If you don’t have a domain name, buy one from an accredited registrar—a company from which you can buy a domain name. For a list of accredited registrars, check out icann.org.

This course includes walkthroughs for:

• GoDaddy
• Name.com
• Gandi.net
• Google Domains
• Generic instructions for any registrar

So buy a domain from anywhere, and we'll get you set up.

Once you’ve bought a domain, tell it to Moboom:

1. From the menu on the left, click Custom Domain.
2. Enter your domain (yourcustomaddress.com), and then click Add. If everything was successful, you’ll see your domain name in the table below.

1. Next enter, www.yourcustomaddress.com, and then click Add.

Now you've added your domain, and the next step is to tell your domain registrar about your site. Check out the specific guides below for:

• GoDaddy
• Name.com
• Gandi.net
• Google Domains

Otherwise, if you use a different registrar, check out the generic guide for any registrar.

You've already told Moboom your domain name. The next step is to tell your domain registrar about your site.

Depending on your registrar, you can do that in one of two ways:

1. Add a CNAME record (recommended, but doesn't work with all registrars)

1. Add an A record (works with all registrars, but is slightly more complicated to set up)

After that, you'll set up a 301 redirect:

1. Managing www domains

Add a CNAME record

You've already told Moboom your domain name. The next step is to tell your domain registrar about your site. The easiest way to do this is by creating a CNAME record, which this guide will explain.

This process has a few steps:

1. Get your basic domain
2. Set up the CNAME record
3. Manage your www domain

Get your basic domain

You’ll first need your site’s basic domain. To get this:

1. Once you’ve logged into the site, on the left, click Custom Domain.
2. Your basic domain looks like: example.site.moboom.com. Save this URL for later.

From the menu on the left, click Domains. Your basic domain looks like example.site.moboom.com. Save this URL for later.

Set up the CNAME record

Now you'll create a CNAME record that points your custom domain (mycustomdomain.net) to your basic domain (example.site.moboom.com):

NAME                 TYPE   VALUE
----------------------------------------------------
mycustomdomain.net.  CNAME  example.site.moboom.com.

Tip   While this guide will walk you through the general process, we recommend that you also search your domain registrar's Help for specific instructions on how to set up a CNAME record.

To set up a CNAME record:

1. First, sign in to your domain registrar's site.
2. Go to your DNS records page.
3. Add a record, and select CNAME as the type of record. When adding a CNAME, you’ll see a couple different fields:
• Name. Enter your custom domain. Depending on your registrar, this means either leaving the field blank, entering your domain (mycustomdomain.net), or entering @.
• Value. Enter your basic domain (example.site.moboom.com).
• TTL. This stands for time to live. Lower values mean your chagnes here will happen sooner. Use the default value or try 300 if you want a something short.

Create a CNAME record that points your domain (mycustomdomain.net) to your basic domain (example.site.moboom.com).

Depending on a variety of factors, sometimes these changes can take up to 72 hours to propagate. Usually though, you’ll see the changes within an hour or two.

Now, if someone goes to mycustomdomain.net they will see your site. Next, consider if they go to www.mycustomdomain.net. Read how to handle this situation in Managing www domains.

Add an A record

You've already told Moboom your domain name. The next step is to tell your domain registrar about your site. The easiest way to do this is by creating a CNAME record.

However, some registrars only allow CNAME records for subdomains (for example, docs.moboom.com is subdomain of moboom.com). In that case, create a couple A records:

NAME                   TYPE  VALUE
-----------------------------------------
mycustomdomain.net.    A     52.24.71.213
mycustomdomain.net.    A     52.24.79.162

Tip   While this guide will walk you through the general process, we recommend that you also search your domain registrar's Help for specific instructions on how to set up an A record.

To set up the A records:

1. First, sign in to your domain registrar's site.
2. Go to your DNS records page.
3. Add a record, and select A as the type. When adding an A record, you will probably see a few different fields:
• Name. Enter your domain. Depending on your registrar, this means either leaving the field blank, entering your domain (mycustomdomain.net), or entering @.
• IP Address. Here, enter: 52.24.71.213.
• TTL. This stands for time to live. Lower values mean your chagnes here will happen sooner. Use the default value or try 300 if you want a something short.
4. Next, create another A record with the same Name and TTL, but a different IP Address :
• IP Address: 52.24.79.162

Create multiple A records: set the Name to @ (to your domain) and set the IP address to 52.24.71.213 for the first record and 52.24.79.162 for next record.

Depending on a variety of factors, sometimes these changes can take up to 72 hours to propagate. Usually though, you’ll see the changes within an hour or two.

Now, if someone goes to mycustomdomain.net they will see your site. Next, consider if they go to www.mycustomdomain.net. Read how to handle this situation in Managing www domains.

Managing www domains

Some of your visitors will type in http://www.mycustomdomain.net and others will type in http://mycustomdomain.net. In both situations, you want users to see the same site.

Solve this problem with a 301 redirect. So users who include the www will be sent to http://mycustomdomain.net.

Note   You can solve this problem in a variety of ways, but Google prefers you use a 301 redirect.

So to set up the redirect:

1. First, sign into your domain registrar’s site.
2. Look for your Redirect Settings or URL Forwarding page.

Note   Some registrars separate subdomain and domain redirects (like GoDaddy). Others treat all redirects the same (like Name.com).

1. Create the redirect, and in the Subdomain field enter www.
2. Next in the Forward to URL field enter your domain name including http:// (http://mycustomurl.net).
3. Set the type of redirect as a 301 Redirect (or just Redirect depending on your options).

Note   This process can be fairly different for each registrar. Here are some examples:

Adding a redirect for Name.com.

Adding a redirect for GoDaddy.

Adding a redirect for Google Domains.

That's it. Depending on a variety of factors, sometimes these changes can take up to 72 hours to propagate. Usually though, you’ll see the changes within an hour or two.

After you’ve told Moboom your domain name, you’ll make the rest of the updates on GoDaddy’s site. To set up your domain with GoDaddy:

1. Open your DNS Zone file
2. Set up two A records
3. Manage www domains

1. Open your DNS Zone File on GoDaddy

First, open your DNS Zone File, which is where you’ll make the changes.

1. After signing in to your GoDaddy account, click My Account at the top of the screen, and then click Visit My Account.

1. Next, click Domains to expand that section.

1. Then find your domain, and click Manage.

1. Next, click to the DNS Zone File tab.

Next, you’ll add two A records that point your domain name to your site. Don’t worry if you don’t know what an A record is, this guide will walk through the process.

2. Set up two A records with GoDaddy

Now, you’ll create two A records that point to your site:

NAME                TYPE  VALUE
----------------------------------------
mycustomurl.net.    A     52.24.71.213
mycustomurl.net.    A     52.24.79.162

First though, you’ll need to delete records that already exist and could conflict.

To see if you already have A records set up:

• Look under the A (host) section, which is at the top. Delete any records with @ as the Host (click the Trash button).

You may also have conflicting CNAME records:

• In the CName (Alias) section, look for a record with www as the Host and @ in the Points To column. Delete that record.

Note   That CNAME record points www.mycustomurl.net to mycustomurl.net. So visitors who type the www see the same site as visitors who don’t. While this action is a good thing, for SEO purposes, Google recommends using a different method, which we’ll talk about later.

Now, add the records:

1. Click Add Record.

1. For the Record Type, select A (Host).
2. For Host, enter @
3. For Points To, enter 52.24.71.213

Note   The @ symbol just refers to your whole domain (mycustomurl.net) and the numbers (52.24.71.213) are IP address of Moboom’s servers. So this record points your domain to Moboom.

1. For the TTL, you can either leave it at 1 hour, or if you want to see the change sooner, select Custom, and then enter 600 seconds (10 minutes).

Note   A shorter time means you can see the changes sooner, but your site might take longer to load (because of something called DNS caching). So once you get everything working, go back and change the TTL to a longer value like 1 hour or even 1 week.

1. Now, click Add Another, and leave the Host and TTL the same, but change Points To to: 52.24.79.162.

1. Then click Finish.
2. Next, click Save Changes to save.

Now your domain (mycustomurl.net) is set up, but if someone types in www before your domain (www.mycustomurl.net), they’ll get the message: Site not available.

Next, you’ll set up a redirect to handle this issue (which is the method that Google recommends).

3. Manage www domains with GoDaddy

Now, you’ll go into your domain settings to add a 301 redirect, so when someone types in www.mycustomurl.net, they’ll be redirected to mycustomurl.net.

Note   You can actually handle this issue in a variety of ways that will technically work. However, the method we describe here is the method that Google recommends, so if you care about SEO, then this is the method that you should use.

To add the 301 redirect:

1. Click the Settings tab.

1. Scroll down and find the Forwarding section, and then under Subdomain, click Manage.

1. Next, click Add Subdomain Forwarding.

1. For Subdomain, enter: www
2. In Forward To, enter your domain (mycustomurl.net), and then click Preview to verify that you’ve entered the correct URL.
3. Leave the other settings alone (Redirect Type should be 301, and Forward Settings should be Forward only), and click Add.

1. Now click Save to finish.

You’ll probably see the updates pretty quickly, but GoDaddy warns that your updates could take up to 48 hours to completely come through.

Still not working? Get some tips in the Troubleshooting section.

Now that you’ve set up your domain with Moboom, the next step is to tell your registrar about your site. These directions explain how to do that if you use name.com as your registrar.

To set up a domain from name.com:

1. Open DNS records
2. Add two A records
3. Manage www subdomain

1. Open DNS records

First open your DNS records:

1. So sign in to name.com, and then from the list of My Domains, click your domain.

1. Click the DNS Records tab to open it.

Next, you’ll add two A records.

2. Add two A records

To direct your domain to your site, you’ll create two A records:

NAME                   TYPE  VALUE
-----------------------------------------
mycustomdomain.net.    A     52.24.71.213
mycustomdomain.net.    A     52.24.79.162

1. So on the DNS Records tab, for the Type select A.
2. Leave Host blank.
3. For Answer, enter: 52.24.71.213
4. Then click Add Record to add the record.

1. Next add another record with same Type (A) and Host (leave blank).
2. For the Answer, enter: 52.24.79.162

Next you’ll create a redirect, so when someone types www.mycustomdomain.net, they’ll see the same site as visitors who leave off the www.

3. Manage www subdomain

Now, you’ll go into your domain settings to add a 301 redirect, so when someone types in www.mycustomdomain.net, they’ll be redirected to mycustomdomain.net.

Note   You can actually handle this issue in a variety of ways that will technically work. However, the method we describe here is the method that Google recommends, so if you care about SEO, then this is the method that you should use.

To add the redirect:

1. Click the URL Forwarding tab.

1. Under Domain, add www
2. In Forwards to, add your domain: http://mycustomdomain.net
3. For Type, select Redirect.
4. And then click Add Forwarding.

Your domain will probably start working in a few minutes, but it could take 24 hours or more.

Still not working? Get some tips in the Troubleshooting section.

Now that you’ve set up your domain with Moboom, the next step is to tell your registrar about your site. These directions explain how to do that if you use Gandi.net.

To do that you’ll:

1. Create a zone file
2. Create A records
3. Clean up the zone file
4. Assign the zone file

1.  Create a zone file

To create the zone file:

1. First, go to gandi.net and sign in.

Tip   When signing in, you’ll use a handle that Gandi created for you. The handle ends in ‑GANDI and looks like: ABC123‑GANDI. When you initially signed up, Gandi should have sent you an email with your handle.

1. The next step is to create a new zone file. So click DNS Zones.

1. Then click on the current Zone File, which might be called Default Gandi zone file.

Note   If you have multiple files, you'll want to edit the one your domain uses. Go back to the Domains page, and then click on your domain. In the bottom right, you'll see a Zone files section. The zone file is listed under Zone used. So instead of copying the default zone file, skip right to editing this one.

1. Next, click Copy this zone to edit, and enter a name—like Moboom Zone File.

1. Now, you want to edit it, but you can't edit the version that’s currently in use. So click Create a new version.

2.  Create A records

Next, you want to add a couple A records. (An A record is one method of directing people to your site.)

NAME                    TYPE  VALUE
------------------------------------------
yourcustomaddress.com.  A     52.24.71.213
yourcustomaddress.com.  A     52.24.79.162

To create the A records:

1. At the bottom of the screen, click Add.

1. For Type, select A.
2. Leave TTL as the default setting (3 hours).
3. For Name, enter @
4. For Value, enter 52.24.71.213
5. Click Submit to save.

1. Next create a second A record:
• For Name, enter @
• For Value, enter 52.24.79.162
2. And then click Submit to save.

3.  Clean up the zone file

Now your zone file has the records that reference your site, but the file may also have extra records that conflict with the ones you just added.

By default, you have an A record that looks like:

Name    Type    Value
------  ------  ------
@       A       217.70.184.38

Delete that record. And delete any other A records with @ as the Name (except for the two you just created of course).

You'll also see a CNAME record that looks like:

Name    Type    Value
------  ------  ------
www     CNAME   webredir.vip.gandi.net.

This record redirects users from www.yourcustomaddress.com to yourcustomaddress.com. Leave it in place.

You might also see other records with names like imap and pop. These relate email. So if you're using Gandi's email service (or another service like Google Apps for Work), then leave these in place.

When you’re finished cleaning up your zone file, it should look like this screenshot. If you’re using an email service, then you might have more records, but you should at least have these three.

Once the file is cleaned up, click Use this version.

Next, you'll open your domain name, and set it to use the zone file you just created.

4.  Assign the zone file

Next, assign the zone you just created to your domain. So open your domain:

1. Click Domains to go back.
2. Then click your domain name to open it for editing.

1. In the bottom right, you'll see a Zone files section. Under Zone used, click Change.

1. Find your new zone file, click Choose, and then click Submit to save.

That's it. The changes you made will take time to propagate, but your domain will probably be all set up in about 3 hours.

Now that you’ve told Moboom your domain name, the next step is to tell your registrar about your site. These directions explain how to do that if you use Google Domains.

To set up your domain:

1. Add A records
2. Add a subdomain redirect

Add A records (Google Domains)

The first step to setting up your domain is adding two A records—which is one method for pointing your domain at your site.

NAME                    TYPE  VALUE
------------------------------------------
yourcustomaddress.com.  A     52.24.71.213
yourcustomaddress.com.  A     52.24.79.162

To create the A records:

1. First, sign in to Google Domains.
2. Next, find your domain, and click DNS.

1. Scroll down to Custom resource records, and:
• For the Name, enter: @. (The @ symbol is shorthand for your full domain: yourcustomaddress.com.)
• For Type, select A.
• For Data, enter: 52.24.71.213

1. Next, click +, and enter another IP address: 52.24.79.162

1. Click Add to finish adding the A records.

This will direct yourcustomaddress.com to your site. Next, add a redirect in case someone types in www.yourcustomaddress.com.

Add a subdomain redirect (Google Domains)

You want visitors who type in yourcustomaddress.com to go to the same place as visitors who type in www.yourcustomaddress.com. To do that, you’ll create a 301 redirect.

To create a redirect:

1. Scroll up to the Synthetic records section, and for the type of redirect, select Subdomain forward.

1. For Subdomain, enter: www
2. For the Destination URL, enter your domain name including http:// (e.g., http://yourcustomdomain.com).

1. Click Add to finish adding the redirect.

That’s it. Your domain should start working in a few moments, but don’t worry if it doesn’t start working right away. Depending on a variety of factors, sometimes these changes can take up to 72 hours come through.

Still not working? Get some tips in the Troubleshooting section.

Setting up your domain can be daunting—especially if you’ve never set up a domain before. Unfortunately, every registrar works a little differently, so if you do something wrong, it’s also hard to tell exactly what the problem is.

Here are some common issues that people have:

• Publish your site
• Remember to Tell Moboom your domain
• Pick your preferred domain
• Delete conflicting records

If you’re still having trouble, ask us for advice on the forums.

Publish your site

Your custom domain won't work until you publish your site. Of course, you can set up everything correctly before you publish, but your site is not live until you've published.

If you haven't published yet, you'll see a Publish Site button at the bottom of the menu on the left. Click it to publish.

Remember to Tell Moboom your domain

Did you Tell Moboom your domain? If so, did you enter: yourcustomaddress.com and www.yourcustomaddress.com?

Did you Tell Moboom your domain?

Pick your preferred domain

Many people don’t realize that yourcustomaddress.com and www.yourcustomaddress.com are different URLs (just like mail.google.com is different than google.com).

When setting up your domain, pick which version you prefer (www or non-www) and use a 301 redirect to point the non-preferred at the preferred.

Note   The guides on this page assume that your preferred domain is without the www.

Point your non-preferred domain to your preferred domain with a 301 redirect (also called a Subdomain forward).

Delete conflicting records

In some cases, your registrar may add extra records by default. These default records might conflict with the ones you just added. If you’re using your domain only for Moboom (and not for email), then delete any extras not mentioned in this guide.

Conflicting records will be A or CNAME records that redirect:

• The root level of your domain. Which is your domain without the www—sometimes indicated by @.
• The www subdomain. Which is www.yourcustomaddress.com.

Some registrars add extra records that will conflict. If you’re using your domain only for Moboom and you see extra records, delete them.

However, If you’re using your domain for email as well, then you may have to do some research to know if you need these records or not.

Search the support site of whoever handles your email, which could be your domain registrar or a third party (like Google Apps for Business or Office 365).

Note   The email related records will generally be MX records, while the conflicting records that you want to delete will be A or CNAME records.

If you use your domain for email, be careful which records you delete. Some of these records might be related to your email.

Also, make sure that you’re not using both A records and CNAME records. Using both types of records might be fine in special circumstances, but generally you should be able to use one or the other. And if you’re using both, then they’re probably conflicting.

If you’re still having trouble, ask us for advice on the forums.