Connect a Custom GoDaddy Domain to your Netlify Site

“Wait… it’s that easy to connect my GoDaddy domain to Netlfiy?”- Dennis

I recently built a static website for a close friend and spent more time than I would like to admit trying to connect her website (hosted on Netlify) to her custom domain that was purchased on GoDaddy. I’m hopeful that this article will help others avoid countless hours searching the web for solutions.

Objective

The objective of this article is to go step-by-step through the process of connecting a domain purchased on GoDaddy to a personal site hosted on Netlify.

Before we get started, I would like to point out that this article assumes you have already 1) purchased a GoDaddy Domain and 2) have a live site hosted on Netlify. Let’s get started!

PSA for those that have not yet purchased a domain- You can typically search for PROMO codes on Google that will save you 20–30% off your purchase. I wish I knew this earlier :)

Step 1:

Start by signing into Netlify and selecting the site in which you wish to add your custom domain. Click on the “Site Overview” tab, then go to the following:

“Site Settings” -> “Domain management” -> “Add custom domain”.

Select “Add custom domain” and enter the domain purchased on GoDaddy.

Step 2:

Next, enter the site URL that you have purchased on GoDaddy. For example, if your domain is “www.mycustomdomain.com”, you would enter “mycustomdomain.com”.

Example of what you should see on Netlify.

You will be asked if you are the owner of the domain entered. Select “Yes, add domain” which will bring you back to the “Domain management” page.

Want to read this story later? Save it in Journal.

Step 3:

You will now see the custom domain you added under “Custom domains”. Select the domain you just added. Using our example above, you would select “www.mycustomdomain.com”. Next, go to:

“Options” -> “Go to DNS panel”

On this page, under “DNS settings”, you will see a section called “Name Servers”. These are the four hostnames that we will add to your GoDaddy “DNS Management” page.

Step 4:

Switch over to your GoDaddy account and navigate to the GoDaddy “DNS Management” page.

This is where you will add the four hostnames from Netlify under “Nameservers” on GoDaddy and click “Save”.

If you are running into issues, it may be because your “Domain lock” setting is set to “On”. Make sure this is set to “Off”.

The example above is located on GoDaddy.

Conclusion

That’s it! After 20–30 minutes, you will be able to search for your website using the custom domain purchased on GoDaddy.

I hope you found this article helpful!