Step-by-step – How to point your domain to our PenguinHosting Pro Package from GoDaddy
Our Pro Hosting package provides each site with an IP address to which domains can be pointed. This is useful if you own, for example, thisfinedomain.com, and would like it to resolve to a Pro Hosting site.
Table of Contents:
1. Where to get the IP address
2. Log in to GoDaddy
3. Edit the current A record
4. Optional: Configure CNAME record for www
5. Double-check your work
Note: DNS propagation times
Note: Custom nameservers
1. Where do I get the IP address?
Let’s start with the easiest step. If you are like most of our website hosting clients, we have either started working together with your first website or have moved your current site over to your new hosting server and you’re now ready to have the new hosting go live. This is an easy step as we will supply you with your new IP address. 🙂
The IP access will usually look something like this (but DO NOT use this number as it is a sample only and will likely not work) – 151.101.66.159
If you have not been sent your IP address or have misplaced it, please reach out directly to us and we can send you the correct IP.
2. Log in to GoDaddy
• Log in to the GoDaddy administration panel.
• On the My Products page, locate the domain you want to point to your Pro Hosting.
• Click the DNS button.
3. Edit the current A record
There’s a good chance you’ll see several records on the DNS page, especially if your domain was pointed to a different host previously. For now, we’re just going to be concerned with the A record, since it’s the record responsible for pointing your domain to your website.
Be careful about modifying or deleting any other records – especially MX records, which are responsible for email. Also, it never hurts to take a screenshot before you start making changes.
• Locate the A Record
• Edit the A Recore by clicking the pencil icon
• Set Host to @
• Enter your IP address under Points To. In this example, the IP is 151.101.66.159.
• Usually, there’s no need to adjust TTL, which stands for Time To Live.
• Click Save to apply the changes.
Unless you have a subdomain setup, for example, shop.thisfinedomain.com, you should only need one A record value. At the very least, make sure that you have one A record with @ set as the host which is pointing to your Flywheel IP address.
For more information, visit GoDaddy’s help article on creating/updating A records.
4. Optional: Configure CNAME record for www
We recommend you also set a CNAME record in your zone file to allow the use of the www prefix. A CNAME (aka canonical name) points a subdomain to another domain name.
For example, with a CNAME in place, visitors entering www.thisfinedomain.com in their browser will be re-routed to thisfinedomain.com. Without a CNAME record, visitors will instead reach an error page.
• Click Add under the Records table.
• Under Type, select CNAME.
• Enter www under Host
• Enter @ under Points to.
• Click Save to apply the changes.
For more information, visit GoDaddy’s help article on creating CNAME records.
5. Double-check your work
• Check GoDaddy’s DNS Management page to make sure the record changes have been updated. Your records should look like this (with your domain’s information instead of the example domain here):
• After propagation, let us know (your contact/support agent at The Image Stop ltd/PenguinHosting) and we can verify your domain is successfully pointed to your Pro Hosting server by doing a DNS check. If the changes have not yet propagated we will monitor the domain for you until it has been competed.
DNS propagation times: DNS by nature can take 24-48 hours to fully propagate across the entire internet, though it’s generally much quicker. By default, GoDaddy sets the Time to Live (TTL) setting for each record to 1 hour, so you should hopefully see your changes go live within that timeframe.
• Once your site is pointed to your Pro Hosting account, the status will switch to ✅ Pointed and the domain registrar will be displayed as well. We will then set up your site for its included maintenance, security monitoring, free SSL, backups, and updates.
Custom nameservers: If you’ve made changes to your DNS records but nothing seems to be happening, your domain may be using custom name servers instead of GoDaddy’s defaults. This means that GoDaddy’s DNS settings will not have any effect. In this case, you will need to adjust your DNS settings at the name server’s admin panel instead. This situation is most likely when a proxy like Cloudflare or Sucuri is being used. You can view and edit your domain’s name servers by following this GoDaddy help article.
Still need help?
If you get stuck, or have any questions along the way, we’d love to help! Reach out to our support team with a screenshot of your current DNS records or provide us with your current registrar login for assistance. Even better, click the button below for a tutorial on how to share your GoDaddy account access and we’ll get it done for you. 🙂