Title: Default WordPress behaviour with multiple domains
Last modified: November 1, 2022

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# Default WordPress behaviour with multiple domains

 *  [webmuppet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/webmuppet/)
 * (@webmuppet)
 * [3 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/default-wordpress-behaviour-with-multiple-domains/)
 * Can anyone clarify what the default behaviour is for WordPress when more than
   one domain points to a WordPress site. Should WordPress always redirect to the
   wp_home and wp_siteurl addresses (which are the same in this case)? Or will WordPress
   serve the site on whatever domain has been called?
 * We have some sites where the root domain doesn’t redirect to the www. until we
   disable a specific plugin, then the redirection does happen.
 * (I’m aware we can do this in .htaccess, I want to know what the default behaviour
   of WordPress is for troubleshooting)

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [George Appiah](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gappiah/)
 * (@gappiah)
 * [3 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/default-wordpress-behaviour-with-multiple-domains/#post-16152392)
 * That’s not the job of WordPress.
 * It’s a web server configuration issue.
 * Each virtual host on the domain should have its own directory (aka DocumentRoot)
   to point to.
 * If you just point the domain to the server without configuring any document root
   for it, then the domain will simply forward to whichever virtualhost/website 
   has been configured as the [default vhost](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5427379/apache-default-virtualhost).
 *  Thread Starter [webmuppet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/webmuppet/)
 * (@webmuppet)
 * [3 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/default-wordpress-behaviour-with-multiple-domains/#post-16152404)
 * I understand that, but I’m trying to find out what the WordPress default behaviour
   is.
 * If sub1.domain.com and sub2.domain.com both point to the same virtual host and
   the same WordPress install, will WordPress serve the site on both domains or 
   will it redirect to the wp_siteurl address.
 *  [George Appiah](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gappiah/)
 * (@gappiah)
 * [3 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/default-wordpress-behaviour-with-multiple-domains/#post-16152570)
 * > If sub1.domain.com and sub2.domain.com both point to the same virtual host 
   > and the same WordPress install, will WordPress serve the site on both domains
   > or will it redirect to the wp_siteurl address.
 * It’s the latter case, but it’s not really WordPress doing any redirection.
 * The web server is serving the same content for `sub1.domain.com` as for `example.
   com`, because they have a common document root.
 * But since the WordPress site was set up with `example.com`, all permalinks and
   media URLs generated by WordPress have `example.com` pre-fixed as absolute URLs
   in the database.
 * So WordPress is not really actively doing any re-direction per se. Just that 
   the landing page for `sub1.domain.com`, which is the WordPress site setup with`
   example.com`, has all links on the page **fixed** to `example.com` URLs (and 
   not `sub1.domain.com`).
 * This is just like forwarding your domain to Google.com. Your domain will take
   you to Google.com. But once you land there, all links will point to and show 
   Google.com, and not whatever domain brought you there.
 * There are 3rd-party plugins that can change the permalinks on the fly and allow
   the entire site (or specific portions, eg a category or even a single post/page)
   to work with multiple domains.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Default WordPress behaviour with multiple domains’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [George Appiah](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gappiah/)
 * Last activity: [3 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/default-wordpress-behaviour-with-multiple-domains/#post-16152570)
 * Status: not resolved

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