Go Live Checklist

If you’re reading this chapter, you likely already have your SWS hosted site created, migrated or cloned at a temporary tempurl.host URL, and have it all set up the way you want it.

You’re now ready to take it live at your own domain name? Excellent! Use this go-live checklist to help you get up and running in no time!

• Add your custom domain name
• Update the DNS (NS or A/CNAME)
• Check DNS propagation
• SSL installation
• Make your custom domain primary

If you get stuck at any point in this process, just start a new chat anytime with our support superheroes.

The first thing you’ll want to do is add your custom domain name to the Domains list in the Hosting section of your site in your Hub.

The tool there provides you with an option to also add the www version of your domain if you wish. While www is no longer needed to access sites on the web, some users continue to use it. If you don’t add the www version of a site, those users won’t be able to load your site if they enter the www version in their browser.

And no worries, if you include the www version but don’t want it in the site address, just make the non-www version the Primary Domain in the last step below. Anyone who then enters your domain name in their browser with the www will be instantly redirected to the non-www address.

You’ll also see an option to Add DNS records for this domain. That option is checked by default so you can follow our recommendation to manage the DNS for your custom domain in the DNS manager of your Hub, as seen in the 1st option of the next step below.

Once you’ve added your custom domain name in your Hub, you’ll want to update the DNS records for that domain. There are 2 ways you can do that:

• Manage the DNS in your Hub here at SWS
• Manage the DNS at the domain registrar or 3rd-party DNS manager

Manage the DNS in your Hub here at SWS

For this option, all you need to do is update the nameservers at your domain registrar so they point here instead. Be sure to add the domain to your Hub first though so there’s a DNS zone created for it, otherwise changing nameservers at your registrar may fail.

Note that if you did not check the Add DNS records option when you added your custom domain in the 1st step above, you can simply click the three-dot icon to the far right of your domain name now, and select Add DNS Records. That will automatically add your domain and its DNS records to the DNS manager in your Hub.

You’ll find the WPMU DEV nameservers you’ll want to set at your domain registrar are shown in your Hub DNS manager once your domain name has been added there:

• ns1.wpdns.host
• ns2.wpdns.host
• ns3.wpdns.host

Manage the DNS at the domain registrar or 3rd-party DNS manager

If you prefer to manage the DNS records of your domain at your domain registrar, or in a 3rd-party DNS manager like Cloudflare, you’ll need to update the main A or CNAME record there.

The DNS info you need for your domain can be found by clicking the DNS records link in the description at the top of the screen.

We recommend using the CNAME to point your custom domain to the tempurl.host domain of your site if possible, as that method is independent of the site’s IP address. However, many hosts do not support CNAMEs for top-level domains, so you’d use the A & AAAA records instead.

Now that you’ve updated your custom domain’s DNS records, you need to wait for those changes to propagate throughout the world so your custom domain resolves to the right place (your WPMU DEV hosted site) from all locations.

Don’t worry, your site will still function just fine at the tempurl.host address in the meantime.

DNS changes can sometimes take only a few minutes, but often take several hours to propagate. The time it takes is completely out of your control as it depends entirely on the registrar and communications between servers/providers.

However, you can easily check on the progress of the DNS propagation using a handy DNS lookup service like DNSChecker.org.

Once the DNS has fully propagated, you should see a green checkmark in the DNS Status column for that domain in your Hub. If it still shows a yellow circle, click on the three-dot icon to the far right of that domain and select the Recheck DNS option to refresh the data.

The installation of an SSL certificate on your domain is taken care of for you automatically here at SWS.

A regular SSL certificate will be installed on your domain as soon as the DNS has propagated, and you’ll see a lovely green checkmark next to the domain name in your Hub when that happens.

Once both DNS Status and SSL Status are all green under the Domains tab for your site in your Hub, the last step is to set your custom domain as the Primary domain for your site.

That way, regardless of which domain associated with the site is entered in a browser, your site will resolve at your custom domain name.

To get that done, all you need to do is click the three-dot icon at the far right of your custom domain name, and select the Set as Primary option. Note that this option only appears once both DNS Status and SSL Status show green checkmarks.