Is this still valid? I just checked my godaddy acp and I did not see a "total DNS Control" link.
Setting up a custom domain
Posted by scottplan on 21 Oct 2007 14:06, last edited by Helmut_pdorf on 25 Aug 2020 13:30
Tags: certificate csr custom-domain domain ssl
A step-by-step guide to setting up a custom domain
Paid DNS services
So I'm really happy with my wikidot site, ABC.wikidot.com1, but I'd really like it to appear on its own domain: XYZ.com. Although my site will still be located on Wikidot's servers and it will still be fully available at ABC.wikidot.com, I want my users to think of my site as XYZ.com and see its content there.
First, I have to acquire XYZ.com. There are many sites where I can register XYZ for a fee. I have no interest in promoting any one service here, but I decide to go with godaddy.com. I'll refer to them for the sake of clarity.
From godaddy, I reserve XYZ.com for a period of years. I also decide to reserve XYZ.org and XYZ.net… (because they're bound to be worth something someday…)
I receive my godaddy account number by e-mail and I log into my account.
Now here's some important information. Changes I'm about to make sometimes take awhile to show up on the internet. I really want to test the results of my new settings now, but results can take a long time to take hold. As a complete novice, my lack of faith and patience makes for a very frustrating day… but now I can recreate the experience minus the hassle.
First, I want to point XYZ.org and XYZ.net to XYZ.com – so that everything redirects to the main site.
In godaddy's Domain Control Center (home), I see all three of my new domains.
- I click on XYZ.org to access its details.
- I click on the link under "forwarding".
- I enable forwarding, and I insert the target site: http://XYZ.com.
- I select "301 moved permanently".
- I save the changes.
- I make my way back to the Domain Control Center (home), and go through the same steps to redirect XYZ.net.
Now I want to point XYZ.com to ABC.wikidot.com.
- I click "Total DNS Control", which opens up the control panel for the domain.
- Under A(host), I select "edit".
- I leave the @ under "host", but I change the IP number under "points to" to Wikidot's IP: 107.20.139.176 or 107.20.139.170.
- (It's possible that Wikidot's IP has changed – I can verify by pinging wikidot.com).
- I save that record.
- Under CNAMES(aliases), I edit the www subdomain so that it points to "wikidot.com". To do this, I leave the "www" under Host and write "wikidot.com" under Points To.
- I save that record.
When I'm done, it should look something like this:
Note: The ARecord IP address in this image is incorrect. Yours should match one of the two listed above.
Wait at least 30 minutes for your changes to propagate over the Internet before continuing with the next step!
Next, I need to tell wikidot about my new XYZ domain.
- I log in to the site manager: ABC.wikidot.com/admin:manage.
- I click on the fifth link in the sidebar: "custom domain".
- In the custom domain field, I insert "XYZ.com".
- In the (optional) 301 redirect field, I insert "www.XYZ.com". This way, anyone who types the www subdomain in their web browser will end up at the same place.
- There's also an optional checkbox to "Use the custom domain as the only domain for this site." Leaving this box unchecked lets users access the site through either XYZ.com or ABC.wikidot.com. Especially until I'm sure my new domain works smoothly, I'll choose to leave this unchecked.
- I save changes.
- I wait… and have great faith… better yet, I go for a walk and am supremely content when I come back to find everything in perfect working order.
XYZ.com now looks and works exactly the same as ABC.wikidot.com. Even better, www.XYZ.com switches gracefully in my browser's address bar to XYZ.com, as do XYZ.org, XYZ.net, and all their subdomain variants.
Pure bliss.
Author
scottplan. Please visit his/her userPage.
Free DNS services
Disclaimer: I have absolutely no interest in dot.tk, if you know other free domain services…
Dot.tk offers free domain names under top level tk.
The basic service is a redirection for example from www.fivenations.tk to fivenations.wikidot.com.
Dot.tk offers also a free DNS service.
- Go to My Domains.
- Modify a domain.
- Use Dot TK Free DNS Service: Configuring one single CNAME record is enough as shown below.
- Wait for at least 30 minutes.
- Go to the Wikidot Site Manager.
- Custom domain.
- Enter www.yourdomain.tk as specified as CNAME's Host Name with dot.TK.
- Save your changes.
gerdami. Please visit his/her userPage.
CSR File needed for certificate?
Disclaimer: I have no idea about SSL , certificates and all the neccessarities for privat domains.
I write this information because I was asked by an admin with a SSL-Certificate which has ended now and the service provider asked for a CSR file.
A quick search on the community shows nothing about this (new) issue.
A google search was more successfull:
Read the following blogs from 2017 and you can understand what a CSR file is and how to get it for your servicde provider to extend your certificate.
Hello,
Sorry to bother you, We need to renew our SSL certificate for our wiki website.
We have a custom domain name with a redirection : https://www.xyz.org
The domain provider ask me for a .CSR file and I am a bit lost.
Can you please help me ?
Best regards,My answers:
See https://www.globalsign.com/en/blog/what-is-a-certificate-signing-request-csr/
Or the german web site to create such file for different system platforms:
( not tested!) how to generate online a csr file over browser: https://ssl-trust.com/csr-erstellen
I am sure you will find such helping online site in your language also to send such standardised file to your service provider.
Edit: as it should be sent to the server ( it is wikidot !) there is the problem how this should be done now…
See also the forum thread: http://community.wikidot.com/forum/t-5868780/ssl-certificate-renew-for-custom-domain#post-3792828
Helmut_pdorf. Please visit his/her userPage.
Login problems with Chrome on custom domains
See Also: http://community.wikidot.com/blog:login-problems-with-custom-domain-chrome !
Is this still valid? I just checked my godaddy acp and I did not see a "total DNS Control" link.
Freelance SEO
Hey Whane — it's still there:
Ah, thanks for that. I was having a hard time finding that link.
I can see it in my friend's wiki, but it's missing from mine. I thought i saw that it was a bug and the link disappeared the other day - but now I can't find that post - and I just updated godaddy but not my wiki. Any ideas???
Custom Domain has become a pro feature. Pro features must be paid for, so if you want custom domain, you must purchase the pro features.
Timothy Foster - @tfAuroratide
Auroratide.com - Go here if you're nerdy like me
Custom domains are currently back on the table for free accounts. I'm just posting this so it's clear as people read this aging thread.
Hmm. That's $60 a year. I only have a one page site! I think I'm going to have to host this wiki elsewhere. Crap!
But you are willing to pay a provider for the redirect facility only? That is strange …
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org (Open source), Wikidot-Handbook.
Sie können fragen und mitwirken in der deutschsprachigen » User-Gemeinschaft für WikidotNutzer oder
im deutschen » Wikidot Handbuch ?
No, I paid google $10 to register the domain and they will forward it for free.
hi Alison
has i understand it there is a hell of a lot of a difference between forwarding a url and custom domain.
So as you only have one page you probably don't need any more than a url redirect.
Hello!
I tried the custom domain setting as well. Now I have some questions
I registered a domain praemien-teilen24.de at euserv - my wikidot.com domain is www.praemien-teilen.wikidot.com.
In the euserv control panel i can simply make a domain redirect praemien-teilen24.de to www.praemien-teilen.wikidot.com and whenever someone types praemien-teilen24.de in the browser the wiki site will show up - but www.praemien-teilen.wikidot.com will appear in the browser address line.
For me this is awful because i want to be recognized as a top level domain. I hoped that even subpages like www.praemien-teilen.wikidot.com/comdirect would appear like www.praemien-teilen24.de/comdirect in the adress line.
So I figured that if I apply the custom domain setting with a pro account (i am testing it right now), then in my browser would appear www.praemien-teilen24.de instead of www.praemien-teilen.wikidot.com - but although i went through the above tutorial this will not happen …
So just be clear. Do i need to configure the domain redirect at euserv or only the CNAME?
Right now my configuration looks like that
*.praemien-teilen24.de A 67.228.37.26 86400
praemien-teilen24.de A 67.228.37.26 86400
praemien-teilen24.de CNAME wikidot.com 86400
www.praemien-teilen24.de CNAME wikidot.com 86400
Under the admin:manage -> custom domain settting i inserted
custom domain: praemien-teilen24.de
redirect: www.praemien-teilen24.de
Is this all correct? Because it won't work. Will the pages at the end look like www.praemien-teilen24.de/comdirect or still with the wikidot subdomain? Does the site appear in the google search results with praemien-teilen24.de or with www.praemien-teilen.wikidot.com?
Thanks fors your help
Well, I think that everything is ok, when I type in http://praemien-teilen24.de/ it goes to wikidot.com but the address is still *.de. If I click on some links, I am still at praemien-teilen24.de address, not on *.wikidot.com.
Glad it works for you - and I hope everyone else …. I can't reach http://praemien-teilen24.de/ at all.
So I guess I have to wait until the DNS-Server that is responsible for me is updating?
http://praemien-teilen24.de/system:list-all-pages
http://praemien-teilen24.de/
http://praemien-teilen24.de/banken
http://praemien-teilen24.de/versicherungen
and a load of others
are all ok for me in both ie and ff
As you said, probably you have to wait for DNS to propagate changes. Both www and w/o www works perfectly. So I think that your problem is soved :)
thanks for the awesome and easy to understand guide. i got my domain up and running very fast.
Excellent advice! I only have one small problem. In site manager » custom domains, I inserted the following:
Custom Domain: southwestimagebank.org
301 redirects: www.southwestimagebank.org
Waiting until the end of the day, I decided I would test things.
Entered regular domain - www.swib.wikidot.com » works fine.
Then tried - swib.wikidot.com » fine.
Then tried the new domain - southwestimagebank.org » that works fine too.
But when I enter www.southwestimagebank in to my web browser an error message appears saying the link is broken! Tried changing the settings to CD: www.southwestimagebank.org and 301 redirects to southwestimagebank.org but this doesn't work either and now I am unable to make any changes at all.
I know I shouldn't worry about it, but most of my users will undoubtedly assume there is a www. before the website name, don't want them to be disappointed with a broken link!
Am I doing something wrong?
this is what i have in my wikidot account.
do you have similar?
Yes, I have this:
Custom domain:southwestimagebank.org
Use the custom domain as the only domain for this site (not selected)
301 redirect: www.southwestimagebank.org
Sorry to be a nuisance… although wikidot is all about learning skills though the sharing of ideas eh!
In my DNS control panel, I've got the www CNAME pointed to @ — do you? Maybe that makes a difference. Otherwise I'm stumped.
Hi Scottplan,
In my DNS Control panel, I have the following:
A (Host) » Host Name: "@" » Points to IP Address: "67.228.37.28"
Under CNAMES (Aliases) » Alias Name: "wikidot.com" » Points to Host Name: "@"
Should the CNAMES (Aliases) » Alias Name be my NEW website name? with the full www prefix or without? I believe I may have tried this only for an error message to appear.
When I return to the Domain Details Page under the TOTAL DNS (available) the settings appear as:
ARecord @ 67.228.37.26
CNAME wikidot.com @
By the way, I have not forwarded the domain as I only have one "southwestimagebank.org" which I link to wikidot via site manager etc. etc.
MUCH appreciation for any assistance you can offer! Thanks.
Best I can offer is to make everything like mine, because… mine works, and I don't understand this stuff enough to be really creative about it. This how-to assumes you've left the control panel pretty much as you found it when you registered the domain.
That sounds creative. I'd suggest deleting that alias.
Do you have a www alias in your DNS control panel? If not, then edit the "wikidot.com" alias to say "www", or create a new www alias. The www alias should point to "@".
Be aware that your site will likely take a massive plunge in google hits when you replace your wikidot domain with a custom domain. For me, this meant going from ~ 1400 google referrals per day to ~ 200 right after I made the switch. I assume your ranking must be re-built from scratch. Is this true?
It's not clear to me. Ours has had this dual address for some time (wikidot subdomain and custom domain), and I just recently flipped the switch to direct everything to the custom domain. It works really well, but there may have been some google impact.
Not sure how I'd measure it. Most of our traffic is email driven, self-directed, and word of mouth.
Sorry to resurrect an old thread but it's an interesting subject and I have noticed this (and had it reported to me) on several sites recently although I don't think it's a new phenomenon. One of the sites I developed, http://www.fossoway.org, was developed under the name http://fossowaydev.wikidot.com and it was picked up by google very quickly and the search term "fossoway" brought it up near the top of the rankings. Custom domain http://www.fossoway.org was then setup and the site disappeared from the rankings completely the next time google did a re-index. Well it's probably on some lowly page somewhere but I haven't found it without explicitly putting fossoway.org in the search term. I've checked the dns and custom domain settings both at 1&1 and wikidot and can't see anything obviously wrong.
I think the answer is a resounding yes: you have to re-build the google ranking although I find it odd that google finds the wikidot domain very quickly but not others. In my case that has meant getting 1&1 to re-submit it (at their leisure it seems), and I have also manually re-submitted it using Web CEO. Temporarily I have used adwords so that it is at least at the top of the results when you search for "fossoway" but that is not a permanent solution.
Worryingly I have found exactly the same problem on Bing. I don't think it a problem with Wikidot but just the way search engines work. But it's a huge pain.
Rob Elliott - Strathpeffer, Scotland - Wikidot first line support & community admin team.
Hello
This is my first post on the Forum so hope I'm following protocol - I'm sure you'll all keep me right.
I put the basic Fossoway site content together and Rob did a great job of making it look professional with a CSS facelift and extra functionality such as the forum and gallery. I've done some research and thinking about the difficulties Rob mentions in his post and thought I'd share my thoughts here.
I wonder whether the custom domain settings have anything to do with the SEO difficulties the Fossoway site is experiencing. Some observations/questions:
1. Custom Domain Setup
On the custom domain page of the "admin:manage" section of the fossoway site, the box for, "use the custom domain as the only domain for this site", is checked. According to the last bullet point under the heading "What should you do before setting a custom domain?", all requests to fossoway.wikidot.com should be automatically redirected to the custom domain (because the box is checked). However, I am still able to view and edit the site via the fossoway.wikidot.com address.
a. Is this because there is no explicit redirect set up for the fossoway.wikidot.com domain?
b. Would it be advisable to add a 301 redirect from fossoway.wikidot.com to www.fossoway.org to "force" wikidot to use the custom domain?
c. I notice that Rob set up a redirect for "fossoway.org". I think this must have been included in the purchase of the www.fossoway.org domain (Rob sorted all this for me so I'm not sure and haven't checked with him yet).
2. SEO
I checked the redirect for fossoway.wikidot.com using a tool online ([http://www.webconfs.com/redirect-check.php]) and got the message;
"Either http://fossoway.wikidot.com is NOT REDIRECTING to any URL or the redirect is NOT SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY". This is not what I expected because, although there is no 301 redirect explicitly set up from fossoway.wikidot.com on the admin:manage page, the "use custom domain as the only domain" box is checked.
I checked the "fossoway.org" redirect that is currently set up and got;
"Found redirect to http://www.fossoway.org/. The Redirect is Search Engine Friendly."
a. According to the online redirect checker tool, search engines might think that the fossoway.wikidot.com domain has no contents. Do you think that might be what is happening with Google/Bing and could explain the poor rankings?
b. I notice that when I do a specific search e.g. "fossoway residents" a result appears with a link to the fossoway.wikidot.com site (not the www.fossoway.org site). Is there a chance that Google/Bing treat the www.fossoway.org and fossoway.wikidot.com sites as duplicate content and penalises them in the rankings accordingly?
c. www.fossoway.org is still ranking on first page in Yahoo! and Lycos (#1!) so the difficulty seems to be Google/Bing-specific.
One final thing that I wondered - Until today I had copied the contents of "Summary" on my forum posts (which are automatically displayed on the start page using a wikidot module) into the main body of the forum post itself. Could this be viewed as duplicate content and incur a search penalty? I have tonight removed this duplication just in case but not sure it was having a significant effect.
Any pearls of wisdom gratefully received.
Thanks
Hopefully someone will have some good ideas about this as it is not only Jim (Dadn) and me that have experienced it.
One thing though which might have a bearing on it. After registering the http://www.fossoway.org site through 1and1 I realised that 1&1 don't automatically submit the domain name to search engines. I submitted the site manually to Google and Bing on 3 December but also filled out the SEO Submission info at 1&1. They have not yet submitted it or others that were registered around the same time and I have a feeling they only do this once every 30 days. I am checking this with them as it seems a bit inflexible. I suspect that once they do so that the site will start to move up the rankings. This is what happened on another site I will be working on soon at http://www.acacia-development.co.uk which 1&1 have submitted and which does appear in the first page of a search using the term Acacia Development Associates.
So I will check when 1&1 will submit this site but any other suggestions would be welcome.
Rob Elliott - Strathpeffer, Scotland - Wikidot first line support & community admin team.
The custom domain issue was a bug, which has now been fixed - see the following thread - Possible bug in custom domain as the only domain.