custom domains

Forward www to your main domain

Your site lives at your bare domain. This adds one DNS record so anyone who types the www version lands in the right place, with the rest of the link intact.

Your site is already set up at your domain. Adding the record below makes www.your-domain.com forward to it — so a visitor who types the www. version, or an old link that used it, ends up on the right page rather than an error.

Enter it with or without www. — we'll work out the rest.

Only used to link you straight to the right screen — the record below is the same either way.

  1. 1 Forward www

    Type
    A
    Name
    Full name: www.your-domain.com (most panels add your domain for you)
    Value
    TTL
    600 (or the lowest your provider allows — its default is fine)
    Proxy

    Click the cloud so it turns grey and reads DNS only. Cloudflare makes every new record Proxied (orange) by default, so this one needs changing — left orange, it won't work.

    Replace any existing record at www — a name can only hold one address. If there is an AAAA record at www, delete it: leaving a stale one black-holes visitors on IPv6 networks.

Two things to avoid

  • Don't point your bare domain here as well. This address forwards away from whichever name points at it. Your bare domain must keep the record that serves your site; only www changes.
  • Don't use your registrar's "Forwarding" or "Redirect" feature instead of this record. Those answer only the home page and drop the rest of the link, so every deep link people have shared lands on your home page rather than the page it named.

It can take a little while for a DNS change to travel — usually minutes, occasionally up to a few hours. Nothing else about your site changes, and your email is untouched.