How to Connect a Domain You Already Own

Use a Domain You Already Bought

If you already own a domain — from GoDaddy, Namecheap, Porkbun, or any other registrar — you don't need to buy a new one. You can connect it to LinkHaven and keep paying your registrar directly.

One Step for Most People: Change Your Nameservers

  1. Start the connection — From your dashboard, click Connect a domain and type your full domain (like yourname.com), then click Connect domain.
  2. LinkHaven shows you two nameservers — copy them.
  3. At your registrar, find the Nameservers setting (sometimes under DNS) and replace the existing nameservers with the two LinkHaven gave you.

That's it. Nothing else to add — no CNAME, no TXT, no A-records. SSL, your bare domain, and www are all set up automatically. Any DNS records already at your registrar are ignored once the nameservers switch, so there's nothing to delete.

Your dashboard shows a live status: Pending connection until the nameserver change takes effect (usually 5 minutes to 1 hour, rarely up to 48 hours), then Connected.

Is your domain registered with Cloudflare?

Cloudflare doesn't allow nameserver changes for domains registered with them — and that's fine, you don't need one. When you connect your domain, LinkHaven automatically detects this and gives you a short list of DNS records to add instead. Just remember one thing: when adding the two CNAME records in Cloudflare, click the orange cloud so it turns grey ("DNS only"). Cloudflare adds new records as proxied (orange) by default, and DNS only is the setup we test and support — leaving them orange puts your own Cloudflare cache and firewall in front of your page, which can cause problems that are hard to trace.

The DNS-Records Method (the fallback)

If your domain is registered with Cloudflare — or you click "Can't change your nameservers? Connect with DNS records instead" — LinkHaven shows you a short list of DNS records to add at your DNS provider: a CNAME for www, and TXT records that let us issue your SSL certificate. The bare domain (yourname.com) takes a CNAME only when your DNS is on Cloudflare. With any other DNS provider, forward the bare domain to www if your registrar offers URL forwarding, or use the nameserver method so both work. The exact names and values appear right in your dashboard, ready to copy. Old records pointing your domain at a previous website need to be removed for this method.

Already Have a Website on This Domain?

Connecting a domain points yourname.com and www.yourname.com at your landing page, so a website already on those addresses stops showing there.

  • Nameserver method: none of the records at your current DNS provider carry over, so anything else on the domain stops working too, including subdomains like shop.yourname.com. If the domain has email (MX records), contact support at [email protected] before switching so we can carry your email records over.
  • DNS-records method: only the records for yourname.com and www change. Other records at your DNS provider, like subdomains and email, keep working.

Registrar Walkthroughs

What's Next

See Tracking Your Domain's DNS Validation for what each status means.