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Point Squarespace DNS to Flywheel

Updated on April 3rd, 2023

Flywheel provides each site with an IP address to which domains can be pointed. This is useful if you own, for example, mystunningwebsite.com and would like it to resolve to a Flywheel site.

Note

This article is for customers who have purchased domains that are managed by Squarespace. We have a general help tutorial as well as instructions for other domain providers here.

If you’re brand new to the world of domain names, some of the terminologies may seem a little confusing. Feel free to reference our Glossary of DNS terms if you ever feel stuck.

Warning

For security best practices, we recommend not pointing a wildcard entry directly to a Flywheel IP address, but instead to point any subdomain independently. The use of wildcard records may open your domain up to additional subdomains being created without your permission.


Step 1: Add the domain to your Flywheel site

  1. From the site’s Overview tab, click the (+) icon in the Domains list to add the domain you’d like to point to Flywheel.
  2. Fill out the domain information:

    • Enter the URL in the Domain field
    • Check the box to set the domain to Primary (if this will be your site’s main URL)
    • By default, the www version of the domain will be added (uncheck the box to skip this step)
    • Select Yes for “Have you purchased this domain?”
    • Click Next

    Note

    In the background, our system will automatically update all appropriate URL references in the database to this new primary domain.
  3. Click the site’s IP address to copy it to your clipboard for use in Squarespace’s DNS editor (instructions below). Clicking Back to site will take you back to the site’s Overview tab.

Step 2: Log in to Squarespace

  1. In the Home menu, click Settings, then click Domains.
  2. Under Squarespace domains, click the domain name.
  3. Click DNS Settings.

Step 3: Configure the A record

You may see several types of DNS records already configured, especially if your domain was pointed to a different host previously. For now, we’re just going to be concerned with the A record, since it’s the record responsible for pointing your domain to your site on Flywheel.

Note

Be careful about modifying or deleting any other records – especially MX records, which are responsible for email. Also, it never hurts to take a screenshot before you start making changes.
  1. In the Website Defaults section, hover over the records, then click the trash can to delete your default records. Your domain can’t point to another site when these defaults are in place. You can always add them again if you need them later.
  2. Scroll down to Custom Records.
  3. From the Record drop-down menu, select A.
  4. In the Host field, enter @.
  5. In the Data field, enter the IP address you copied earlier.
  6. Click Add, then click Save at the top of the page to complete the process.

Note

Unless you have a subdomain setup, for example, shop.mystunningwebsite.com, you should only need one A record value. At the very least, make sure that you have one A record with @ set as the host which is pointing to your Flywheel IP address.

For more information, visit Squarespace’s help article on A records.


Step 4: Configure CNAME record for www

If you added the www version of your domain earlier, you’ll want to set up a CNAME record as well. A CNAME (aka canonical name) points a subdomain to another domain name.

For example, with a CNAME in place, visitors entering www.mystunningwebsite.com in their browser will be redirected to mystunningwebsite.com. Without a CNAME record, visitors will instead reach an error page.

  1. In the Website Defaults section, hover over the records, then click the trash can to delete your default records. Your domain can’t point to another site when these defaults are in place. You can always add them again if you need them later.
  2. Scroll down to Custom Records.
  3. From the Record drop-down menu, select CNAME.
  4. In the Host field, enter www.
  5. In the Data field, enter the site’s primary domain.
  6. Click Add, then click Save at the top of the page to complete the process.

Note

For more information, visit Squarespace’s help article on CNAME records.

Step 5: Double-check your work

  1. Check the DNS records on the Squarespace dashboard to make sure the changes were applied.
  2. After propagation, you can also verify your domain is successfully pointed to Flywheel by clicking the Check DNS button.
  3. Once your site is pointed to Flywheel, the status will switch to ✅ Pointed and the domain registrar will be displayed as well.

Note

DNS propagation times: DNS by nature can take 24-48 hours to fully propagate across the entire internet, though you will generally see much quicker propagation.

Note

Custom name servers: If you’ve made changes to your DNS records but nothing seems to be happening, your domain may be using custom nameservers instead of Squarespace’s defaults. This means that Squarespace’s DNS settings will not have any effect. In this case, you will need to adjust your DNS settings at the name server’s admin panel instead. This situation is most likely when a proxy like Cloudflare or Sucuri is being used. You can confirm the name servers in use by following Squarespace’s help article.


Need help?

If you have any questions our Happiness Engineers are here to help!

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