How to Connect a Custom Domain to Your Website

Why a custom domain beats a builder subdomain

Every builder gives you a free address on its own domain, something like yoursite.builder.com. For a test page it is enough; the moment real money depends on the page, the free address starts costing you.

Trust comes first. A visitor who lands on mapleshears.com reads it as a business; the same page on a third-level address reads as a test, and people hesitate to leave a phone number there. In Google Ads the display URL comes from the final URL's domain, so a builder subdomain puts the builder's name in your ad.

Portability is the second reason. A domain you own is the one asset you keep no matter where the site lives: move to another builder or hire a developer, and the address in your ads, your Google Business Profile, and your customers' bookmarks stays the same. A subdomain belongs to the platform; the day you leave, every link to it dies.

The cost is small. A .com usually runs $10–15 a year at the major registrars; country and niche endings vary from a few dollars to $40 or more. The first year is often discounted; renewal is the real price.

Registrar, DNS zone, and the records you will touch

A registrar is the company you buy and renew the domain from: Namecheap, GoDaddy, Porkbun, Cloudflare Registrar, and hundreds of others. Buy it in an account you control, never through a freelancer's or an agency's.

A DNS zone is the list of records that tells the internet where your domain points. By default the registrar hosts the zone, but you can move it to another DNS provider (Cloudflare is the common choice) by changing the domain's nameservers. That matters later: if your nameservers point at Cloudflare, editing records at the registrar changes nothing.

The record types you will actually meet:

• A record maps a name to an IPv4 address. "Name" is the part before your domain: @ means the domain itself, www means www.mapleshears.com, shop means shop.mapleshears.com. AAAA does the same for IPv6.
• CNAME record points a name at another name instead of an IP, for example www to mapleshears.com. Standard DNS does not allow a CNAME at the root @, which is why hosts ask for an A record there and accept a CNAME for www.
• TXT record is a line of text. Hosts use it to prove you own the domain; mail systems use it for SPF and DKIM.
• MX record says where email for the domain is delivered. If you have email on the domain, leave these alone.
• TTL, "time to live": how many seconds resolvers may cache a record. At 3600, a change can take an hour to be seen everywhere; set 300 a day before a planned switch.

www vs non-www is a choice, not a technical necessity. Pick one as the main address you print and promote (usually the bare domain), make sure the other resolves too, and let the site redirect it; search engines treat the two as different addresses until a redirect or a canonical tag says otherwise.

The universal way to point a domain at any website

Whatever host or builder you use, connecting a domain is the same five moves.

1. Find the target. In the host's settings there is a custom domain field and, next to it, an IP address (for an A record) or a hostname (for a CNAME). Copy it from there.
2. Open the zone where your nameservers actually point and find "DNS," "DNS records," or "Manage zone."
3. Add the records. An A record with name @ and the host's IP; a CNAME or A record for www; a TXT record if the host asks for ownership verification. Delete any existing A or AAAA record with the same name, or some visitors land on the old target.
4. Turn off any proxy. On Cloudflare the record must show a gray cloud (DNS only). With the orange cloud on, the host sees Cloudflare's addresses instead of your record and cannot verify the domain or issue a certificate; see Cloudflare's proxy status documentation.
5. Wait, then confirm in the host. Records propagate in minutes to an hour, occasionally longer. Then press whatever the host calls the button ("Connect," "Verify," "Check DNS"), and HTTPS is issued once the host sees the domain pointing at it.

Connecting a domain to a Pageo site, step by step

Here is the exact sequence, taken from the custom domain help article. Take a hair salon in Denver, call it Maple & Shears: its landing page is published at maple.naverstai.ru, the owner has just bought mapleshears.com at Porkbun, and the free plan is enough, because a custom domain is available on every plan.

1. Publish the site if you have not yet (publishing); until then it is a draft only you can see.
2. Open site settings (the pencil on the site card), then General, then the Custom domain field. Type the domain the way visitors will type it, mapleshears.com or shop.mapleshears.com, without https:// or a trailing slash.
3. Press Save. The verification code and the exact record values appear right in the setting; copy them from there.
4. At the registrar (or wherever your nameservers point), open the DNS zone and add two records:
   • A, name @ (or the left part of the subdomain, such as shop), value: the IP shown in the settings. This sends the domain to the site.
   • TXT, name _pageo-verify, value: the verification code. This proves the domain is yours.
5. Delete other A and AAAA records with the same name, including the registrar's parking record.
6. If the zone is on Cloudflare, switch the record to DNS only: gray cloud, not orange.
7. Wait 15–60 minutes and press Connect. When the domain verifies, the status light turns green and the HTTPS certificate is issued automatically.

The free address keeps working after the domain is attached. You can rename it in the Address row (letters, digits, and hyphens, 3–40 characters), but the previous name stops opening at once. To disconnect the domain later, clear the field and save. If you are still at the start, the quick start guide covers everything before this point.

Subdomains: shop.yourdomain.com and friends

A subdomain is a name to the left of your domain, and the setup differs from the root only in the record names. To put a booking page at book.mapleshears.com while the main site stays where it is, enter book.mapleshears.com in the domain field, then create an A record named book and a TXT record named _pageo-verify.book. The main domain's records are untouched.

Moving a domain from another site without downtime

Now suppose instead that the salon had owned mapleshears.com for a year and it already pointed at an old page: you want the new landing page to take over without a blank hour in between. DNS changes are gradual, and both sites can be live at once.

1. Finish the new site on its temporary address. Publish it, send a test form, open it on a phone.
2. Lower the TTL a day ahead. Set the current A record's TTL to 300 seconds so the switch is seen within minutes instead of hours.
3. Add the verification TXT record now. Enter the domain in the new site's settings, get the code, add the record. It changes nothing for visitors.
4. Switch the A record at a quiet hour. Replace the old IP with the new one, remove any other A or AAAA at the same name, and leave MX and other records alone so email keeps flowing. Do not change the nameservers unless you mean to move the whole zone.
5. Confirm and connect. Check that the new IP resolves (next section) and press Connect. During the transition some visitors see the old page and some the new one; both work.
6. Keep the old site up for a week. Cancel the old hosting once its logs show no traffic.

One caveat: the certificate is issued only after the host sees the domain pointing at it, so a visitor who hits the new IP in those first minutes may get an HTTPS warning; press Connect as soon as your own check shows the new IP.

Checking DNS propagation and fixing a domain that does not work

How to see what the internet sees

Your computer, your router, and your ISP each keep a cache, so do not judge propagation by your own browser; ask the DNS directly. On macOS or Linux, open Terminal:

dig +short A mapleshears.com
dig @8.8.8.8 +short A mapleshears.com

The first line shows the IP your resolver returns (swap A for TXT and use the verification name to see the code); the second asks a public resolver instead of your ISP's and sidesteps a stale local cache. On Windows, nslookup -type=A mapleshears.com 8.8.8.8 does the same job.

If the command shows the new IP but your browser still opens the old page, flush the local cache (ipconfig /flushdns on Windows, sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder on macOS) or try your phone on cellular data.

Typical errors and what the messages mean

• The registrar's parking page still opens. The old A record was not deleted, or you edited DNS at the registrar while the nameservers point at another provider.
• "Verification record not found." The TXT record is missing, has not propagated yet, or has a doubled name because the DNS panel appended your domain to the name field automatically. Check it with dig, fix the name, and wait; the help notes this can occasionally take a few hours.
• "Domain is not pointed at Pageo." The A record does not resolve to the IP shown in the settings. Usual causes: an extra A or AAAA record at the same name, a typo in the IP, or Cloudflare's orange cloud, which makes the domain resolve to Cloudflare's addresses instead of yours.
• "Domain is pointed correctly but not available over HTTPS." The certificate has not been issued yet. Publish the site once more and press Check connection after a few minutes.
• www opens, the bare domain does not, or vice versa. One of the two names has no record; add it and decide which one is the main address.
• Nothing resolves anywhere. Check the registrar: an expired domain or DNSSEC left on after moving nameservers makes a domain simply dark.

What to do after the domain is connected

The salon owner spent the next morning on this list:

1. Update the links you promote. Google Ads final URLs, the website field in Google Business Profile, the Instagram bio, the email signature, the QR code on the window.
2. Add the domain to Google Search Console. Create a property for the new address and verify it; Google lists the methods in its site ownership verification help. Since you are already in the DNS zone, the TXT method for a Domain property is a natural fit; the site's search and indexing settings also take the HTML-tag code for a URL-prefix property.
3. Submit the sitemap. It lives at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml; paste that address into Search Console.
4. Set redirects if paths changed. If the old site had /prices and the new one has /services, add a rule so old links do not land on a 404. The indexing settings take one rule per line, /old → /new.
5. Fill in page titles and descriptions for the domain you will rank, and exclude the thank-you page from search; the landing page SEO guide covers what to write.
6. Re-test the form on the new address; ninety seconds now is cheaper than a week of silent leads.

If the site itself does not exist yet, start with the guide on how to create a website for free and come back here for the domain.

FAQ

Can I connect a custom domain on the free plan?

Yes. A custom domain is available on every plan, including the free plan; you need a domain you own and access to its DNS settings. The free address stays active alongside it.

How long does it take for a domain to start working?

Usually 15–60 minutes after the records are saved, sometimes a few hours when a resolver holds an old value until its TTL runs out. Judge by dig against a public resolver, not by your own browser.

Do I need an A record or a CNAME?

Whatever the host gives you: an IP address goes into an A record, a hostname into a CNAME. For a root domain most hosts require an A record, because standard DNS does not allow a CNAME at the root; for www or shop, a CNAME is fine.

Will my email break when I point the domain at a new site?

Not if you leave the MX and mail-related TXT records alone; you change the A record and nothing else. Changing the nameservers is what can break email, because the new zone starts empty unless you copy every record over.

What happens to the old builder address after I connect my domain?

It keeps working as a second door to the same site. Promote one address everywhere and treat the free one as a fallback. If you rename the free address, the old name stops opening immediately.

Key takeaways

• A domain you own survives changing builders and developers; a .com costs about $10–15 a year.
• Edit DNS where the nameservers actually point: the registrar's panel is useless if the zone lives on Cloudflare.
• The universal recipe: an A record at @ with the host's IP, a TXT record for verification, no leftover A or AAAA records, no proxy in front.
• Subdomains use the same two records with the subdomain's label in the name; the root domain is untouched.
• To move without downtime, lower the TTL a day ahead, add the TXT record early, switch the A record at a quiet hour, and keep the old site up for a week.
• After connecting, update ad and profile links, add the domain to Search Console with the sitemap, and set redirects for changed paths.