Connecting a subdomain of your own with one CNAME record

How to put a page, your blog or your reports on an address such as offers.yourbrand.com: one DNS record, then the Check now button.

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You can put your sales pages, your dedicated blog or your white-label reports on an address of your own, such as offers.yourbrand.com or blog.yourbrand.com. Connecting it takes one CNAME record in your domain settings. Your existing website and your email are not affected.

Why a subdomain, not the main domain?

A root domain such as yourbrand.com cannot take a CNAME record. That is a rule of the domain name system (DNS), not a rule of ours. So you pick a subdomain of your website, and the form refuses a root domain.

Use Example
Sales pages offers.yourbrand.com
Dedicated blog blog.yourbrand.com
Reports reports.yourbrand.com

What you need

A domain you own, and access to its DNS settings. You usually find them in the control panel of the company you registered the domain with, or of your hosting company. If a web designer or IT person looks after your domain, they can add the record for you. If DNS is new to you, write to us and we walk you through it.

The steps

  1. Add the address in your account. Sign in on wannaseo.com and open Domains. Pick the right section: Landing-page domains, Blog domains or Report domains. Press "+ Connect a domain", type the subdomain you want, then press "Continue".
  2. Add the record at your domain provider. The domain's card shows the record: the type CNAME, the name (the subdomain part, such as offers) and the value. Copy them exactly as shown, and save.
  3. Press "Check now" on the domain's card. If the record is not visible yet, wait a little and press it again. DNS changes can take anything from a few minutes to several hours.
Type Name Value Proxy
CNAME offers The value shown on your domain's card DNS only

What the card tells you

  • Waiting on DNS: we cannot see the record yet.
  • Setting up hosting: the record is correct, and there is nothing more for you to do. We add the address to our servers and issue its HTTPS certificate.
  • Live: the address is ready. Name it on an order and we publish there.
  • Needs attention: verification failed, and the card shows the reason.

If your domain uses Cloudflare

Keep the cloud grey (DNS only) for this record until the setup completes. With the orange proxy on, the real record is hidden, and we cannot confirm that it points to us.

Common questions

Will this affect my website or my email? No. A record for a new subdomain does not change the records your website and email already use.

Do I pay for hosting or the HTTPS certificate? No. We handle both.

The form says the address is connected to another account. If the address is yours, write to us and we sort it out.

I want to remove the address. Use Remove on its card, unless it is set on an order we are working on. In that case, write to us.

Can I start on your subdomain and move later? Yes. Publish today on a subdomain we provide, and move to your own address when it is ready, with the old links redirected. Write to us when you want to move.

If you get stuck, send the subdomain and a screenshot of the record to hello@wannaseo.com. A typing error in the value is the first thing to check.

Where each option leads is explained in Where is your work published?