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Publishing a Custom Domain in Snapps

Your site's domain is like its street address; it lets other people find it. Setting up your site domain is very important as it allows people to visit your sites. While our site builder does not host your domains, you can purchase a domain and connect it to your published site by creating a CNAME and two A records in your DNS settings.


Go Live


Taking your site live requires publishing your site, setting up your domain, and setting up your domain through your domain host.


Publish a Site


For your site to show up at any domain, you first need to publish it. To publish your site:

 

  1. In your editor, on the top right, click Publish. If your site was previously published, click Republish.
  2. A payment page appears. Select a plan, and continue.

 

Default Domain


When you publish your site for the first time, it will be published to the default domain (e.g. http://mynewsite.verifiedsecure.net/).  You may keep your site on the default verifiedsecure.net domain or use your own custom domain with your newly published site.


This default domain allows you to do one final pass on your live site before moving over to a custom domain.


Set Up a Custom Domain


You may use a domain that you already own from a 3rd party domain host, or you can purchase a domain from Snapps Domains at www.SnappsDomains.com


NOTE: Snapps Customer Support cannot help with domains purchased from 3rd party registrars and domain hosts.


To change your domain at any time after publishing your site, in the left panel, click Settings, Site URL, and then click Change site URL.


Ensure you add "www" to the URL if you choose to use your own domain.  Or you may choose any other sub-domain in place of "www" like we have done with the Snapps main website (e.g. go.snapps.ai and support.snapps.ai are 2 different websites on 2 different sub-domains)


Set up your Custom Domain in your Domain Host


After setting up your domain in the Snapps Editor, you must set up your DNS settings through your domain host. In order to do this, you will need admin access to the domain which you intend to use. In your domain host, you need to create two A records and a CNAME record.


Note: Some domain hosts will not allow you to set up multiple records for the @ domain. If this is the case for your domain host, then simply add one record for the @ domain and include both IP addresses.


Use the following information for the CNAME record and A records:


CNAME


Host: www

Points to: s.multiscreensite.com


Note: The Host is where you choose your subdomain.  For support.snapps.ai, the Host CNAME is set to: support


A Records


First A Record

Host/Alias: @

Target/Destination: 35.172.94.1


Second A Record

Host/Alias: @

Target/Destination: 100.24.208.97


Two A Records are used for server balance and redundancy.


Note: If you previously took your site live with instructions involving a 301 Redirect and CNAME, you will need to re-create your SSL certificate. For more information, see Add SSL or HTTPS . In addition, you will need to remove the previous settings for the 301 Redirect.


Examples


The following is an example from Snapps Domains, in which they use one A record with two IP addresses:

The following is an example from GoDaddy, in which they use two A records (one for each IP):

Note: Most domain hosts have instructions on creating CNAME records and A records in their help center. If you cannot find this information, you must contact your domain host.


Troubleshooting


CNAME and A records can take up to 48 hours to propagate, so your site will not usually show up immediately. If your site still is not showing up after 48 hours, something is probably wrong. To figure out what is going on:


  1. Go to https://www.whatsmydns.net/ and select either CNAME or A from the drop-down menu.
  2. For CNAME, complete the field using your whole URL (for example, www.example.com).
  3. For the A Record, complete the field using the root domain (for example, example.com).
  4. If you see red Xs, or do not see the correct host to the right of each location, this means that either the CNAME or A record was not set up correctly or the domain host is not propagating.
  5. Ensure the CNAME and A record is set up with the correct values listed above.
  6. If everything is set up correctly and you have waited 48 hours, but your site is not showing, please contact your domain host for more information.
  7. If you see green check marks and the correct host name, your CNAME and A record has been set up successfully.


Common Errors


Your Domain is Not Set Up Correctly


This error means either that:


  1. Your domain is not set up and/or propagated appropriately.
  • To resolve this, please make sure you have followed the steps in this article and wait up to 24 hours.
  1. We are expecting a different domain name.
  • To resolve this, make sure that the site URL in this interface has a www before it.


Domain Already In Use


This error means that another site in our system is using this domain. To resolve this, if another site in your account uses this domain, go edit that site and change its assigned domain. If no other sites in your account use this domain, please:


  1. Log in to your domain host and create a TXT record with the name value 'domainverification' and have its text value be 'proofofdomainXX-XX-XX' (where XX-XX-XX is the date). This will demonstrate that the domain's owner (you) is requesting the change.
  2. Contact our support team to explain the problem so that we can free up the domain for your use.


Still Need Help?


Our Support Squad is available to chat by visiting snapps.ai/chat


Check out this article about purchasing and transferring domains with Snapps HERE.

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