# Connecting your own domain

Your site gets a Laabam.site address for free. Connecting a **custom domain** — `yourbusiness.com` instead of `your-site-a1b2c3d4.laabam.site` — takes one DNS record and about ten minutes, most of it waiting for DNS.

## Before you start

You need a domain you already own, and access to wherever you bought it — GoDaddy, Namecheap, Hostinger, BigRock, Cloudflare. That is the account where you manage DNS.

Do not own one yet? **Buy domain** on the project page.

## Setting up a custom domain

### The steps

1. Open the project page and find **Your domain**.
2. Type your domain, without `https://` — just `yourbusiness.com` or `www.yourbusiness.com`.
3. Laabam.site shows you the **CNAME** record to create. It points at your site's Laabam.site address.
4. Add that record at your registrar. Look for "DNS", "DNS management" or "Name servers".
5. Come back and press **Verify**.

If verification fails, wait and try again. DNS changes take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to travel — that is normal and not a sign anything is wrong.

### What the record looks like

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | `CNAME` |
| Name / Host | `www` (or `@` for the bare domain, if your registrar allows it) |
| Value / Points to | your site's `*.laabam.site` address, shown on the page |

Different registrars label these differently. "Host" and "Name" mean the same thing; "Value", "Points to" and "Target" mean the same thing.

### Bare domain or www?

`www.yourbusiness.com` is straightforward everywhere — a plain CNAME.

`yourbusiness.com` with no `www` is harder, because strict DNS does not allow a CNAME at the root. Many registrars offer **ALIAS**, **ANAME** or **CNAME flattening** to do it anyway. Cloudflare does this automatically. If yours does not, use `www` and set up a redirect from the bare domain — most registrars have a forwarding option.

### Until it is verified

Your site keeps working at its Laabam.site address the whole time. Connecting a domain adds a way to reach it; it never takes one away. Only a **verified** domain serves your site — an unverified one would let anyone point a name at somebody else's brand.

### We keep checking

Verification is not a one-time event. Laabam.site re-checks periodically, because a DNS record that is removed later should not keep working. If you move your domain elsewhere, remove it here too.

## Common problems

**"Verification failed" straight away.** Almost always DNS not having travelled yet. Wait fifteen minutes.

**The record is there but it still fails.** Check for a trailing dot, and check you have not created two records for the same name. Also check you edited the right zone — people often have the same domain in two accounts.

**My site shows a certificate warning.** HTTPS is issued after verification, and can take a few minutes more. If it lasts more than an hour, tell us.

**My email stopped.** You changed an MX record, not a CNAME. Put the MX records back — they are separate from your website and Laabam.site never needs them touched.