Want to learn how to add a domain to your WIX site? Let’s take a closer look at this essential element of your WIX site.
After all, the domain and the hosting of the site are the two main elements of your website.
When creating your own website, when faced with the option to add a domain to your WIX site, you might be confused about what you are being asked.
A domain name is simply the web address of a site, for example ‘www.profiletree.com’ is the domain name for ProfileTree. This is crucial for achieving a strong brand identity. Using a consistent brand across all channels can massively boost revenues:
Therefore it is important to invest in an appropriate domain name for your site. Although WIX does provide your published site with a domain it has very little value as it includes ‘WIX’ within it.
Let’s take an example. If our WIX username was ProfileTree, and we published a blog called Web Development, the URL might be ‘profiletree.wixsite.com/web-development’. This isn’t so great.
Let’s explore how you can do better by adding a domain to your WIX site.
Why Add a Custom Domain to Your WIX Site
Custom domains bring a number of tangible benefits to any online business. For one thing, using the domain extension of a website builder doesn’t exactly project an image of professionalism or success.
For another, they’re pretty much anathema to decent SEO. A custom domain is essential if you’re serious about using your WIX site to drive traffic and gain sales for your business. Most SEO strategies will be ineffective without a proper domain name.
Additionally, custom domains allow you to take advantage of a whole host of other tools, including branded email inboxes, traffic analysis suites and other premium webmaster tools on your WIX site.
How to Add a Domain to your WIX Site
Adding a domain to your WIX site is an incredibly simple process. Afterall, WIX is designed specifically to allow just about anyone to create a professional website, regardless of their technical knowledge and experience.
With that in mind, let’s look at the three steps you should follow to add a custom domain to your WIX site.
Upgrading Your WIX Site to Premium
To add a domain to your WIX site you first need to upgrade your subscription plan to premium. Without a premium site you won’t be able to add a personal domain.
Upgrading your site is very easy. All you need to do is exit whichever editor you are within and head back to the dashboard of the site. Here in the dashboard you will see the likes of site actions, plans and other features and elements of your site.
You will also see a pink banner saying ‘Upgrade to Premium’ with an Upgrade Now button.
Once you have clicked on the Upgrade Now button you will be brought to a new window. In this window, you will need to choose a premium upgrade plan for your site. Every plan can be paid monthly and you can choose between a range of plans.
The cheapest plan is £3 a month. All it allows you to add a domain to your site. If your site has an online shop, the cheapest plan you can use costs £13 a month. This plan gives access to 100% commission-free online payments.
Select the right plan for you and enter your details. You can choose a monthly plan, an annual plan or a two-year plan. The longer the plan, the cheaper the actual cost will be. Once you have entered the right details, select Purchase.
Depending on your plan, you may get a free option to add a domain to your WIX site for a year. WIX allows you to search for a domain or connect your very own domain.
Connecting Your Own Domain to WIX
Connecting your own domain to your WIX website is easy. When you first upgrade your site to premium, it gives you an option between finding the right domain or connecting your own. Click on Connect My Own Domain. This will start the process for connecting your own name.
To add a domain name to your WIX site, the next step is to find your own domain. It will then confirm with you where your domain has come from. Examples would be the likes of GoDaddy, NameCheap and HostGator to name just a few. Confirm that WIX is correct.
WIX will then give you a similar guide on how to connect your domain name.
You will need to go to your domain name settings from your domain name provider. Sign into your account from the likes of GoDaddy and head to the settings of the correct domain. You will see a button labelled ‘DNS’.
Once in the DNS settings of the domain, scroll down to the section labelled ‘Nameservers’. You will see a field with labelled default. Change the field to custom. You will see you need to add two custom nameservers. To find the correct nameservers, head back over to your WIX site.
In your WIX site, you will find two custom nameservers. Example above. Copy and paste these two nameservers individually into the custom nameservers settings. Once done, click save and then verify the connection using WIX.
Checking Your Domain is Connected
Once you have successfully connected the nameservers and clicked saved. Make sure the names settings on the domain provider have been saved fully. If not then the verification process won’t work.
Once the verification is complete, that certain domain name will be connected to your published site.
The connection may take up to 48 hours to connect successfully, so check the next upcoming days that the domain name has connected successfully. You should also receive an email from WIX once the verification is through.
Upgrading Your WIX Site Further
You can further improve your WIX site by adding a blog or even a direct ecommerce option for your users. Blogs help educate your visitors and also help improve your SEO, while direct ecommerce options can greatly improve your ROI as you sell direct to your customers without the need for a middle man or third party go between.
If you’d like to learn how to add these elements to your WIX site just check out our tutorials listed below.
Want to learn more about WIX? You can find more of our simple and helpful tutorials on our website or check out our YouTube channel for more of our WIX tutorial videos.
