How To Connect Domain To Hosting Account?

| | June 14, 2021

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One of the first important steps involved in starting a new website is to buy a domain name. It is the address where visitors can access your website.

Domain names starts with www and ends with domain extensions like .com, .net or .org. 

People who manages large number of websites prefer to buy domains from a single Domain Registrars like Godaddy or Namecheap. It allows them to try different hosting provider without requiring you to transfer your domain from one hosting to another.

So, if you also have a plans to create a number of websites, it is always a best practice to buy the domain names from Domain Registrars.

But many people don't manage their domains separately from their hosting account due to the following reasons:

  • They don't know how to connect domain to hosting.
  • They find it easy to buy domain and hosting from the same provider.

To cater to this problem I have written this article to guide you all the necessary steps to properly connect domain to hosting server.

What Is A Domain Name Registrar?

A domain name registrar sometimes called a DNS registrar (short for domain name server is a business that sells domain name and handles the reservation of domain names as well as the assignment of IP addresses for those domain names.

Domain names are alphanumeric aliases used to access websites; for example Google’s domain name is ‘google.com’ and their IP address is 192.168.1.1.

Domain names make it easier to access websites without having to memorize and enter numeric IP addresses.

Read more at Cloudflare.

There are registries that manage the different top-level domains like .com or .org. These registries in its large and centralized databases contains information about which domain names have been claimed and by who. These registries don’t sell the names directly. They delegate that job to DNS registrars like GoDaddy or Namecheap.

DNS Registrars must be accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). When these registrars sell a domain to its customer, they are expected to register it with the appropriate registry by updating a record with your information. 

How To Connect Domain To Hosting Account

Normally to get started on a Blogging journey people buy domain name from registrars like GoDaddy or Namecheap. It is recommended to always buy a top level domain (.com) domain for your blog or business.

After purchasing a domain name now you need to buy a hosting plan to host your website files such as images, post or pages, databases, etc.

Domain registrars like GoDaddy and Namecheap also provides hosting services.

You can buy hosting plan from-

  1. The Domain Registrar from where you have purchased the domain name or
  2. You can buy hosting plan from other hosting service provider like Siteground, A2hosting or Bluehost.

When you opt for the first option as mentioned above, then your domain is automatically gets connected with your hosting account. No extra set up is needed.

However, if you opt for the second option then you are required to perform some additional steps to connect your domain to your hosting account.

In this article we learn how to connect domain name with web hosting account.

How To Connect GoDaddy Domain To Hosting Account

I have all of my domain names at GoDaddy baring few which are at Namecheap and hosting at different hosting providers.

Let's see how we can connect the domain to the web host such as A2hosting.

To connect your GoDaddy domain to your hosting provider, first login to your GoDaddy account and go to My Products.

Here you will see the list of all your domains.

Now select DNS against the domain which you want to connect with your hosting provider. See the image given below.

DNS

You will see that the default nameservers point to GoDaddy’s web hosting. Since we are not using GoDaddy's web hosting to manage our website we will select the second option to point our domain to our preferred hosting provider.

Select the option - I'll use my own nameservers.

Choose Your Nameserver

If you have purchased shared hosting plan from A2hosting then follow the below steps to learn how to connect hosting to domain.

First you will need to enter nameserver of A2hosting in this step.

The shared hosting accounts at A2hosting uses the following as their nameservers.

  • ns1.a2hosting.com
  • ns2.a2hosting.com
  • ns3.a2hosting.com
  • ns4.a2hosting.com

Enter these nameservers one by one as shown in the image given below.

Enter Your Nameservers

Just click on Save and you are done.

Now login to your A2hosting account and open cPanel.

Inside cPanel, scroll down to Domains >> Addon Domains

Add Addon Domains at A2hosting

Under Addon Domains page, enter the domain name and select Add Domain. See the image given below.

That's it, you have successfully pointed your domain at GoDaddy to your hosting account at A2hosting.

Create Addon Domain in cPanel

While performing the above steps to add a Domain in cPanel, if you have any confusion, contact the A2hosting customer support and they will gladly resolve all your queries.

What is an Addon Domain?

The Addon Domains feature in the cPanel allows you to manage multiple domains from a single hosting account.


Addon domains are completely different websites all hosted inside the same cPanel account.

How To Connect Namecheap Domain To Hosting Account

If you have purchased domain name from Namecheap.com and wants to point your domain to your hosting provider then follow the below mentioned steps.

Login to your Namecheap account.

Under Dashboard you can see your domains.

Select Manage against the domain which you want to point to your hosting provider.

Manage DNS at Namecheap

Let's again take the example of A2hosting for ease of understanding. If you have hosting plan at some other hosting provider such as Siteground or Bluehost the steps are almost the same.

You just have to collect the nameserver from your hosting provider i.e. Siteground or Bluehost.

Let's proceed with A2hosting nameservers.

Under Manage go to Nameservers and select Custom DNS.

Now enter all the nameservers one by one and your are done. Now login to A2hosting account and follow all the steps as mentioned above.

Enter nameservers at Namecheap

When you change a domain's name server settings or register a new domain, it generally takes 24 to 48 hours to take effect the full changes. This delay, known as DNS propagation delay, occurs with all hosting providers and is beyond anyone's control.

Conclusion

If you want to manage all your domains at a single place then you should buy domains from Domain Registrars like GoDaddy or Namecheap. Managing your domain at a single place has the following benefits:

  • Even if you change your hosting provider now you don't have to waste time and effort in transferring your domain from one host to another.
  • It also helps in managing renewals for your domains.

In the above tutorial I have taken A2hosting as an example. If your hosting service provider is different then also the process is almost similar. You will have just have to obtain nameservers of your hosting account and update them in your domain registrars website such as GoDaddy or Namecheap.

I hope that the above tutorial helped you learn how to connect domain to hosting server.

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Deepak Choudhary

Deepak Choudhary is the founder of Technicalwall.com. He is a Blogger and an Affiliate Marketing Expert. He publishes useful articles for newbie bloggers related to the following topics - Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, Software Reviews, Blogging, WordPress, SEO, Passive Income, and more.