Unbounce Answers/Getting Started with Unbounce/Setting Up Custom Domains and CNAMEs
How Do I Troubleshoot My CNAME Record?
Ryan Engley
posted this on July 28, 2011 05:10 pm
You can quickly verify your CNAME record using a web based dig tool.
To do this:
- Visit http://www.mxtoolbox.com/CNAMELookup.aspx
- Enter your custom domain's URL in the 'Domain Name' field
- Click 'CNAME Lookup'
The results show you:
- Type - the type of record created for your subdomain
- If your DNS settings are correct, you will see 'CNAME' in this field
- If you do not see 'CNAME' in the response and only see 'A' then there may be an A Record in your DNS that is overriding your CNAME Record. This A Record will need to be deleted or changed because you cannot have an A Record and a CNAME record created for the same subdomain.
- Domain Name - the domain you searched
- Canonical Name - the host your domain points to
- If your DNS settings are correct, you will see
unbouncepages.comin this field - If you see a different value, you will have to edit the host (or points to) value of this subdomain in your DNS settings to be
unbouncepages.com - Note: you might see something like
unbouncepages.com.yourdomain.comin this field. If you do, you'll have to return to your host and edit the points to value of your CNAME record to beunbouncepages.com.(note the extra . at the end) - TTL - your time to live value
- This is the amount of time your server holds on to older cached information before it refreshes to show any new changes. If your custom domain does not seem to be working properly, you may just need to wait the amount of time indicated before your custom domain will work.
For example:
If you look up the domain www.cheapelephants.com you will see the following result:
This shows that the domain www.cheapelephants.com is correctly pointing to unbouncepages.com with a CNAME record.
This is the kind of result you're after.
For instructions on setting up a custom domain in Unbounce, see our step-by-step guide.
Comments
Hi Ryan, thanks for the clear explanations. For the Type error 'A': a conflicting A Record created in your DNS settings that is overriding your CNAME Record. This A Record will need to be deleted or changed...how would one go about doing this? thanks.
Hello Cyrus! The way you would go about editing the A Record depends on your hosting provider's interface. Generally, you should be able to access your DNS settings where you will see list of A, CNAME, and MX records. Once you find the A record for the subdomain you are trying to use with the CNAME record, you should be able to edit or delete it.
Hope that helps!
I used this test to get the result I'd wanna see, and still "One or more of your Custom Domains isn't working yet."
And that's after 1 day of waiting :)
Any ideas?
Hi Eirik - sorry for the late reply to your question. You would see this message if Unbounce is unable to verify that your DNS settings are correct (though there are variables that might interfere with the accuracy of this message). Using a dig tool is a more reliable method to check your DNS. If you have any further questions, just send us a message and let us know which of your domains is producing this error.
I am getting "unbouncepages.com.kirklandstorageandwarehousing.com" for my canonical name. Any help?
Hello Chris - Getting that kind of result tells us that the CNAME record has been misconfigured.
When you create a CNAME record, there are two main parts to the record:
- The subdomain and
- The points to value for that subdomain
The subdomain is the part of your custom domain for which you are creating the CNAME record.
- If your custom domain were 'www.cheapelephants.com' then your subdomain would be 'www'.
- If your custom domain were 'ads.cheapelephants.com' then your subdomain would be 'ads'
Since you saw the result 'unbouncepages.com.kirklandstorageandwarehousing.com', we can infer that your subdomain got mixed up. Instead of putting 'www' or 'ads' (or whatever subdomain it is you wanted to use), you must have accidentally put in 'unbouncepages.com' as your subdomain.
This should be an easy enough fix as its just a matter of revisiting your DNS to edit the CNAME record.
Hi Chris,
some DNS hoster need you to add a dot behind the .com, else the frontend assumes you are referring to the same domain and adds it at the end in the background.
In short: type in "unbouncepages.com." with a dot at the end as the CNAME target and it will work.
cheers,
Martin
Thanks for the help.
When I go to promos.mysite.com (yes I am substituting my actual URL for 'mysite') I get the message :
When I use the dig tool, I find:
When I open up my Cpanel and access Advanced DNS Zone editor, I see several A records, BUT not the one listed above. Please advise.
I've set mine up but nothing is displaying - same thing when I go to unbouncepages.com
this is what I get:
Hi Amanda - those results are brilliant. They confirm that the CNAME is configured properly.
The message:
tells us that your domain is pointing to Unbounce, but that no landing page has been set to appear at the address you visited. To sort this out, you just need to tell your landing page at which URL you want it to show up. We have a video at http://support.unbounce.com/entries/20316578#4 that outlines how to go about doing this.
Cheers
Hi Patrick - my previous response should help address the issue you've encountered as well. You may also want to clear your browser's cache/cookies, restart it then visit your domain again.
Amanda - I also noticed the second part to your question. The A Record you see in the response is fine. That's actually on the Unbounce side so it's nothing to worry about. As long as you see something like:
as the first line in your dig, then you can rest assured that you have configured the CNAME record properly.
Ok, great, Thanks!
When I try and set up a CNAME it asks for a Canonical name, I tried entering unbouncepages.com and I get the following warning
See my comment above.
>> In short: type in "unbouncepages.com." with a dot at the end as the CNAME target and it will work.
Martin
Currently I have www.mysite.com as a A record.
If I simply change it to a CNAME record, where will a user who simply types in our home page be taken? Does this imply that our home page would need to be on unbounce?
I would prefer not to have something like "ads.mysite.com". I prefer: www.mysite.com/landing-page-path
Can I do that without having the homepage be on unbounce?
Hi Jonathan - if you've already got your existing website at http://www.mysite.com/ then unfortunately you cannot use the www subdomain with Unbounce since that subdomain is configured to show your website's pages hosted your own server. If you change your www subdomain's A Record then your existing website will seem to disappear. A subdomain can only show pages hosted in a single place. To avoid this, your best bet is to use a custom subdomain such as http://promos.mysite.com/ for your landing pages.
Would I be able to create a simple URL for my landing pages? For example, www.simple.com. And can I create an infinite number of these simple URL's for all my landing pages?
Hey Becky - you sure can. Our custom domain set up article explains how to configure your domain and customize your page's URL. And for your second question, all plans include 1 complimentary domain and you're free to add as many domains as you like $5/month per domain after that.
Ryan, I have a slash after the end of my subdomain for my landing page. My landing page works fine. However, if a visitor deletes the characters after the slash, they get:
Now, I know that you said this was actually a good sign that the domain was set up correctly. However, how do I get the subdomain with nothing after the slash to redirect to my home page or some other page?
Hey Bradley - I've double checked and the issue is that you haven't got a page published to the root domain
Let's pretend, for example, that your domain is www.pierce.com and the one landing page in your account is published to www.pierce.com/promo/. Visitors need to go to that exact URL to see your page.
Your two options are to either:
Hello! Help :)
I changed the CNAME on my server (Bluehost) and it's coming up in the MX Lookup as an "A" type not a CNAME. And the option to search CNAME is not there, only DNS lookup. So super confused. Unbounce thinks my pages are pointing correctly but when I visit the landing pages I am still getting my default Bluehost placeholder page.
Should I change the A name record to Unbounce, too? Or is there something I'm missing?
Don't worry, I followed the Bluehost specific instructions and now waiting to see if they work. :)
This is very frustrating - Bluehost seem to be changing only thhe A record not the CNAME despite me specifically doing it three times in 24 hours to no avail. Will email Bluehost but seriously I could have been testing this on my own Wordpress install with a landing page theme 36 hours ago. Major pain. Sorry guys I'm sure either I'm doing something wrong or Bluehost have no idea but I just want to test my pages now!
Hey Natalie - I completely understand why you're frustrated here. Based on what you've described, you should be able to track down that errant A record in your DNS and delete it. (If there's both an A record and a CNAME record for the same subdomain, the A record takes precedence.)
Try it out but if you continue to run into any issues, email a screenshot of your DNS to support@unbounce.com and we'll take a look. We can always hop on a call as well to help troubleshoot.
@ Ryan Engley May 17, 2013 02:43 pm
Ryan - Thank you for your answer, but I am not sure what you are saying. If by root domain you mean (hypothetically) "www.pierce.com", then I do have something published there. My unbounce page would be at landing.pierce.com/etcetera. When people go to landing.pierce.com, I want them to be forwarded to www.pierce.com. How can I do that, or is it even possible?
Hey Bradley,
Is there a reason you don't want to publish a landing page to "landing.pierce.com" and also have subsequent pages at "landing.pierce.com/etcetera"?
Regardless, you can (sort of) create a redirect from "landing.pierce.com" to "www.pierce.com" instead. You'd have to build and publish an Unbounce page to "landing.pierce.com" in which you include a javascript redirect to forward visitors to "www.pierce.com".
The redirect script would look like this and would need to be placed in the head of the page. Just replace www.pierce.com with the actual URL you want visitors forwarded to:
<script type="text/javascript">
<!-- window.location = "http://www.pierce.com/"
//-->
</script>
Give it a shot -- that should do the trick.
PS. You can find the redirect script and an explanation of how it works here.