Connect Your Own Domain, Explained Simply

Where you are: Your site looks good in preview (Ch 5). Now it needs a real address: yourbusiness.com instead of a random tool URL. This is the step people fear. It's genuinely easy.

Plain-English DNS: A domain is your address. DNS is the phone book that tells the internet "when someone types yourbusiness.com, send them to this site." You're just adding one or two lines to that phone book. That's it.

Do this:

1. Buy the domain. Use any registrar (Namecheap, Cloudflare, Google Domains-style services, or buy it directly inside Framer/Lovable if offered). A .com runs ~$10–15/year. Buy the exact name if you can; keep it short and easy to say out loud.
2. Find the "custom domain" screen in your builder. Every tool from Chapter 2 has one under Settings or Publish. Type in your domain.
3. The tool gives you records to add. Usually one of two things:
   • An A record (points to an IP address), or
   • A CNAME record (points to the tool's address).
     Copy exactly what the tool shows.
4. Paste those records at your registrar. Log in where you bought the domain, find "DNS" or "DNS settings," and add the record(s) exactly as given: same type, same value. Don't overthink it; you're just copying.
5. Save and wait. DNS updates can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours (occasionally up to 24). This is normal. Go do something else.
6. Confirm. Back in your builder, the custom-domain screen usually shows a status that flips to "connected" or a green check. Then type your domain into a browser and your site loads.

Two things that trip people up:

• Free HTTPS is automatic. Every tool here adds the padlock (SSL) for you. If the site says "not secure" right after connecting, wait; it provisions within an hour.
• www vs no-www. Add both if the tool offers it, so yourbusiness.com and www.yourbusiness.com both work.

Cost check: ~$10–15/year for the domain. That's the only guaranteed spend in this whole pathway.

Next up, Chapter 7: hit publish and run the 5-point launch check.