How do people find my site? Setting up your custom domain name on Ploud (Ploud6)

Modified on Thu, 11 Aug, 2022 at 4:05 PM

Transitioning over to Ploud from another platform means some things will change about your site, but the URL that visitors use to find your site doesn't have to be one of them.

While your site is hosted on the domain "ploud.net", there's no need to stop using the URL of your current website. Your domain registrar (the company who sold you the URL) will allow you to change the site to which it points.

Newly Purchased Domains Names

If you don't already own the domain you want to use (www.example.com), you will need to buy it.
Once you have your desired domain name, create a new Ticket to tell us what it is. Enfold will notify you when the configuration in the Ploud environment is completed.
You will need to set the domain record (as detailed below) to point to your new ploud.net site.

Existing Domain Names

For the purposes of this article, the following example is used as a reference domain http://www.creswell-library.org. The Ploud url is http://creswell.ploud.net/. Below is a visual representation of the steps (this is a mocked up image for example purposes only)

Open you browser and go to your DNS registrar management page. This is the site service where you purchased the domain and in this example is GoDaddy.com.
Sign into your registrar account to access your management page.
Depending on your registrar, the available actions and user interface will vary. These steps use GoDaddy screenshots.
Add Record.
Create (or Edit) the Record Type as "CNAME, 'www".
Add a target hostname that the domain points to e.g.. justanexample.ploud.net
Illinois Library Sites Only: your target domain (for all libraries) is endpoints.ploud.net do not use the abc_efg_exam.ploud.net address.
Depending on your registrar options you maybe able to set the "TTL" or Time to Live. This relates to how quickly the new name will be available to the internet. 600 seconds is sufficient.
Click Save or Add Record (will vary depending your registrar).

It can take between 5 minutes to 1 hour for your site to be available through your custom domain.

Setup your Custom Domain without the "www" so your visitors can still find your site (e.g. http://creswell-library.org) please see this solution article.