DNS records for your domain

DNS is the public directory that tells browsers where a domain lives. Your registrar (or whoever runs your DNS) holds a list of records for your domain, called a zone. Connecting the domain to Willo means adding one or two records to that zone, and nothing else.

What Willo asks for

What you enter in Settings → Custom Domain decides the records.

You enter	Records to add
A root domain: `example.com` or `www.example.com`	A CNAME for `www`, plus an A record for the root (often written `@`)
A subdomain: `shop.example.com`, `blog.example.com`	One CNAME for that subdomain

The exact values (the CNAME target and the A record's address) are shown on the dashboard, and Willo repeats them in chat if you ask. Copy them from there. Don't use values from a forum post, an old email or memory: if they differ by a character, the domain never connects.

Some DNS providers, Cloudflare among them, let you put a CNAME on the root domain (called flattening or an ALIAS record). That works in place of the A record.

A business has one domain setup at a time: either the root pair or one subdomain.

The Host or Name field

Most registrars add your domain to whatever you type in the Host (or Name) field. So for www.example.com you type www, and for the root you type @ or leave the field empty. Typing the whole name, www.example.com, creates www.example.com.example.com, which points nowhere.

If your registrar warns that a value looks wrong, take the warning seriously and ask Willo to recheck the domain before you save it.

Leave your email records alone

The same zone usually carries your email. These records have nothing to do with your website, and they must survive untouched:

MX: where your mail is delivered.
SPF: a TXT record saying who may send mail as you.
DKIM: a TXT or CNAME record that signs your outgoing mail.
DMARC: a TXT record on _dmarc.

Add the records Willo asks for, change an existing www or root record if one is in the way, and leave every other record where it is. Never clear the zone and start fresh.

Moving your nameservers to a new DNS provider moves the whole zone. Every email record must exist at the new provider before you switch, or mail stops.

Propagation and HTTPS

After you save the records, DNS takes time to spread: minutes to hours, and up to 48 hours. Willo keeps checking for weeks, so there's no need to start again. When it sees the records it requests a security certificate for HTTPS, and the domain starts serving your site.

For up to about an hour after a domain first goes live, some visitors may see a temporary holding page from the network in front of your site instead of the site itself. It clears on its own.

Records alone connect nothing

DNS points the domain at Willo, but Willo also has to know the domain is yours. That happens when you enter it in Settings → Custom Domain (or ask Willo in chat). Records added without that step get no certificate, however correct they look.