Important: In order to connect an existing domain, you must've already purchased the domain through a domain provider. You must also have access to the DNS records for the domain, and feel comfortable making changes to the DNS records. If you don't feel comfortable making changes to the DNS records, we recommend you contact your web developer or IT expert. Alternatively, you may use the beginner friendly "Connect a New Domain" flow, to purchase a new domain and connect it automatically to your Liinks profile.
Follow these instructions to connect an existing domain to your Liinks profile.
1) Navigate to the Settings tab, scroll to the Custom Domains section and click the Connect Existing Domain button.
2) Enter the domain you wish to connect and hit the Next button. You most own the domain and have access to its DNS records to complete connection.
3) If the domain is valid, you will see a confirmation alert. Hit the Okay button.
4) If you are adding a root domain (example.com) you will see 2 entries added - one for the root (example.com) and one for the www subdomain (www.example.com). You'll configure the DNS records for both to successfully connect your domain. It you are connecting a non www subdomain (eg links.example.com) you'll only need to set up 1 entry.
5) Click the Connect button to begin connecting the first entry.
6) A popup will appear with the values for the DNS records you need to add to your domain. Press the Copy button to copy each value to your clipboard.
7) In this example, we'll configure the DNS records for a domain registered with Google Domains, however this process will be different depending on where you registered your domain. To learn how to modify the DNS records for your domain, do a google search for "Ho to modify DNS records for PROVIDER" - where PROVIDER is the service where you registered your domain (eg GoDaddy, Hover etc...)
In the control panel for your DNS records, you'll need to add 2 records for each entry:
- One A record, pointing to the IP address provided in the Popup (something like 167.111.11.11)
- One TXT record with the value provided in the Popup (something like liinks_123123123123123)
8) Once you've added and saved your records, you can use DIG to check that they've been added correctly. If the records were added correctly, hit the Connect button back in your Settings tab on Liinks.