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Getting Started with EngagementHQ
Before you launch
Step 4: Choose your preferred domain
Step 4: Choose your preferred domain
Learn how to set your preferred domain (URL) using CNAME records without IP addresses
Gayathri Rajendiran avatar
Written by Gayathri Rajendiran
Updated over a week ago

EngagementHQ can be configured to be reached via any domain/URL that is available. This will be the address of your site so it's important to select one that aligns with your overall brand.

If you are unsure what domain to choose, give this a read.

Three options for selecting a domain

  1.  We purchase and manage the domain for you. In this case, please get in touch with us and we'll check your preferred domain for availability and take it from there.

  2. You use a subdomain* of your organisation's website. For example, one of our demonstration sites runs under demonstration.engagementhq.com, which is a subdomain of engagementhq.com. In most cases, you would want to do this because, depending on the sector you work in, it allows you to use .gov, .govt or .edu domains, which have more credibility with search engines and it may also be a policy for your organisation to use sub-domains. We cannot setup a sub-domain on your behalf, this needs to be managed internally in your organisation.

  3. You purchase and manage your own standalone domain.

Option 1: Let us purchase and manage your domain

If you would like all of the hassle taken out of domain purchasing and provisioning simply let us know and we can take care of it for you. By choosing this option we will work with you to do the following.

  • Select an available and suitable domain name for your new site

  • Setup all CNAME records and provision the domain on your site

  • Apply a SSL certificate to your new domain for added security.

Option 2: Using a subdomain

A sub-domain needs to be created by the owner of the primary domain. This will usually be your organisation. By choosing this option you will need to do the following.

  • Pick a subdomain you like. Make it short and snappy and ensure it complies with your organisations domain and web policies. This will look something like engage.yourwebsite.gov.au. 

  • The 'www' you see in front of some websites is also a subdomain. So, If you'd like your site to be also available via www, you need to tell your IT team to create this subdomain also. This will look something like www.engage.yourwebsite.gov.au.

  • Ask your IT team to set up a CNAME record in order to direct the new subdomain/s to one of our four servers below. Select the CNAME information below according to your location.

         In Australia / New Zealand: platform.engagementhq.com
         In UK: platform.uk.engagementhq.com
         In Canada: platform.ca.engagementhq.com
         In USA: platform.us.engagementhq.com

In EU: platform.eu.engagementhq.com

  • If your IT team request information about TTL, we recommend TTL (Time to Live, which is the time it takes for the change to take effect) to be set to 60 seconds or as close as possible to that (some systems have limitations that TTL needs to be a minimum of five minutes).

NOTE: It is very important to take the CNAME information as you see above. Do NOT include HTTP:// or HTTPS:// when configuring the CNAME record.

  • If you have set up the CNAME for your new subdomain correctly, when you navigate to your subdomain URL in a browser, you should see a message which says "Domain is pointing to EngagementHQ." If you see this message your subdomain has been correctly pointed to our servers and you can contact our support team via chat or email support@engagementhq.com to complete the redirection setup.

Please note, between step 2 and step 3 it can take a few hours to take effect. This should be taken into consideration when planning your EngagementHQ launch. 

  • Finally, if you cannot access your EngagementHQ after the domain has been applied to your site, there is a chance it is blocked internally. Check with your IT team to make sure your computer does not think you are trying to access your intranet.

* "SUBDOMAIN: A domain that is behind another, but totally separate. Using sub-domains you can effectively have multiple "domains" on a single registered domain name and hosting account. A sub domain address would be written like: www.something-else.yourdomain.com.au The "something-else" is the sub domain."

Source: http://www.thinkingit.com.au/glossary-of-website-terminology 

Option 3: Purchasing and managing your own domain

If you decide to purchase and manage your own standalone domain, you need to make sure the setup is correct. 

We recommend Go Daddy as a good place to purchase and manage your own domain. Visit godaddy.com to check domain availability and to make your purchase.

Follow the steps below to set up your purchased domain. These steps assume you use the root as your domain and NOT a subdomain.

eg. ROOT = example.com (no www or anything else before the domain)

  • Set up 'www' as a CNAME record to one of the four below, depending on your location. The TTL should be as short (low) as possible.

         In Australia / New Zealand: "platform.engagementhq.com"  
         In UK: "platform.uk.engagementhq.com"  
         In Canada: "platform.ca.engagementhq.com"  
         In USA: "platform.us.engagementhq.com"

In EU: "platform.eu.engagementhq.com"

  • If you can use a CNAME record on the root, do this too. Some DNS Management tools allow you to do this via an ANAME record. However, most DNS Management Tools don't allow this. If this is the case, set up the root domain as a 301 redirect to the www of the domain (example.com via 301 redirects to www.example.com), which you have set up in step 1 above. In this setup, the www of your domain becomes the main address and all other traffic will be directed there. 

    The hostname can be set to '@' if it isn't already set automatically after setting the CNAME to 'www'.

  • If this is set up correctly, you should see a "Domain is pointing to EngagementHQ." message and a little EngagementHQ favicon when you try to access the URL. In this case, well done, and please get in touch with us to confirm. 

Please note, between step 1 and step 2 it can take a few hours to take effect. This should be taken into consideration when planning your EngagementHQ launch. 

Setting up a domain with Go Daddy

GoDaddy is a domain provider which makes it easy to set up and manage your custom purchased domain. To set up your domain to work with EngagementHQ follow the steps below.

  • Login to your Go Daddy account and go into the domain and click on Manage DNS.

  • In the DNS Management screen, there are only two things you need to do. You can leave everything else as is. 

  1. Add a CNAME for www that is pointing to:

  In Australia / New Zealand: "platform.engagementhq.com"  
  In UK: "platform.uk.engagementhq.com"  
  In Canada: "platform.ca.engagementhq.com"  
  In USA: "platform.us.engagementhq.com"

In EU: "platform.eu.engagementhq.com"

  • Keep the TTL as low as possible, which in GoDaddy is 600 seconds. 

    2. Enable Forwarding. You now want to forward the traffic from the root domain to your www subdomain. Just follow the template below (click here for a bigger version) and click save.

  • Now example.com will forward to www.example.com which in turn will arrive at our servers. All we need to do now is associate your domain to your site. Contact us by email or chat to complete the domain setup.

NOTE: You can have multiple domains pointing to the same EngagementHQ site, but only 1(!) can be your primary domain. That means all other domains will redirect visitors to your primary domain.

Once you have set up your preferred domain you will need to contact the EngagementHQ support team who can help you set this up.

Contact our support team if you need any further assistance via chat or email support@engagementhq.com

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