Point Your IONOS Domain at Your New Site

Hi — it's Matt. Your site is built and ready to go live. The last step is telling IONOS — 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 IONOS.

Update your DNS records at IONOS

Go to ionos.com and sign in to your account.

From the menu, click Domains & SSL.

Find your domain in the list. Click the gear icon under "Actions" and select DNS.

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 that starts with MX, TXT, or SPF — those are for your email. Leaving them alone is how we keep your email working.

Find the A record with a Host of @ or your bare domain (the one without "www"). If it exists, click the pencil icon to edit it and change the "Points to" field to the IP address I sent you. Save. If no A record exists, click Add Record, choose type A, set Host to @, and paste the IP address into "Points to." Save.

Find the CNAME record with a Host of www. If it exists, click edit and change "Points to" to the .netlify.app address I sent you (no https:// in front). Save. If no CNAME for www exists, click Add Record, choose type CNAME, set Host to www, and paste the .netlify.app address into "Points to." 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, or SPF records. Those are what keep your email working. We're only changing the records that point your website (A and CNAME for www).

I see records I don't recognize. Should I delete them?

No. Leave anything you don't recognize alone. The only records you should touch are the A record for the bare domain and the CNAME record for "www." Everything else stays.

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. IONOS 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.