Connecting your custom domain may feel intimidating at first, but we're here to help!
This guide will go over the steps you'll need to take to get your GoDaddy domain connected to your Podia site.
Adding your custom domain to Podia
To set up your custom domain, go to Settings > Domain and enter the custom domain you'd like your Podia Site to live on.
You can either link up your root domain (e.g. www.yourdomain.com) or a subdomain (e.g. courses.yourdomain.com, learn.yourdomain.com, shop.yourdomain.com, etc.)
Add a CNAME record in GoDaddy
Log in to GoDaddy and navigate to your Domain Portfolio.
Next, you will click the meatball menu and choose Edit DNS.
On the following page, you will see the option to add a new DNS record.
Select the type CNAME, and add the values listed below.
Name
www (if you'd like to use a root www.yourdomain.com)
OR
courses, academy, learn (that will depend on the subdomain you'd like to use, such as: courses.yourdomain.com, academy.yourdomain.com, learn.yourdomain.com, etc.)
Value
sites.podia.com (this is the exact value you need to add. Do NOT change this to your Podia subdomain or it will not work)
TTL
You can use the automatic setting of 1 hour.
Examples
Here's how it would look like if you'd like to connect a domain such as www.yourdomain.com to Podia:
And here's how it would look like if you'd like to connect a domain such as academy.yourdomain.com to Podia:
After all of this information is input, click on Save to save your changes!
For users who have opted to use their root domain with a CNAME record named www, there is one last step outlined below!
Setting up forwarding to the naked domain
To ensure that your users will have access to your site via the non-www version of your address you will need to set up forwarding with GoDaddy in order to indicate that the non-www version should load the www version of your site.
For example, if you connected your custom domain to Podia with www.mysite.com, we need to go into your GoDaddy settings and set up a redirect for mysite.com to direct to www.mysite.com.
To complete this step, we'll head back to your Domain Portfolio.
Next, you will click the meatball menu and choose Edit DNS.
On the following page, you'll toggle to the Forwarding tab, and select Add forwarding, next to Domain.
Finally, you'll set up forwarding as shown below:
Once you click save, you will be all set!
FAQ & Troubleshooting
Help! I'm getting an error message when I try to add my CNAME record!
Help! I'm getting an error message when I try to add my CNAME record!
Most of the time when folks run into an error message during the adding of their CNAME in GoDaddy, it is because of a duplicate entry.
You will need to check your existing dns records to ensure that you are not already using the CNAME name that you're trying to set up.
Once you locate the duplicate entry, you can delete it and try again to create your Podia record.
If you've recently switched domain registrars or name servers, there is not a duplicate entry, and you are still receiving this message, you may need to wait for the name servers to fully switch before adding your Podia DNS records.
This timeframe varies depending on the original registrar, but can take up to 48 hours.
If this does not apply and there is no duplicate entry, reach out to Podia support! We'll be glad to help investigate!
GoDaddy is asking for your IP address. Can I have it?
GoDaddy is asking for your IP address. Can I have it?
To connect a CNAME, an IP address won't be necessary! We rotate IPs of our servers regularly, as our developers are always rolling out updated servers with the latest security patches and software updates. It's a measure that keeps you and your audience more secure! 💪
We encourage you to follow the steps outlined in this article to connect a CNAME record rather than an A record.
Everything's set up, but my CNAME still isn't working!
Everything's set up, but my CNAME still isn't working!
If 48 hours have passed and your CNAME isn't working, double-check that you have the correct values in the right fields. It needs to be sites.podia.com. No other value will work.
Still stuck? Send us an email with screenshots of your current DNS settings alongside any error messages that you're receiving, and we'll work together with you to resolve the issue.