Add an External Domain
Written By Luke Wakefield
Last updated About 2 hours ago
We strongly recommend Fully Delegating your domain for best results or ensuring you use a domain control panel that allows CNAME records on the root/@ or ANAME records such as Cloudflare.
If you have a domain that is managed in GoDaddy or another registrar and would like to point it to a Siteglide website you can use our External Domain feature. This means that you can continue to manage your DNS through GoDaddy/other registrar.
This guide is for our Oracle/Cloudflare OCI servers. If your site is on our old AWS stacks please use the link below: Legacy AWS External Domains
Standard Setup: Enable WWW Redirect (e.g. https://www.example.com)
Most websites use www and redirect non-www traffic to www.
Step 0: Add the domain
Simply select External, type in the root domain (without www) and then select 'Use as default domain' and 'Enable WWW redirect':
Step 1: Domain Ownership Verification
To setup the SSL you need to prove domain ownership by adding CNAME records in your DNS control panel. This step will not put the site live, it’s simply provisioning the SSL. Once these records are added you can add the records in Step 2 to point the domain to Siteglide.
These records must remain ongoing as the SSL is renewed annually/periodically (do not delete them).
Replace [example.com] and [www.example.com] with and without www as documented.
UK OCI server:
US OCI server:
AU OCI server:
Step 2: Point the domain to Siteglide (Go-Live)
This is the actual go-live step and points the root/www records to Siteglide. We recommend waiting until the Siteglide UI shows Step 2 and provides these records but you could add them if you’re sure the records above have been added correctly.
If your DNS provider doesn't support CNAME flattening we recommend switching either to our fully delegated option or using Cloudflare to manage your DNS (they offer CNAME flattening). Alternatively you can use a 3rd party like redirect.pizza (instructions).
UK OCI server:
US OCI server:
AU OCI server:
3rd party solution to forward the Root/@ to the www (with SSL)
Most DNS Control Panels cannot correctly redirect the root traffic to the WWW over SSL so we recommend using an external service called Redirect.Pizza.
Just follow these steps to redirect your non-www to the www variant. The non-www is also sometimes called naked record or "apex" (screenshots below):
Create a redirect.pizza account.
Add your source. This should be the domain without www. For instance, enter example.com as your source.
Set the destination to the variant with www. Example: www.example.com
In most cases, you will want the setting for "Path forwarding" and "Query string forwarding" set to "Yes". If set to "No", all non-www pages will redirect to your www homepage.
Press "Create redirect"
The required DNS change pops up. Go to your domain registrar to make this DNS change for the A record. This record may already exists '@'. Press 'edit' to edit it to the required DNS setting for redirect.pizza. For more info, see What are these DNS changes?
The DNS change is made! It may take up to 24 hours before the DNS is fully propagated.
These Steps can also be found here: https://redirect.pizza/support/redirecting-non-www-to-www
Alternative Setup: Redirect all traffic to the root (e.g. https://example.com)
This is not possible via External DNS if your DNS provider doesn't support CNAME flattening. We recommend switching either to our fully delegated option or using Cloudflare to manage your DNS (they offer CNAME flattening).
Step 0: Add the domain
Simply select External, type in the root domain (without www) and then select 'Use as default domain' and not NOT select 'Enable WWW redirect':
Step 1: Domain Ownership Verification
To setup the SSL you need to prove domain ownership by adding CNAME records in your DNS control panel. This step will not put the site live, it’s simply provisioning the SSL. Once these records are added you can add the records in Step 2 to point the domain to Siteglide.
These records must remain ongoing as the SSL is renewed annually/periodically (do not delete them).
Replace [example.com] and [www.example.com] with and without www as documented.
UK OCI server:
US OCI server:
AU OCI server:
Step 2: Point the domain to Siteglide (Go-Live)
This is the actual go-live step and points the root/www records to Siteglide. We recommend waiting until the Siteglide UI shows Step 2 and provides this record but you could add it if you’re sure the records above have been added correctly.
If your DNS provider doesn't support CNAME flattening we recommend switching either to our fully delegated option or using Cloudflare to manage your DNS (they offer CNAME flattening). Alternatively you can use a 3rd party like redirect.pizza (instructions).
UK OCI server:
US OCI server:
AU OCI server:
Subdomain Setup
Step 0: Add the subdomain
Simply type in the subdomain and ensure you do NOT select ‘Enable WWW redirect’:
Step 1: Domain Ownership Verification
To setup the SSL you need to prove domain ownership by adding CNAME records in your DNS control panel. This step will not put the site live, it’s simply provisioning the SSL. Once these records are added you can add the records in Step 2 to point the domain to Siteglide.
These records must remain ongoing as the SSL is renewed annually/periodically (do not delete them).
Replace [example.com] and [www.example.com] with and without www as documented.
UK OCI server:
US OCI server:
AU OCI server:
Step 2: Point the domain to Siteglide (Go-Live)
This is the actual go-live step and points the root/www records to Siteglide. We recommend waiting until the Siteglide UI shows Step 2 and provides this record but you could add it if you’re sure the records above have been added correctly.