How to connect your own domain to your website

By Povilas, who runs Ginta · 19 October 2026 · 7 min read

To connect your own domain, you add a few DNS records where your domain is managed: usually one for the bare domain (yourbusiness.com), one for www.yourbusiness.com, and often a TXT record that proves the domain is yours. Your website builder tells you the exact values; you copy them into your registrar's DNS page, and the website usually opens at your domain within 5 to 30 minutes, sometimes a few hours.

This guide explains the steps in plain words, so it helps whichever builder you use. The provider steps at the end are the ones Ginta shows its own customers, written for each company's DNS page.

Five words you'll meet

• Domain: your address, like yourbakery.com. You rent it yearly from a registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Porkbun, Cloudflare, IONOS and many more).
• DNS: the internet's address book. Its entries are called records, and they say where your domain points.
• A record: points a name at a numeric internet address (an IP address).
• CNAME record: points a name at another name, like www → connect.ginta.page.
• TXT record: a line of text. Builders use it to check that you own the domain.

Some DNS providers also have an ALIAS (or ANAME, or "CNAME flattening") record. It works like a CNAME, but it's allowed on the bare domain, where an ordinary CNAME isn't.

www or no www?

A website has one main address, and the other one forwards to it, so people who type either land on the same site. The bare domain (yourbakery.com) is shorter; www is easier to connect at some providers, because the bare domain can't use an ordinary CNAME. Either is fine for search engines as long as one redirects to the other.

The general steps (any website builder)

1. Find out where your DNS is managed. Usually it's where you bought the domain. If someone once moved it to another service (Cloudflare is common), the records live there instead.
2. Start the connection in your website builder. Type the domain; it shows the records to add.
3. Remove what's in the way. New domains come with "parking" pages or forwarding. Old records for the same name (@ or www) clash with the new ones.
4. Add the records exactly as shown. Copy and paste the values; one wrong letter is the most common problem.
5. Prove it's yours if the builder asks for a TXT record.
6. Wait and check. DNS changes spread in minutes to hours. When the site opens with https:// and a padlock, you're done.
7. Update your links: Google Business Profile, Instagram bio, email signature, printed material.

Don't touch records you don't recognise for other names, and never delete MX records: those deliver your email.

How it works on Ginta

Open your website in Ginta, go to Settings → Address & domain, type your domain and press Connect. Then:

• Ginta looks up who manages your DNS (from the domain's nameservers) and opens the steps for that company: "We think Namecheap." You can switch to another provider's tab if it guessed wrong.
• The bare domain is the main address by default, and www forwards to it. Prefer www? One click: Use www instead. Nothing is lost when you switch.
• You add the records it shows:
  • www: a CNAME to connect.ginta.page, at every provider.
  • The bare domain: an ALIAS (or flattened CNAME) to connect.ginta.page where the provider has one (Cloudflare, Namecheap, Porkbun, Hostinger); everywhere else an A record to Ginta's fixed IP address, which Ginta shows you.
  • A TXT record named _ginta with a code that's only for your domain. The website goes live at your domain only after Ginta sees it, so a domain only goes live for the person who controls it.
• Ginta checks by itself and shows "Waiting for DNS", then "Almost there: securing it (https)", then Live. The secure https certificate is set up for you. There's a Check now button if you're impatient.

Your own domain comes with paid plans (from €5 a month); Hosting includes 3 domains and Light 3, and you can add more for €1 a month each. You buy the domain itself from a registrar; Ginta doesn't take a cut. If you don't have one yet, Don't have a domain? Buy one opens a search at Cloudflare or Porkbun, and when you come back Ginta picks up where you left off. Building from Claude or ChatGPT? Ask it to connect your domain and it shows the same steps (website builder MCP). All plans: pricing.

Step by step at each provider

These are the steps Ginta shows, shortened. In Ginta you'll see your own values (your domain, the exact target and the TXT code) with copy buttons.

GoDaddy

Sign in, open Domain Portfolio, click your domain, then DNS.

• www: GoDaddy usually has a CNAME named www already. Click its pencil and change the value (adding a second one fails).
• Bare domain: GoDaddy has no ALIAS record, so edit the A record named @ (it often says "Parked") and set the IP address Ginta shows. Delete any other A or AAAA record named @, and turn off Forwarding if it's on.
• TXT: Add New Record, type TXT, name _ginta, value from Ginta.

Namecheap

Sign in, Domain List → Manage next to your domain → Advanced DNS.

• Delete the existing records for @ and www (new domains have a parking CNAME or a URL Redirect Record).
• Add a CNAME Record for www and an ALIAS Record for @, both pointing at connect.ginta.page. Click the green tick to save each one.
• Add a TXT Record with host _ginta.

Porkbun

Sign in, Domain Management, then DNS next to your domain.

• First delete Porkbun's parking records (the ALIAS and the * CNAME pointing to pixie.porkbun.com) and any URL Forwarding.
• Add a CNAME with host www, and an ALIAS with the host left empty (that's the bare domain), both to connect.ginta.page.
• Add a TXT with host _ginta.

Cloudflare

Open your domain → DNS → Records.

• Delete existing A, AAAA or CNAME records for @ and www, and any Redirect Rule for the domain.
• Add a CNAME for www and a CNAME for @ to connect.ginta.page. Cloudflare allows a CNAME on the bare domain (it "flattens" it).
• Set Proxy status to DNS only (the grey cloud) on both. This is the step people miss most often.
• Add a TXT with name _ginta.

IONOS

Domains & SSL → the gear next to your domain → DNS.

• www: Add record → CNAME, hostname www; confirm replacing if IONOS says www already has records.
• Bare domain: IONOS has no ALIAS, so edit the A record with hostname @ to the IP address Ginta shows, and delete the AAAA record for @ that IONOS adds by default; it would send some visitors elsewhere.
• TXT: Add record → TXT, hostname _ginta.

Squarespace Domains (including domains moved from Google Domains)

Sign in at domains.squarespace.com, click your domain, then DNS.

• If you see Squarespace Defaults, delete them: they point your domain at Squarespace.
• Under Custom records, add a CNAME with host www, and an A record with host @ to the IP address Ginta shows (Squarespace lists ALIAS, but it isn't reliable with other hosts).
• Add a TXT record with host _ginta.

Anyone else

Look for "DNS", "DNS records", "Zone editor" or "Name servers". Add the same records: a CNAME for www, an ALIAS/ANAME for @ if your provider has one (otherwise the A record), and the TXT. Some providers want the bare domain's name as @, some want it empty, and some want the full domain; if one is refused, try the next.

When it doesn't work

• Waited an hour and nothing? Check the record values letter by letter, and check you edited DNS where it's really managed (your builder's provider guess helps here).
• Old site still shows sometimes? An old A or AAAA record for @ is still there. Delete it.
• "Too many redirects" or a certificate warning on Cloudflare? The orange cloud is on. Switch to DNS only.
• The bare domain works but www doesn't (or the other way round)? You only added one of the two records.

Written with AI help for Ginta, which Povilas runs; he also teaches a website-building course. The screenshots are from the real Ginta on the date above, and prices come from our pricing page.