1. Publish a project and get your domain name

From your Readymag account, access the project you want to connect the domain to, open its settings panel, and publish it. After that, you can map a custom domain to it.

If you haven’t purchased a domain name yet, you can buy one from any domain provider of your choice or get a pre-configured one from our partners at IONOS.

2. Specify your domain on the project settings

Open your project settings and enter your domain name in the Domain tab.

Make sure to type it without the www prefix.

Next, click 'Test' to receive your domain verification key. Copy the verification key.

3. Configure the DNS settings

You need to set up the DNS records to have your domain name point to our servers. To do so, go to your domain registrar’s website and locate the DNS panel. You’ll need to configure two mandatory records: A and TXT.

A record

This is the main record that allows your domain to communicate with our servers. Create it using the following parameters:

For example:

TXT record

This is to ensure that only you as the domain owner can map the domain. Create a TXT record with the following parameters.

For example:

CNAME record

If you want your website to be available with the ‘www’ prefix, you’ll need to set an additional CNAME record. This will ensure visitors can reach your project regardless if they type the address as yourdomain.com (without www. prefix) or www.yourdomain.com (with www. prefix). Use the following parameters:

For ‘Point To (Value)’, the value must be ‘domains.readymag.com’ and not your domain name. For example:

4. Wait and test

Up to this point, you should have included all of the mandatory records. Your DNS panel should look similar to this:

If all of the DNS records are entered correctly, your domain should be ready to connect to Readymag’s servers within a few minutes. To test it out, return to your Readymag account > Project settings > Domain tab and click 'Test'.

5. Connect domain

After pressing ‘Test‘, you should get an indication that your domain is ready to be connected. Click the new ‘Connect‘ button to complete the process.

If after pressing ‘Test’ you don’t see the ‘Connect‘ button, review your DNS settings again by following the suggestions provided within the Domain tab. 

Additionally, take the following into consideration:

• Your DNS records will typically be picked up within minutes; however, some registrars can take longer than that (up to 72 hours) to propagate your DNS settings. You can use a DNS checker tool, such as dnschecker.org, to get a quick update on the propagation status.
  
  
• Check the FAQs section at the end of this article.
  
  
• If more than 72 hours have passed, consider contacting your domain provider’s support and ask them to confirm that the DNS records you included are active and have propagated successfully or if additional settings are required to make your DNS records publicly available.

6. After connecting the domain

Once your domain is connected, you should take the following into consideration:

• You’re welcome to add a favicon and enable Search engine indexing to allow search engine bots to crawl your project’s content.
  
  
• The options to enter your Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager IDs will also become available after mapping your domain.
  
  
• SSL certificates are issued and updated automatically for custom domains on Readymag. All you need to do is map your domain—we’ll take care of the rest. You can find more information here.

Additional Configurations

Connecting a subdomain

To connect a subdomain, you need to follow all of the steps described above. However, for the A-type record, instead of ‘@’ you’ll need to type the subdomain you wish to create. For example, if you want to configure portfolio.domain.com, set it up like this:

The same principle goes if you have a site hosted externally and intend to map your R/m project to a subdomain, e.g., myproject.externalsite.com:

Connecting the domain to your Readymag account

It is also possible to link a domain to your account that interconnects all of your projects. For further details, check our ‘Combining several projects under one domain’ article.

FAQ

My records aren’t working or display a Proxied Status. What should I do?

Some domains are preconfigured, so the necessary DNS records to make your domain work with Readymag won’t take effect. In these cases, you might find the option to set it as ‘DNS only’ — activating it will generally allow Readymag DNS records to take effect.
In other cases, the DNS record will present a ‘Proxied’ status (such as Cloudflare). You’ll need to unproxy them (DNS-only) to allow them to work.

I am getting ‘Website is not secured’ warnings when accessing. What’s wrong?

An SSL certificate is automatically generated after successfully connecting your domain. If you see any warning messages, this can indicate that something within your DNS records could be conflicting with your certificate. Check the SSL article for ideas on how to troubleshoot this type of error.

How long can it take for my site to appear on Google results?

If the Search engine indexing toggle is enabled, it is a matter of time before your content gets indexed and presented on search results. Generally, it can take 2-3 weeks or more, depending on the SEO of your project. You can find tips to improve SEO in this article.

I no longer need a domain name. How can I disconnect it?

Open the project settings panel from the bottom-right dock. Navigate to the domain tab and click the ‘Unmap’ button to detach your domain.

Is it possible to create an email address with my domain?

If you wish to create an email address for your custom domain linked to a Readymag project, please reach out to your domain provider: this process requires changes in the DNS settings and can’t be managed on our end.

Can I set up a redirect within Readymag?

You can set a redirect on your domain providers’ side—Readymag does not have functionality that allows such changes.

Can I use more than one domain for a single project?

Only one domain can be mapped to a project; however, if you plan on using more than one address, you can set them to redirect/forward to the domain mapped to your project. This way, more than one address can lead to a single Readymag project. Forwardings cannot be configured within Readymag—you will need to set them up from each domain’s registrar account.

Can I connect a subdomain?

Absolutely. You can use any available domain slot in your plan to connect a subdomain. For example, portfolio.domain.com. The same steps for mapping a domain are required. To learn more, check the Additional Configurations section of this article.

When entering my URL, I get a ‘My URL is parked free’ or ‘Domain for sale’ screen. What can I do?

Generally, this can appear when:

• Other DNS records might be conflicting. Generally, removing any pre-existing DNS records with the ‘Parked’ value will do the trick.
  
  
• Your domain ownership has expired. In this case, contacting your domain registrar for further information is recommended.
  
  

Does Readymag support internationalized domain names?

Yes, you can connect these just as you would normally do with a regular domain name.