When you create a PageCloud site, it is automatically assigned a name and a public URL that looks like: name.pagecloud.com

Many people will want to purchase their own custom domain name e.g. yourdomain.com and use that with their PageCloud website. Custom domain names are available from many domain registrars on the web e.g. GoDaddy.com. Once you have puchased your domain name, you can point it to your new PageCloud site using the following procedure. After this is completed, you will then be able to reach your PageCloud site from any browser using your own custom domain name.

Overview

There are two major steps in the process, and we'll show you the details below.

In Step 1, you will go to the PageCloud dashboard and set the custom domain option for your PageCloud site. This tells the PageCloud system to connect incoming traffic associated with your domain name directly to your PageCloud site.

In Step 2, you will change the settings for your domain name at your registrar (e.g. GoDaddy) so that all traffic on the Internet associated with your domain, is routed to PageCloud.

Step 1 - Changing the settings at PageCloud

• In your PageCloud dashboard, select the PageCloud site you want to connect to your custom domain, If you only have one site with PageCloud, only one will appear.

Step 2: Changing the DNS settings at your registrar

The next step is to configure the DNS settings for your custom domain at your domain registrar in order to route Internet traffic to your PageCloud website.

Note: there are a number of ways you can change your DNS settings to cause your PageCloud site to be linked to your domain name, however we have found the method below generally works the best in most circumstances.

Method to avoid

"Forwarding" or "Redirecting" Many registrars provide a simple method for redirecting web traffic to another site using names like "forwarding" or "redirecting". While this is simple to set up, and may appear to work, the mobile view of your website will not work properly and your custom domain name may not display to your visitors.

The PageCloud method

• First, log in to the admin account at your domain registrar and navigate to the panel where you can change the DNS settings to direct traffic for your domain. The keywords you are looking for are: "A-record" and "CNAME", these are the records you will need to change.
• The A-record points your basic domain name to PageCloud for situations where the version of your domain name without the "www" prefix is being used .
• The CNAME record is required to accommodate situations where the "www" version of your domain is being used.

Changing your A-record

Set your A-record so that it points to PageCloud at IP address 52.4.76.39 When you are finished there should only be a single A-record for your domain - if there are any other A-records, you should delete them.

Changing your CNAME record

There will typically be several CNAME records for your domain name, each one directing traffic for a different service such as web traffic, email and FTP file transfers. For PageCloud you only need to set the "www" CNAME record for your domain. If your domain name was yourdomain.com, then set the "www" CNAME record to be yourdomain.com

• click "More" and then click "Custom Domain"
• Enter the name of your custom domain and click "Save". You should see the name of your custom domain appear underneath the site icon in your PageCloud dashboard.
• Congratulations! You have now told PageCloud to watch for incoming traffic for your domain and route it to your PageCloud site.

EXAMPLE: Changing your A-record and CNAME record at GoDaddy.com

• If you have a domain name from GoDaddy, login to your account at GoDaddy.com,
• click on Manage Domains,
• click on the domain name you want to point to your PageCloud site,
• click on the "DNS ZONE FILE" tab,
• in the first section called "(A)Host", click "Add Record":

• To create your A-record enter the following information:

• To create your CNAME record enter the following information:

• Where it says "Points To:" Enter your Custom Domain (e.g. yourdomain.com)
• Click "Finish"and then be sure to click "Save Changes" in the red panel:

Your domain should be "live" and routing traffic to your PageCloud site within the time specified in the TTL field.

However: it might take up to 48 hours for your changes to be active

In practice it can take some time for all the DNS changes to propagate through the entire public Internet, so if your domain name does not appear to be working, you may have to be patient.