Connect your external domain in Sitejet

It is possible to connect a domain from another provider to your website in Sitejet. 

Table of contents


Basic knowledge

Let us start with the domain. A domain name like  yourdomain.com is only a name and can serve no purpose unless you set up the DNS records. They need to be set up and administered in order to connect the domain name to the website and emails associated with the domain. This is what the DNS records do. DNS stands for “Domain Name System” - for simplicity, think of it like an address book that forwards web traffic. 

  • The A Records and CNAME will resolve the IP of the server that your website is hosted on. 
  • The MX Record resolves to the IP of the server that your mail is hosted on. This may or may not be the same server.
  • An SPF Record is a TXT DNS record that includes a list of the servers that are authorized to send emails from your domain. This is especially important when you use a contact form. 

There are several reasons why the desired domain for your website may be registered with a provider other than Sitejet. If you decide to leave the domain with another provider instead of moving it to Sitejet, you can still connect the domain with your Sitejet website. 

In general, we recommend that you transfer your domain to Sitejet. This way, you do have all necessary parts in one place. You are able to manage all settings concerning your website and domain within Sitejet. This also means, that we would be able to assist you in all aspects of your website - especially all things regarding your domain. 

Since there are now numerous domain providers, you will find a general guide below. If you have any questions, please contact our support team via mail or in the Community.

Warning: Changing the Nameservers in the DNS settings might cause the domain to cause real trouble. We strongly advise to not change these when your domain is with us unless you know, what you are doing. After the change, you will not have access to the domain manager anymore. The same also applies to other providers. If you are unsure about the procedure, get in touch with the respective support team!

Connect from third-party provider

To connect your domain with your website in Sitejet, you need to first add your domain to the project from within the Domain Manager. Afterwards, you edit the DNS records for your domain with your provider. You can find out whether you can do this from the customer portal of your domain provider if you are not sure if you have access or not.

1. Add your domain in the Sitejet Domain Manager

Adding the domain to the website is what lets our servers know which project you intend to display once you point your domain to Sitejet in the next step. To add your domain to the website project, inside the Website Project Manager you can either click on "Register domain" or use the ellipsis icon (...) and select "Manage domains" from the dropdown menu.

If you're using the list view of the Website Project Manager, you can click "Actions" and select "Manage domains" from the dropdown menu.

If you're in the Detail View you can also use the "Actions" button and select "Manage domains" from the dropdown menu.

Then click "+ Domain" and enter your domain in the format of "your-domain.com" and click "Search".

  1. At the top, you can see which A Records are currently set. Please note that changes in the DNS settings can take up to 48 hours before they are displayed here.
  2. The MX records that are currently set are displayed next. If you want your emails to continue to be handled by your other provider rather than Sitejet, don't change the MX records.
  3. Near the bottom is where you can enable SSL encryption and Sitejet email management if you choose. If you want to continue managing your email addresses with your other provider, you should not check "Email".
  4. Click "Continue".
  5. Select whether you would like to publish the website at this stage or not, and then click "Finish".

2. Edit DNS entries with your domain registrar

Next, you will edit the DNS records for your domain. Within the customer portal of your domain provider, there is an area commonly found in the domain management settings, often called "DNS entries". Here you should be able to create further DNS entries for the domain and edit existing ones. 

Please set the following DNS settings for the existing domain:

Name Type
Value
@ (or blank) A
88.198.22.168
@ (or blank)
A
136.243.5.208
www
 CNAME
website.sitehub.io



To enable email services through Sitejet, please also add the following DNS settings:

Name/Host Type Value TTL
@ (or blank) MX mx1.sitehub.io 3600
@ (or blank) MX mx2.sitehub.io 3600
@ (or blank) TXT v=spf1 mx -all 3600

3. Optional: Edit SPF TXT Records

If you are using a contact form on the website, also check to see if a "spf" DNS record has been set up. SPF records ensure that third parties don't use your email address to send spam, for example. These entries usually look like this:

v=spf1 mx -all

The parts in bold are standard values, the part in between varies from supplier to supplier. "mx" here means that all servers specified by the MX records are allowed to send email on behalf of this domain. By default, only those servers that are explicitly specified are allowed to send emails. Therefore, ensure that either the email addresses are managed by Sitejet or that you add the following after "v=spf1":

a:mx1.sitehub.io a:mx2.sitehub.io

Afterward, the above entry would look like this:

v=spf1 a:mx1.sitehub.io a:mx2.sitehub.io mx -all

This ensures that Sitejet is allowed to send email notifications if a website visitor submits a contact form.

After you have created or edited these entries, you can check whether the forwarding works either with the help of external tools such as dnschecker.org or by entering your domain in the address bar of your browser: if you see your Sitejet website in your browser, the redirection is already working. If not, the change may take a while before it takes effect. This process can take up to 48 hours. In this case, try again at a later time.

Note: If you are facing issues with this procedure or still having trouble after 48 hours upon publishing, please get in touch with us via mail. Provide us with the Website ID, the domain name and a screenshot of all DNS settings with your provider. We also do recommend contacting the support of your provider as well. 

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