If you are using GoDaddy as your DNS provider, this article will help you in finding and configuring your DNS records to point to WP Engine. This step is required in order to go live with your website on the WP Engine platform.
Please note: Before taking these steps, please add your domain in User Portal.
Step 1: Locate your DNS information in User Portal
The first step is to locate your CNAME and A Record in your WP Engine User Portal. You can find this information from the Overview page for your production environment.
Keep this page open as you continue through the following steps for easy copying!
Step 2: Login to GoDaddy
The next step is to login to the godaddy.com website with your credentials. When you sign in, you will see a page with a list of your purchased domains. Select “DNS” next to the domain you wish to point to WP Engine.
Step 3: Update DNS
Now it is time to plug in the settings from the WP Engine Overview page into your GoDaddy settings. Before doing this, it’s time to make a choice:
- Option A (preferred): point your nameservers to Cloudflare. This will make it so you never need to update DNS again!
- Option B (still okay!): point your A record to WP Engine. This will work just fine, but you will need to update your DNS records if your website is ever migrated to a new server. This method keeps your Domain and DNS management at GoDaddy.
Option A: Point Nameservers to Cloudflare
Cloudflare is a service that helps manage your DNS. It has the added benefit of configuring CDN, SSL, and even DDoS protection on some plans. Before continuing, at this point you should open a new tab and navigate to www.cloudflare.com. Here you can sign up for a free account to get started. Enter your domain name when prompted.
Then, Cloudflare will automatically look up your DNS records. Select Next and choose the plan you want (we will use the free option in this example).
From here, Cloudflare will import the settings from GoDaddy for you automatically. In this screen, remove the existing A record for your domain. Then, add a CNAME record using the CNAME in the Overview page of your User Portal.
If your “www” record here is an alias of your domain, you can leave it as-is. If it points to an IP address as well, you will need to perform the above steps for this record as well.
Now you will be prompted to change your nameservers. This step will be performed at GoDaddy. Cloudflare will show you two nameservers to change–leave this tab open so you can easily copy them!
On GoDaddy, on the DNS screen you should be able to scroll down and select to edit your Nameservers.
Change the nameservers to the ones shown in the Cloudflare pane. After doing this, click “Continue” in the Cloudflare pane. The nameserver settings may take some time to change over. After this point, the Cloudflare settings will kick in, automatically pointing your DNS to WP Engine with the CNAME record we configured earlier! To learn more about Cloudflare’s other services like CDN and SSL, head to Cloudflare Best Practices.
Option B: Point Your A Record to WP Engine
If you prefer to not use Cloudflare for DNS, not to worry! You can still configure your DNS settings right through GoDaddy’s dashboard. From the DNS page on GoDaddy’s website, click the “edit” icon next to the @ record for your domain.
Change the “Points to” box to the IP address showing on the Overview page in your User Portal. If you choose, you can also edit the “TTL” box here. TTL is the time to propagate the changes, or the time for the change to take effect. 600 seconds (10 minutes) is usually the fastest option available.
Now check the “www” record in the list. If it points to “@” then no further changes are needed. If it points to a CNAME or IP address other than the ones shown on your Overview page in User Portal, make sure to edit them accordingly.
After this step, all that’s left to do is wait for propagation! In the meantime, be sure you have also followed the rest of the steps in our Going Live guide.