Every site comes with a basic URL (called a domain name) that looks like: example.site.moboom.com
. When you launch your site, you probably want something a little more personalized—like yourcustomaddress.com
.
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:
So buy a domain from anywhere, and we'll get you set up.
Once you’ve bought a domain, tell it to Moboom:
yourcustomaddress.com
), and then click Add. If everything was successful, you’ll see your domain name in the table below.
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:
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:
After that, you'll set up a 301 redirect:
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:
You’ll first need your site’s basic domain. To get this:
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.
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:
mycustomdomain.net
), or entering @
.
example.site.moboom.com
).
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.
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:
mycustomdomain.net
), or entering @
.
52.24.71.213
.
300
if you want a something short.
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.
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:
Note Some registrars separate subdomain and domain redirects (like GoDaddy). Others treat all redirects the same (like Name.com).
www
.
http://
(http://mycustomurl.net
).
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:
First, open your DNS Zone File, which is where you’ll make the changes.
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.
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:
You may also have conflicting CNAME records:
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:
@
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.
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.
52.24.79.162
.
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).
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:
www
mycustomurl.net
), and then click Preview to verify that you’ve entered the correct URL.
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:
First open your DNS records:
Next, you’ll 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
52.24.71.213
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.
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:
www
http://mycustomdomain.net
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:
To create the zone file:
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.
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.
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:
@
52.24.71.213
@
52.24.79.162
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.
Next, assign the zone you just created to your domain. So open your domain:
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:
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:
@
. (The @ symbol is shorthand for your full domain: yourcustomaddress.com.)52.24.71.213
52.24.79.162
This will direct yourcustomaddress.com to your site. Next, add a redirect in case someone types in www.yourcustomaddress.com.
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:
www
http://
(e.g., http://yourcustomdomain.com
).
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:
If you’re still having trouble, ask us for advice on the forums.
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.
Did you Tell Moboom your domain? If so, did you enter: yourcustomaddress.com
and www.yourcustomaddress.com
?
Did you Tell Moboom your 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).
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:
@
.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.