How to point your domain or subdomain to an external website provider like Wix, Weebly, Shopify, Squarespace

This guide will show you how to configure DNS to point your site/domain to an external provider like Wix, Weebly, Shopify, or Squarespace. But before we proceed, you might want to consider the downsides of doing this.

In this guide we’ll be using the generic name “External Host” to describe whichever of the website builders or online store providers you wish to use.

3 Reasons why you should not use a proprietary website builder

NO AUTO/FREE SSL CERTIFICATES: You cannot take advantage of our free SSL certificates if your site isn’t hosted with us. Free SSL certificates are verified using a URL where the site is hosted, so if the site isn’t hosted with us, we can’t issue the certificate. Make sure your external host can issue a free SSL certificate for both the root domain and the www subdomain before proceeding. If they are not able to, then there is only one workaround: purchase a commercial certificate and, when the authorization phase occurs, authorize it via email or DNS (not HTTP/Web).

SUPER LIMITED SUPPORT: Our Managed Troubleshooting support level becomes very limited as we’re only able to apply our excellent support capabilities to services we host. When you move your website to use an external host we can’t provide help or guidance for anything to do with the website itself; we can only support the services that remain with us like DNS or Mail. Should you wish to make use of our top-notch support for your website, we strongly recommend keeping your hosting with us and using WordPress with BeaverBuilder, WooCommerce for e-Commerce, or other WordPress plugins to handle various types of websites, rather than an external host that locks you into a proprietary service.

NO FREEDOM: When you build a site using a hosted website building tool, that website can’t be moved anywhere else. Should you become disatisfied with the service, or if they suddenly double your annual price, you’re stuck paying more or rebuilding the site totally from scratch on another service. If you use our hosting to build your website using a web app like WordPress, that website can be backed up in its entirety or moved to another provider at any time. We do not lock you in like most external hosts do.

Now that you know why we think you should not use an external host, on with the guide!

The two ways to point your site to an external host

There are 2 ways of pointing your domain to an External Host:

1. Move Your DNS Hosting: Allow your External Provider to handle all DNS for your domain by changing your name servers. This means your External Provider will not only manage your website, but also manage your individual DNS records as well. We won’t be providing directions for this as it’s not a recommended option. Your External Host will walk you through this process.
2. Change DNS Records: Keep your DNS hosted with us and change only your individual DNS records. This typically means changing the root record and the www record to point to your External Host. Directions for this as follows.

Part 1: Obtain the correct DNS records from the external host

Here’s how to do that with some common providers:

• Wix
• Weebly
• Squarespace
• Shopify
• Kajabi – Note: at the time of writing, this Kajabi article indicates that if you’re not using a subdomain you have to update your name servers, which is option (1) above. You may do that if you wish, however we recommend against changing name servers – instead you should ask Kajabi for the correct DNS record to use rather than changing your name servers.
• Zenler – Note: they do not provide you with a root DNS record option. See the Tips section below for details on why this is a big problem.

If your provider is not listed, search their knowledge base or documentation for “DNS configuration” or “Connect domain” to find the correct instructions. If you have trouble finding the correct values to use, you need to ask the provider for help obtaining them.

Part 2: Adjust your DNS records

Take a read over this article to learn how to edit your DNS settings. It describes how to configure your DNS. In that article, look specifically for the A record section and WWW record section, and take a quick read through it.

Tips for editing DNS records

Find the Correct Domain: If you have multiple domains, make sure you you’re managing the DNS records for the right domain! (It’s pretty easy to mix-up a .com or .ca equivalent of the same domain).

Find the correct A record(s): Ensure you are editing the correct A record. You have many records by default and the correct one will have no subdomain/host value. Example: if your domain is mydomain.com then it is not the A record for ns1.mydomain.com, nor mail.mydomain.com that you need to edit, but rather the A record for: mydomain.com. If you see multiple A records with no subdomain, remove all of them and then add your new one. (Important: do not remove the A records that have subdomains). The one exception to this is when you’re choosing to use a subdomain with your external host, such as shop.mydomain.com for a separate eCommerce site.

If your external host ONLY provides a CNAME www. record (and no root A record): your root domain cannot be SSL secured by our free Let’s Encrypt certificate. If you already have a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate with us, that SSL certificate will fail to renew within 3 months, and visiting https://yourdomain.com in a browser will result in a security warning.

You should absolutely pressure your external host into supporting a root A record.

Until they do so, here’s a few workarounds:

1. Purchase a commercial SSL certificate that will last for 1 year. Every year you will need to manually install an updated certificate in Plesk via that lengthy install process. It’s a pain, and your 3rd party provider *could* prevent the need to do that by covering your root domain in their SSL certificate – you’ll need to talk to them about getting a root A record to set to make that happen.
2. Move your entire DNS service to CloudFlare. CloudFlare issues their own SSL certificates that can bypass the ‘not hosted with them’ requirement that we have.
3. Try a manual redirect (less reliable, more advanced). To begin, configure the WWW CNAME record as your external provider indicates. Then in Plesk under Hosting Settings set the ‘preferred domain’ to none and issue a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for only the root domain – do not select www as that can’t be generated since it’s not hosted with us. Finally, add/create the following .htaccess file in the domain’s web root to handle the redirect:
   
   RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^.well-known/acme-challenge
RewriteRule ^(.*) https://www.yourdomain.tld$1 [R=301,L]
   
   Replacing the yourdomain.tld with your actual domain.
   
   This will allow Let’s Encrypt to secure the root domain while redirecting all traffic to the WWW site. Note: this may stop working at any point if Plesk decides to try to secure the www again.