How to Configure Azure Front Door Path-Based Routing to a Website Hosted on GoDaddy

Question

How to Configure Azure Front Door Path-Based Routing to a Website Hosted on GoDaddy

Ravi Praneeth 50

Hi Team,

I have a website hosted on GoDaddy with the domain:

I would like to use Azure Front Door to route requests to this external website using path-based routing. My Azure Front Door endpoint is:

https://techops.afs.net

My goal is to access the GoDaddy-hosted website using the following path on the Front Door URL:

https://techops.afs.net/about

and have it serve content from https://techworld.com.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Added a custom origin in Azure Front Door using the FQDN: techworld.com.

Set up a path-based route with /about mapped to this origin.

My questions:

Is this the correct approach to route path-based requests to an external site hosted on GoDaddy?
Do I need to configure any additional settings in Azure Front Door (e.g., origin path override, rules engine, response caching)?
Do I need to make any DNS or CORS changes on the GoDaddy side?
Will this setup proxy the content correctly, or is there another recommended approach?

Any guidance on properly setting up this configuration would be appreciated.

Thank you!

G Sree Vidya 2,270 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-16T05:18:39.1033333+00:00
Hi @Ravi Praneeth

Your approach to using Azure Front Door (AFD) for path-based routing to an external GoDaddy-hosted website is mostly correct, but there are additional configurations and considerations to ensure it works as intended.

1.Is this the correct approach to route path-based requests to an external site hosted on GoDaddy?

Yes, using Azure Front Door to route path-based requests (e.g., https://techops.afs.net/about to https://techworld.com) to an external website hosted on GoDaddy is a valid approach.

AFD supports routing to non-Azure origins, such as a GoDaddy-hosted site, by configuring a custom origin and setting up path-based routing rules. Your steps of adding a custom origin with the FQDN techworld.com and mapping the /about path to this origin align with the recommended process.

2.Do I need to configure any additional settings in Azure Front Door (e.g., origin path override, rules engine, response caching)

Yes, additional configurations in AFD are recommended to ensure proper routing, performance, and functionality. Here’s what you should consider:

you can use a custom forwarding path in the AFD routing rule to rewrite the path.

For example:

Incoming path: /about

Custom forwarding path: /about-us

Resulting forwarded path: https://techworld.com/about-us

Refer: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/front-door-tutorial-rules-engine

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/front-door-rules-engine?pivots=front-door-standard-premium

Enable caching if the content on techworld.com is static or semi-static (e.g., HTML pages, images) to improve performance and reduce load on the GoDaddy server.

Note: If caching is enabled, AFD may cache the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header, which can cause CORS issues (see CORS section below). Purge the cache after CORS changes.

Refer this MS document for more information: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/front-door-caching?pivots=front-door-standard-premium

3.Do I need to make any DNS or CORS changes on the GoDaddy side?

You likely won't need to make DNS changes at GoDaddy if you're simply routing traffic through Azure Front Door. However, ensure that the CORS settings on your GoDaddy site allow requests from the Azure Front Door domain if you're doing any client-side requests that require CORS.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/standard-premium/how-to-add-custom-domain

Ensure that the CORS settings on your GoDaddy site allow requests from the Azure Front Door domain if you're doing any client-side requests that require CORS."

4.Will this setup proxy the content correctly, or is there another recommended approach?

Your setup will proxy the content correctly as long as the requests come through Azure Front Door. Ensure that the origin is properly set up and that the routing matches the expected paths.

If you find issues with how content is rendered, check the headers returned by the GoDaddy site and ensure there’s no strict referrer policy that could block requests.

Additionally: Adjust the Origin response timeout (16–240 seconds) if the GoDaddy server is slow to respond.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/frontdoor/how-to-configure-origin

If you encounter specific errors or need further assistance, please provide error details for further investigation.

I hope this information is helpful! If my answer helped you resolve your issue, please consider marking it as the correct answer or Upvote. This helps others in the community find solutions more easily. Thanks!
Ravi Praneeth 50 Reputation points

2025-05-16T06:10:27.3433333+00:00

Hi Sree Vidya,

The setup is working fine overall, but I’ve encountered one issue.

We’re using Azure Front Door to route requests to our domain techworld.com, and I’ve configured the routing path as /*, which correctly routes to the home page.

However, when I click on other internal pages like About Us, Contact Us, or Courses, the routing seems to redirect back to techworld.com instead of staying within the Azure Front Door domain.

I tried specifying additional route patterns like /about-us/*, /contact-us/*, etc., but that didn’t resolve the issue.

Is there a way to keep all routing under Azure Front Door without redirecting to the origin domain directly?

Any suggestions would be really helpful.

Thanks!
G Sree Vidya 2,270 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-19T01:11:04.3366667+00:00

Hello Ravi Praneeth

Following up to see if the above suggestion was helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.
Ravi Praneeth 50 Reputation points

2025-05-19T07:29:49.01+00:00
Hi Sree Vidya,

Goal

Front Door endpoint https://techops.afs.net

Route map

Path-based routing itself works; /app1 and /app2 stay on the Front Door domain and hit the correct Azure back-ends. The blocker is the root site (techworld.com):

Its HTML contains hard-coded absolute URLs (https://techworld.com/contact-us, etc.).

When users click those links, the browser leaves Front Door and loads the origin directly, breaking the unified URL experience.

Our constraints: the root application is on-prem / GoDaddy and cannot be modified or migrated to Azure in the near term.

Tested Approaches

AFD URL rewrite & rule sets – confirmed these only touch the request/response line + headers; HTML body remains unchanged.

Path-specific routes (/contact-us/*, /about-us/*) – still redirect to the absolute domain once the link is clicked.

Request – Any Solutions or Fixes?

We’d like to keep all navigation under https://techops.afs.net while maintaining the current hosting split:

Is there an Azure Front Door capability we missed that can rewrite HTML bodies (or strip the scheme + host) on the fly?

If AFD alone can’t do it, what lightweight alternatives are recommended?

Sample code or reference architecture for a minimal reverse-proxy

Any guidance, proven patterns, or pointers to docs would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
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This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

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Ravi Praneeth 50 Reputation points

2025-05-16T06:10:27.3433333+00:00

Hi Sree Vidya,

The setup is working fine overall, but I’ve encountered one issue.

We’re using Azure Front Door to route requests to our domain techworld.com, and I’ve configured the routing path as /*, which correctly routes to the home page.

However, when I click on other internal pages like About Us, Contact Us, or Courses, the routing seems to redirect back to techworld.com instead of staying within the Azure Front Door domain.

I tried specifying additional route patterns like /about-us/*, /contact-us/*, etc., but that didn’t resolve the issue.

Is there a way to keep all routing under Azure Front Door without redirecting to the origin domain directly?

Any suggestions would be really helpful.

Thanks!
G Sree Vidya 2,270 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-19T01:11:04.3366667+00:00

Hello Ravi Praneeth

Following up to see if the above suggestion was helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.
Ravi Praneeth 50 Reputation points

2025-05-19T07:29:49.01+00:00

Hi Sree Vidya,

Goal

Front Door endpoint https://techops.afs.net

Route map

Path-based routing itself works; /app1 and /app2 stay on the Front Door domain and hit the correct Azure back-ends. The blocker is the root site (techworld.com):

Its HTML contains hard-coded absolute URLs (https://techworld.com/contact-us, etc.).

When users click those links, the browser leaves Front Door and loads the origin directly, breaking the unified URL experience.

Our constraints: the root application is on-prem / GoDaddy and cannot be modified or migrated to Azure in the near term.

Tested Approaches

AFD URL rewrite & rule sets – confirmed these only touch the request/response line + headers; HTML body remains unchanged.

Path-specific routes (/contact-us/*, /about-us/*) – still redirect to the absolute domain once the link is clicked.

Request – Any Solutions or Fixes?

We’d like to keep all navigation under https://techops.afs.net while maintaining the current hosting split:

Is there an Azure Front Door capability we missed that can rewrite HTML bodies (or strip the scheme + host) on the fly?

If AFD alone can’t do it, what lightweight alternatives are recommended?

Sample code or reference architecture for a minimal reverse-proxy

Any guidance, proven patterns, or pointers to docs would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

Answer 1

Hi Ravi Praneeth

Thanks for your response!

I understand that you want to navigate the backend web application using only the front door custom domain, which redirects to your backend URL when traffic reaches the web application hosted on GoDaddy.

To achieve this, you can use original host name preservation by whitelisting the front door custom domain on the backend and using the host header as the same as the original custom domain to select the target host. This way, all navigations will occur via Azure Front Door as shown in the below diagram.

User's image

Example: Azure Front Door can be configured with the hostname "xyz.azurewebsites.net" and a host header as the Front Door custom domain to select the target host as shown below.

User's image

Backend web application configured with same custom domain.

User's image

Note: You need to stop all redirections on the backend web application with techworld.com or change it to techops.afd.net, so that any redirections will not go to techworld.com.

For more understanding about original HTTP host name preservation, you can refer this documentation: Host name preservation - Azure Architecture Center | Microsoft Learn

I hope this information is helpful! If my answer helped you resolve your issue, please consider marking it as the correct answer or Upvote. This helps others in the community find solutions more easily. Thanks!

User's image

Ravi Praneeth 50 Reputation points

2025-05-26T05:17:40.1466667+00:00

This has helped in addressing our issue which saves us a lot of effort. While a few minor concerns remain, your prompt response and support are greatly appreciated. Thank you once again!

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How to Configure Azure Front Door Path-Based Routing to a Website Hosted on GoDaddy

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