What Is Location Header?

Why It Matters

The Location header is the technical mechanism behind every server-side redirect. When Domain Forward redirects old-domain.com to new-domain.com, it’s sending:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://new-domain.com

Without this header, the 301 status code is meaningless — the browser knows it should redirect but doesn’t know where to go.

How It Works

The Location header appears in HTTP responses with 3xx status codes:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://new-domain.com/page
Content-Length: 0

The browser:

1. Reads the status code (301 — permanent redirect)
2. Reads the Location header (the destination URL)
3. Automatically navigates to the destination
4. The entire process is invisible to the visitor

Location Header in Different Redirects

Status Code	Location Header Contains	Browser Behavior
301	New permanent URL	Navigate + cache
302	Temporary URL	Navigate, don’t cache
307	Temporary URL	Navigate, preserve method
308	New permanent URL	Navigate, preserve method, cache

How Domain Forward Handles This

Domain Forward always sends an absolute URL in the Location header, including the correct protocol (https://). If path forwarding is enabled, the original path is appended to the destination URL in the header: Location: https://new-domain.com/original/path.

All destination URLs are explicitly configured — Domain Forward never produces open redirects where the destination could be manipulated by an attacker.