanent (301) if you are sure. Browsers remember the permanent one for a long time, and undoing it later is costly. See 301 or 302.
3 Choose the domain it leaves from and leave the path empty, so it applies to the whole site.
4 In “Redirects to”, write the full address, with https://. For WhatsApp, the link is https://wa.me/ followed by the number with the country code, without + or spaces.
5 Test by opening the domain in a private window. If it does not change, wait a few minutes and see Clearing the cache.

For those who prefer to edit the file, the same thing in two lines in the .htaccess of the site’s main folder (take a copy first):
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^ https://the-destination-address [R=302,L]

Where to A good idea?
The WhatsApp link (wa.me) Yes, for those who sell by chat. See If the WhatsApp link does not work.
Your page on a social network Fine to start. It is not your site: the address and the content depend on a platform that may change its rules.
Another domain of yours Yes. See A second domain for the same business.
What you lose: whoever searches for your business on Google does not find a page of yours, only the redirect’s destination. And e-mail on your domain keeps working separately: the redirect only affects what opens in the browser. When the business grows, a simple page of your own usually pays off.
A domain without hosting does not have this tool: to redirect you need a hosting account that the domain is connected to. If you only have the domain, see Buying only a domain, with no hosting yet.

The redirect does not work and the domain already points to your account? Open a ticket with the domain and the destination.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

301 or 302: which redirect to use, and how to check what yours really is

A second domain for the same business: redirect, alias or separate site

The WhatsApp link on your site does not work: wa.me problems and fixes

Putting WhatsApp on your site: the link, the button and the ready-written message

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