How to Import 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 Import 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 — your site is live.

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") — that's required for the connection to work.

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 your bare domain, a CNAME for www, and TXT records that let us issue your SSL certificate. 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.

Registrar Walkthroughs

What's Next

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