“How to Point a Domain Name to Your Site” is a normal question that my clients ask me often. Most of them don’t have any knowledge of web technology. They don’t know that domain name and web hosting can host in a different place but they can work together. Let me explain in plain English.
A domain name is an address URL that allows people can visit your website from the browsers(Chrome, IE, Firefox are browsers). The same idea that the postman can drop your package at your house. If he knows your house address. The sample of the domain name is Google.com or CNXWebDesign.com.
Web hosting is a server(either cloud server or not) that contains the code and configuration of your website. All your website code hosts on web hosting. The same idea that you(code) live in your house(web hosting). The sample of web hosting is InterServer.Net.
The domain name must point to the web hosting in order to make the website public. To do that, simply go to your domain manager, in my case, I use NameCheap. The page looks like this:
Then navigate to the NameServers section and add the DNS Nameserver which you can find it from your web hosting. How to find it? Login to cPanel of your web hosting and look for DNS NameServers or ask the web hosting support where to find it if you can not find it.
Once you save the change, you will be noticed that the DNS Server update may take up to 48 hours to take effect. However, most of the time, it will take around 3-5 minutes. When you visit your domain name, it should connect to your web hosting successfully after 48 hours or less. How to test it? You create the index.html file and upload it to your web hosting at the domain root directory. Add the HTML code below.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>When you visit your domain name, you should see the text from index.html.
That’s it.
