How to connect your domain to Shopify, Squarespace or Wix

This guide explains how to make a domain registered or hosted with us show a website built on Shopify, Squarespace, Wix or a similar website builder. It also covers how to keep your email running while you do it.

Two ways to connect a domain

Website builders usually offer two methods:

• Change your nameservers to theirs. The platform takes over all DNS for the domain. It’s quick, but your email records and any other settings stored with us stop being used. You’d need to set up your email records again at the platform.
• Add DNS records with us. You keep our nameservers and just add the records the platform asks for. Everything else, including email, stays as it is.

If you use email with us, or with Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, we recommend the second method. The rest of this guide follows it.

Get the exact values from the platform

Each platform publishes its own records, and they change from time to time. Don’t copy values from another website or an old email.

1. Log in to your Shopify, Squarespace or Wix account.
2. Go to the domains section and choose to connect a domain you already own. It may be called Connect existing domain, Use a domain I own or similar.
3. Enter your domain, for example yourdomain.co.uk.
4. When asked how to connect, choose the option to add records manually (sometimes shown as connect manually or pointing) rather than transferring the domain or changing nameservers.
5. Keep the page open. It will list the records you need, usually:
   • an A record for the bare domain (yourdomain.co.uk), pointing at an IP address, and
   • a CNAME record for www, pointing at a name on the platform.

Some platforms also ask for a verification record. Add it exactly as shown.

Add the records in cPanel

1. Log in to cPanel and open Zone Editor in the Domains section.
2. Next to your domain, click Manage.
3. Use the search box to find any existing A record for the bare domain. Click Edit, replace the IP address with the one the platform gave you, and click Save Record.
4. Find the existing record for www. If it’s an A record or a CNAME pointing at your domain, edit it so it becomes a CNAME to the name the platform gave you. If you can’t change the type, delete the old www record and add a new one.
5. To add a new record, click the arrow next to Add Record, pick the type, fill in the Name and Record fields, and click Save Record.

Two records with the same name can’t both be used for the website, so make sure you edit or remove the old ones rather than adding extra copies alongside them.

For more on using this screen, see how to edit DNS records in cPanel.

Keep your email working

Your email depends on the MX records, not the A or CNAME records for the website. While you’re in Zone Editor:

• Don’t delete or edit any MX records.
• Leave the mail record and any TXT records for SPF, DKIM or DMARC as they are.
• If your old A record was used for mail as well, you’ll often see a separate mail.yourdomain.co.uk record. Leave that pointing at our server.

If your email is with Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, their MX and TXT records should also stay untouched. See how to use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace email with your domain.

Verify the connection

1. Go back to the platform’s domain page and click its Verify or Check connection button.
2. It can take a few minutes to a few hours for the new records to be seen. If it fails at first, wait and try again.
3. Once connected, the platform usually sets up an SSL certificate for you. That can take a little longer.

You can watch the change spread with the tools in how to check DNS propagation.

If it doesn’t work

• You can’t see your domain in Zone Editor. Your domain may use different nameservers, such as Cloudflare. Add the records wherever your DNS is managed. See how to change your nameservers.
• The platform says a record is wrong. Compare each character carefully, and check you haven’t left an old A record for the same name in place.
• Email stopped arriving. An MX record was probably changed or removed. Restore it, or see why is my email not arriving.
• You no longer need hosting with us. You can keep the domain with us and only cancel the hosting. Ask in a ticket first, as cancelling hosting can remove the DNS zone and your email.

Still stuck? Open a support ticket with your domain and the records the platform asked for, and we’ll help.