Your site comes with a free address, but most businesses want their own, like your-business.com. If you already own a domain, you can connect it to your site from the dashboard. Buildly guides you through each step and sets up the secure HTTPS connection for you.
Before you start
- You need to own the domain already. Buildly does not sell domains yet; you can buy one from any domain registrar.
- You need to be able to change the domain’s DNS records, at the company where you bought it or wherever its DNS is managed.
- Only an Owner or Admin of your organization can connect a domain.
Connecting it, step by step
- Add your domain. Open your site, choose Domain, then Connect a domain. Type the domain, such as
example.com, or a subdomain such asshop.example.com- nohttps://needed - and choose Add domain. - Prove it is yours. Buildly shows a TXT record. Add it at your DNS provider exactly as shown. Buildly checks for it every minute.
- Point it to your site. Once the domain is proven, Buildly shows the records that send visitors to your site. For a bare domain these are A records; for a subdomain it is a single CNAME record. Add them at your DNS provider.
- Live with HTTPS. Buildly gets a security certificate for the domain automatically. This usually takes under a minute, and the page updates by itself.
Changes at a DNS provider can take a while to reach the rest of the internet, so a step can sit waiting even after you have added the record. If you are unsure what is happening, choose Check what is on this domain now to see what the domain points to at this moment. There is also a Help guide on the Domain screen.
Your free address keeps working
Connecting a domain does not switch off your free address - both reach the same site. Once a domain is live, you can choose Make this the main address. Search engines are told to list your site under its main address only, so your site is not listed twice.
When something goes wrong
If a domain stops pointing at your site - for example after a change at your DNS provider - the Domain screen marks it as no longer reaching your site, so you can put the records back. Owners get an email when a domain is connected and when the main address changes.
Disconnecting a domain
Open the domain and choose Disconnect. Visitors stop reaching your site at that address straight away. To connect it again later, you prove ownership again from the start.
Stuck on a step? Ask the Buildly team and tell us which domain you are connecting.