The following video and article cover everything you need to know to use your domain with Unbounce.

What you will need:

• A domain (If you don't have one, you can easily purchase and connect one from iWantMyName.com)
• Administrative access to your domain’s DNS
• Administrative Access to Your Unbounce account
  
  

To publish your Unbounce landing pages to your own domain, you need to:

1. Tell your domain to show the pages hosted by Unbounce
2. Add your domain to your Unbounce account
3. Tell your landing pages to use your domain 
   
   

Tell Your Domain to Show the Pages Hosted by Unbounce:

To do this, you need to create a CNAME record in your DNS, wherever your domain is managed. A CNAME record tells your your domain to show show pages hosted on Unbounce's servers. You can follow these steps or email them to your hosting provider's support team.

1. Sign in to your domain hosting service
2. Navigate to your DNS Management page
3. Find the CNAME record settings
4. Create a new CNAME record
5. Enter a value for your sub-domain in the host field
• For example, if you're using www.mysite.com, you'll enter www here. If you've already got a website and are using a custom sub-domain such as try.mysite.com, then you'll enter try here.
6. In the 'CNAME' field, type unbouncepages.com.
7. Enter unbouncepages.com. as the destination or address.
8. Save the changes to your DNS records.
9. Go back to Unbounce and add your domain. 

Note: Changes to your CNAME records can take up to 24hrs to propagate.

If you want to use your naked domain as well (the domain without the 'www') such as yourdomain.com, see this knowledge base article.

We also have specific instructions for the following popular hosts:

• iWantMyName
• 1&1
• BlueHost
• DreamHost
• GoDaddy [VIDEO]
• HostGator
• MediaTemple
• NameCheap
• Network Solutions
• For providers that use cPanel (e.g. LunarHost, Monster Host, SiteCloud, JustHost) you can follow these cPanel set up instructions
  
  

Add Your Domain to Your Unbounce Account

Ready to finally add your custom domain to your Unbounce landing pages!? Great! Just follow the steps below and any new landing pages you create will start using the new domain.

1. Log in to Unbounce
2. Select the sub-account you wish to add a custom domain to
3. Open the Domains tab from the side navigation bar
4. Click Add a Domain
   
   
5. Select the type of Custom Domain, either a root domain or a sub-domain
6. Type in your domain name
   
   
7. Click Continue to confirm and test your domain
   
   

Tell Your Landing Pages to Use Your Domain

Lastly, you need to tell your landing pages which address (URL) you want them to show up at.

1. Log in to Unbounce.
2. Open the page overview for the relevant landing page.
3. Click Change URL on the left hand side of the page URL. This will open the Change Page URL dialog box.
   
   
4. Select the domain you wish to use for this page from the domain drop down menu.
5. Customize your landing page's final URL as desired.
   
   
6. Click Change URL to save your changes.
   
   

Helpful Terminology:

• Uniform Resource Locator (URL):
  
  A URL is a web page's address. It's what you type into the address bar to find a page.
  
  Example: http://www.somecompany.com/a-specific-page/
  
  
• Domain:
  
  A domain is provides a way to uniquely identify your website on the web with a distinct URL of your choosing.
  
  Some example domains: unbounce.com, www.somecompany.com, happyhippos.ca, anything-you-can-think-of.co.nz
  
  
• Root domain:
  
  A root domain is arguably the most important part of any website; it is the Google of google.com, the Unbounce of unbounce.com. Associating a root domain with your Unbounce account is ideal for when you have an empty website and you want to use your Unbounce pages for your homepage and/or subsequent pages.
  
  Examples: www.mysite.com or www.mysite.com/promo
  
  
• Sub-domain:
  
  A sub-domain is allows you to have multiple unique URLs associated with your root domain. For instance the ‘app’ in app.unbounce.com is a sub-domain of unbounce.com. Sub-domains are very useful when you want to use your root domain, but already have a website on it.
  
  Examples: try.mysite.com or try.mysite.com/promo
  
  
• Domain Hosting Service:
  
  The company that hosts your domain, some examples are GoDaddy, DreamHost, and 1&1.
  
  
• Domain Name Service (DNS):
  
  This makes sure everyone on the web knows your address, kind of like the yellow pages of the internet.
  
  
• Canonical Name Record (CNAME record):
  
  A CNAME record is used to set up an alias for your domain, by adding a CNAME record to your domain’s DNS you can direct visitors to your webpages to Unbounce’s servers.
  
  Still a bit fuzzy? If you think of a URL as a sign and a web server as a building, then a CNAME record is like putting a sign on the side of a building. The building is still at the same address, and the sign is now the first thing people see.

If you have followed these steps and are experiencing any difficulties with your custom domain, you can follow these troubleshooting steps or contact us at support@unbounce.com.