Setting up your Domain Name & Email

Domain name preferences checklist

The final step before your Zeald website goes live is setting your domain name preferences. Once you have gone through the steps below your Zeald website will be live...!

Step 1. Understand domain names

What is a domain name, domain name email addresses, subdomains? It is a good idea that you have a basic understanding of domain names and how they work with regard to your website and your email. Learn the basics about domain names

If you already know about domain names, proceed to the next step...

Step 2. Register your domain name

If you haven't already, you should register a domain name for your website. Registering a domain name means you have ownership of the domain name and can use it for your Zeald website.
Before you register a domain name, you must first check that the name is available...

New Zealand Domain Names
Domain names ending in .nz (such as .co.nz, .net.nz, .org.nz, .ac.nz etc) can be checked at .nz Domain Name Commission using the Domain Search function at the top left of the page.

Non New Zealand (.NZ) domains -  You can check all other domain names at Whois (eg. global domains (.com, .org, .net), Australian (.com.au), or UK domains (.co.uk). 

Register available domain names: When you find an available domain name you can register it with any third party domain hosts or you can register New Zealand domains through Zeald using our Domain and Email Manager.

If you have already registered a domain name, proceed to the next step...

Step 3. Domain name hosting (DNS) 

Once you have secured a domain name and registered it, you will need to decide who you want to host the domain name. Any domain names that you want to use must be hosted by a domain name host. You can keep the hosting with a third party provider, or you can choose to host it with Zeald. If you have registered a domain name with Zeald, then it makes sense to host it with Zeald.

If you have your domain hosted with a third party provider, you can choose to leave it there (and get it pointed to Zeald), or transfer your domain to Zeald and we can host the domain name. Please note there are pros and cons for transferring a domain name. Read when to point and when to transfer a domain name

If you decide to have your domain host with Zeald, learn how to transfer domain hosting to Zeald

Once you have sorted the hosting for your domain name, you can then proceed with the next step...

Step 4. Pointing domain name at your website

 

  1. If you have your domain name hosted with Zeald, you can do this yourself. Login to Zeald Domain & Email Manager with your domain name and password. If you do not have a password or have forgotten, simply use the reset password link.
  2. Click on your domain name in the left hand menu
  3. Ensure that under Website Hosting it says Live.  If it says Coming Soon the click the Coming Soon link and turn that off.  If it says Redirect then click the Redirect link and turn that off
    domain live
  4. Ensure that under the DNS settings, it says Default.  If you have configured custom DNS settings, hopefully you haven't removed the IP address settings that point to the Zeald webservers (if you have, you can set the settings back to default to remove your changes, but if thats not an option, call our support team who can assist)
    dns settings default


or

If you chose to host your domain name with external provider, you will need to get your host to point the domain name for you. They may provide you with a console to do this yourself, but you will need to contact them and find out. Learn how to point a domain to your Zeald website.

You can have as many domain names as you wish pointed at your website.

A delay....

Please note the pointing process can take up to 48 hours
Once the ‘switch is flicked’ there is usually a 48 hour transfer turnaround time where some of your customers may see your old website (if one exists) and other customers will see your new website. This transfer turnaround time is unavoidable. It occurs due to the inherent nature of how the internet works.


Once the pointing has finished, your domain name should direct visitors to your Zeald website. For example, when they enter the bobsplumbing.co.nz into their browser, it will go to bobsplumbing.zes.zeald.com

Once your domain name has finished pointing, you will need to choose a domain name to use as your primary domain name. Proceed with the next step...

Step 5. Set the primary domain name

The final step in the process is to set your primary domain name. This is the address that visitors to your website will see, and what Google will use in the search results. Please note, you can only have one primary domain name.

To set your primary domain name, go to Preferences, Website Address and follow the steps.  Read More

Congratulations!! You are now live!!

Don't forget to set Google redirects if you previously had a website that is already listed with Google search results. It is very important that you take the time now to configure your new Zeald website so that Google knows that your old pages have been permanently replaced with new pages from the new Zeald website. To help you do this, the Website Manager contains an excellent tool that greatly simplifies the process. Learn how to use the Redirects feature. If you previously did not have a website, you can ignore Google redirects. 
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