How to set up URL frame forwarding

This article describes how to set up URL frame forwarding.

About URL frame forwarding

URL frame forwarding enables you to load content from another site while displaying your own domain name in the browser's address bar.

For example, if your site uses the example.com domain, you could use URL frame forwarding to display content from a2hosting.com, but visitors would still see example.com in the address bar.

  • This behavior is different from the more traditional URL redirect. With a URL redirect, the browser bar updates to display the forwarded site's URL. For information about how to set up a URL redirect on your account, please see this article.
  • URL frame forwarding can affect search engine rankings and results, so use it carefully.

Setting up URL frame forwarding

To set up URL frame forwarding, use an inline frame (<iframe> element) to load the external content. Additionally, you should define some CSS styling rules to ensure the borders and margins are set correctly for the page. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Using the cPanel File Manager or the SSH command prompt, open the index.html file in your preferred text editor.
  2. Copy the following code and then paste it into the index.html file: 
    <html>

<head>
    <title>Title</title>
</head>

<style>
body {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}
body, iframe { 
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
}
iframe {
    border: 0;
}
</style>

<body>
    <iframe src="http://www.example.com"/>
</body>

</html>
  3. In the code, replace www.example.com with the site that you want to load, and replace Title with the title that you want for the page.
  4. Save your changes to the index.html file.

  5. Use your web browser to visit your site's domain. The address bar should display your domain name, yet the page content should display the site you specified in step 3.

    As you browse content on the external site, the browser's address bar continues to display your domain name. It does not change, and does not include any of the external site's relative paths.

    For example, if you load example.com in an inline frame, and then visit example.com/another-page, the browser's address bar continues to display only your domain name. It does not display the another-page relative path.

More Information

For more information about the <iframe> element, please visit http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_iframe.asp.

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