Point Your GoDaddy Domain at Your New Site

Hi — it's Matt. Your site is built and ready to go live. The last step is telling GoDaddy — where your domain is registered — to send visitors to your new site instead of wherever it's pointing today. This guide walks you through that change. It's two records, takes about ten minutes, and won't affect your email.

Before you start: I'll email you two specific values you'll need. One is an IP address (a string of numbers like 75.2.60.5). The other is a web address ending in .netlify.app. Have that email open while you follow these steps — you'll paste those values into GoDaddy.

Update your DNS records at GoDaddy

From the menu, go to My Products (or Domain Portfolio — GoDaddy has been renaming this section). You'll see a list of your domains.

Click DNS to view your DNS records. (You may see this as "Manage DNS" depending on how GoDaddy has updated their interface — same thing.)

You're now looking at your DNS records. Don't panic — most of what's there is fine to leave alone. Don't delete or modify any record of type MX, TXT, SPF, or NS — those keep your email and domain working. Leaving them alone is how we keep your email running.

Find the existing A record with a Name of @ (this represents your bare domain, the one without "www"). Click Edit next to it. Change the Value field to the IP address I sent you (the one that looks like 75.2.60.5). Click Save.

Find the existing CNAME record with a Name of www. Click Edit. Change the Value field to the .netlify.app address I sent you (it'll look like your-site-name.netlify.app, no https:// in front). Click Save.

GoDaddy may ask you to verify your identity with a one-time code sent to your phone or email. This is normal — enter the code to complete the save.

Email me at matt@ideajarwebdesign.com to let me know you've made the change. I take it from there — I'll verify everything and turn on the security certificate (HTTPS) once the change has spread across the internet.

DNS changes don't happen instantly. It usually takes fifteen minutes to a couple of hours, but can take up to forty-eight. Once it's spread, your real domain will start working — and within a few hours after that I'll have HTTPS turned on too.

Common questions

Will this break my email?

No — as long as you don't delete or modify any MX, TXT, SPF, or NS records. Those are what keep your email working. We're only changing the records that point your website (the A record for the bare domain and the CNAME record for "www").

I can't find an A record or CNAME record to edit.

If those records don't exist, you'll need to add them. Click Add New Record at the top of the DNS page. For the A record, choose type A, set Name to @, paste the IP address into Value, and save. For the CNAME, choose type CNAME, set Name to www, paste the .netlify.app address into Value, and save.

GoDaddy added my domain to the end of the CNAME and now it looks weird.

This is a known GoDaddy quirk — when you save a CNAME, GoDaddy sometimes appends your domain to whatever you typed. So if you typed yoursite.netlify.app it becomes yoursite.netlify.app.yourdomain.com. If you see this, edit the record and re-enter the value carefully, or text me at 650-246-9863 and I'll walk you through it.

It's been a few hours and my domain still isn't loading my site.

This is normal. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to spread across the internet. If it's been more than 48 hours and still not working, text me at 650-246-9863.

My site loads but the browser says "Not Secure."

HTTPS (the security certificate) gets turned on after DNS has spread. I handle that on my end — usually within a few hours of you completing this. If it's been more than a day and you're still seeing "Not Secure," let me know.

I made a mistake and I'm not sure what I changed.

Don't try to fix it on your own — text me at 650-246-9863 and I'll walk you through it. GoDaddy keeps your old settings recoverable, so this is fixable.

Stuck? Reply to my email or text 650-246-9863. I'd rather help than have you stuck.