Connect Your Custom Domain

Point your own domain — like yourbusiness.com — at your Listing Nav site. It is free on every plan, including trials.

Start here: which one are you?

The steps are the same for everyone. How long it takes, and whether anything goes dark along the way, depends entirely on this answer.

A. A domain you own that isn't running a website

A name you registered and never used, or one that shows a “coming soon” parking page. The simple path. Steps 1–6, about 15 minutes of work and up to an hour of waiting. Nothing can break, because nothing is running.

B. A domain running a live website somewhere else

You have a current site — Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, a developer's host — and you are moving it to Listing Nav. Same steps, plus Moving a live site. Read that section before you change anything. There is a window where visitors see an error, and you get to choose when it happens.

C. You are not sure

Type your domain into a browser. If a website you recognise comes up, you are B. If you get an error, a blank page, or an ad-covered parking page, you are A.

The one rule that trips up almost everyone

You are about to add records to your DNS. Every one of them has a Name field, and most DNS panels add your domain to the end of whatever you type there. So if you paste in the full name we show you, you end up with your domain in it twice, and nothing works. This is the single most common way a connection fails, and the error it produces looks exactly like “still waiting for DNS.”

Correct and incorrect DNS record names
We show you	You type	You do NOT type
_listingnav-challenge.yourbusiness.com	_listingnav-challenge	_listingnav-challenge.yourbusiness.com
_vercel.yourbusiness.com	_vercel	_vercel.yourbusiness.com

How to check you got it right

After you save, your DNS panel shows the full name back to you. Your domain should appear in it exactly once. If you see _listingnav-challenge.yourbusiness.com.yourbusiness.com, that is the mistake — edit the Name field down to just the short prefix.

A few registrars want the full name instead. You can tell which kind you have by looking at the records already in your zone: if the existing ones are short (www, @), yours appends. Copy the style of what is already there.

Where to add records, by provider

Find whoever manages your DNS — see Step 2 if you are not sure it is your registrar. Each one calls the Name field something slightly different, and they disagree about whether it appends your domain.

GoDaddy

Type the short name

Where: My Products → Domains → DNS → Manage Zones

Name field is called: Host

Watch out: GoDaddy ships a parked A record on @. Edit that one rather than adding a second — two A records on the same name fight each other. If Domain Forwarding is switched on, turn it off.

Namecheap

Type the short name

Where: Domain List → Manage → Advanced DNS

Name field is called: Host

Watch out: Delete the default parking-page redirect and CNAME first. Check the Nameservers setting says Namecheap BasicDNS — if it says Custom DNS, your records live somewhere else entirely.

Cloudflare

Either works

Where: Select your domain → DNS → Records

Name field is called: Name

Watch out: The proxy toggle — the orange cloud — must be OFF (grey, "DNS only") on your A and CNAME records. A proxied record hides your real DNS from us, and HTTPS cannot be issued. TXT records are never proxied, so those are fine either way.

Google Cloud DNS

Type the short name

Where: Google Cloud Console → Network Services → Cloud DNS → your zone

Name field is called: DNS name

Watch out: Records here are record SETS. If a name already exists — several TXT records on the same name, say — edit the existing set and add another value to it, rather than creating a second set or overwriting what is there.

Squarespace Domains

Type the short name

Where: Domains → your domain → DNS → DNS Settings → Custom records

Name field is called: Host

Watch out: This is where domains bought from Google Domains ended up. If the domain is still connected to a Squarespace site, disconnect it there first, or Squarespace keeps managing the A record for you.

Wix

Type the short name

Where: Domains → your domain → Manage DNS Records

Name field is called: Host Name

Watch out: If the domain is set to point at a Wix site, change that first. While it points at Wix, edits to the A record will not stick.

AWS Route 53

Type the short name

Where: Route 53 → Hosted zones → your zone → Create record

Name field is called: Record name

Watch out: Leave the field blank for the root domain. TXT values must be wrapped in double quotes — Route 53 is stricter about this than most.

cPanel hosts

Type the full name

Where: cPanel → Zone Editor → Manage

Name field is called: Name

Watch out: Bluehost, HostGator and most reseller hosting use cPanel, and this family is the one that usually wants the FULL name, often with a trailing dot. Check the rows already in your zone before typing.

Not listed, or the menus have moved?

These panels get redesigned, so treat the above as a shortcut rather than gospel. The check that always works is the one from the rule: look at the records already in your zone. If the existing www row is listed as just www, type short names. If it is listed as www.yourbusiness.com, type full ones. Copy whatever is already there.

Records that fight each other

Whichever provider you use, a name can only have one A or CNAME answer. Most registrars ship a default parking-page record on @ or www. Edit it rather than adding a second, or visitors get sent to two different places at random.

TXT records are the exception — a name can hold several, and the ones in this guide sit happily alongside your existing ones.

Step 1: Get a domain name

Skip this if you already own one.

Buy from any registrar. We do not sell or register domains, and we never need your registrar login.

Namecheap

Affordable domains with free WHOIS privacy.

GoDaddy

One of the largest domain registrars with 24/7 support.

Cloudflare Registrar

At-cost pricing and excellent DNS management tools.

Step 2: Find out where your DNS actually lives

Two minutes now, or an hour of confusion later.

Records get added wherever your domain's DNS is managed, which is not always the company you bought the name from. If someone built your current site, they may have moved DNS to Cloudflare, Google, or their own host, and changes you make at the registrar will do nothing at all.

How to tell

Log in to your registrar and look for Nameservers. If they say something that isn't your registrar's own name — cloudflare.com, googledomains.com, awsdns, a web host — that is where your DNS lives, and that is where every record in this guide goes.

Not sure? Send the nameserver names to support@listingnav.com and we will tell you which panel to open.

Step 3: Start the connection in your dashboard

Do this before touching DNS — the record you need is generated here, and it is unique to your domain.

Go to Admin Dashboard → Billing & Add-ons
Find the Custom Domain card
Type your domain. Enter the exact spelling you want visitors to see — with or without www. We connect the other spelling for you and redirect it here, so pick the one you put on business cards.
Click Connect domain

What you'll see

The card becomes Step 1 of 2 — Prove you own this domain, showing one TXT record with a Copy button.

Nothing has happened to your domain yet. Your current website, if you have one, is still up and untouched.

No payment, no card, nothing reserved

Custom domains cost nothing on any plan. Typing a domain here does not claim it — which is also why nobody else can type in your domain and lock you out.

Step 4: Add the ownership record, then click Verify

This record proves the domain is yours. Add it in your DNS panel exactly as shown, using the short Name from the rule above.

Ownership verification record
Type	Name (type only this)	Value
TXT	_listingnav-challenge	listingnav-site-verification=…Copy the real value from your dashboard — this is only an example.

Leave TTL at whatever the panel suggests. Save, then go back to your dashboard and click Verify.

What you'll see

Nothing happens on its own at this stage. The Verify button is what performs the check — there is no background process watching for your record, so leaving the page open will not advance it.

If it says “We could not find the verification record yet”, that is normal and not an error. It means one of exactly two things:

It hasn't spread yet. Usually under 5 minutes. Wait a moment and click Verify again.
It is saved under the wrong name. If you have clicked Verify a few times over 10+ minutes, stop waiting and check for the doubled-domain mistake.

Leave this record in place forever

Do not delete it once your site is live, and do not tidy it away later. If your domain is ever disconnected — a trial lapses, a card expires — we check this record again before reconnecting. A domain can change hands, so owning it last year is not proof you own it today. Keeping it makes reconnecting one click instead of this whole process again.

Step 5: Only if you see: Release your domain from its old host

Most people skip this step entirely. If your dashboard went straight to Step 2 of 2, skip to Step 6.

Sometimes, right after ownership is confirmed, the card says your domain is already registered to another account on our hosting provider and shows a second TXT record. This surprises people, so here is exactly what is going on.

It means your domain was connected to a different account on the same infrastructure we run on — almost always an old site of yours, or one a previous developer set up. Our hosting provider will not serve a name that another account still claims, and it will not take our word for it. It wants its own proof.

Hosting provider release record
Type	Name (type only this)	Value
TXT	_vercel	vc-domain-verify=…A different record with a different value. Copy it from your dashboard.

You now have two TXT records that look alike. Both must stay for now.

_listingnav-challenge is ours. It proves the domain is yours to us. Keep it forever.

_vercel belongs to our hosting provider. It settles a claim between two accounts on their system. You can delete it once your site is live, though leaving it does no harm.

Do not delete the first one when you add the second. They do unrelated jobs, and removing ours means redoing Step 4.

What you'll see

After saving, click Check again. It should clear within a minute or two.

Removing the domain from the old account does not skip this step. People reasonably assume that deleting it over there makes the conflict disappear. It does not — the release record still has to be published, and until it is, the domain serves nothing on either side. If you have already removed it from the old host, add this record now.

Step 6: Point your domain at your site

Ownership is settled; now visitors need directions. Your dashboard shows the exact record for your domain. You want both of the rows below — the A record so yourbusiness.com works, and the CNAME so www.yourbusiness.com works. Visitors type both, and other people's links use both.

Records that send visitors to your site
Type	Name (type only this)	Value
A	@	76.76.21.21The bare domain. "@" means the domain itself; some panels want it left blank.
CNAME	www	cname.vercel-dns.comThe www spelling.

Do not change a record that is already correct

If your domain already points at our hosting provider — because it was there before, or a developer set it up — your existing A record may be a different address from the one above and still be perfectly correct. There is more than one valid address.

The test is whether it works, not whether it matches. Use the record your dashboard shows for a domain that is not yet pointing anywhere. If your site loads and your dashboard says the domain is live, you are done — changing a working record only risks breaking it.

Now you can walk away

Unlike Step 4, this stage does check itself. Your dashboard re-checks every 20 seconds while open, and hourly regardless. Close the tab if you like — we email you the moment the domain goes live.

Typically live within an hour; DNS allows up to 48. There is a Check DNS now button if you are impatient, but you never need it.

Your email is not affected

These records control where your website lives. Email is routed by separate MX records, which we never touch and never ask you to change.

A bare domain cannot use a CNAME — that is why it takes an A record. If your provider offers ALIAS or ANAME at the root, either works too.

Step 7: Confirm it works

When your dashboard shows the domain as live, open it in a browser and check:

Your site loads at your domain
The padlock appears — HTTPS is set up automatically, and you never buy a certificate
Click through every page: Properties, About, Contact, and an individual listing
Try the www spelling too — it should land on your site, not an error

What you'll see

The email arrives only at this point, when the domain actually goes live. You will not get one for finishing Step 4 or Step 5, so no email earlier is not a sign that something failed.

If www shows an error while the bare domain works, see When www needs its own attention.

Moving a live site from another host

Read this before you change anything if your domain currently shows a working website. Everything above still applies; this is what is different.

There is a window where your site is down. You choose when.

Your domain can only be served by one host at a time. The moment you disconnect it from the old one, visitors get an error — until the new connection finishes verifying. That is usually a few minutes. It is not zero, and no amount of preparation makes it zero.

Pick a quiet hour. Do not start this at 9am on a Monday.

The order that keeps the window short

Build your Listing Nav site first, completely. The instant the domain switches, whatever is on your Listing Nav site is what the world sees. Add your properties, your photos, your contact details, and look at every page.
Lower your TTLs a day ahead, if you can find the setting. TTL is how long the internet is allowed to remember an old answer. If your records are set to 4 hours, drop them to 5 minutes the day before, so the change spreads quickly when you make it. Optional, but it turns hours into minutes.
Do Steps 3 and 4 now, while the old site is still up. Adding the ownership record changes nothing for visitors and can be done days in advance. Get it verified and sitting ready.
Then, in one sitting: disconnect the domain at the old host, complete Step 5 if it appears, and add the records from Step 6. This is the window. Have the tabs open before you start.
Then Step 7 — and check the pages, not just the homepage.

Do not delete your old site until the new one is live

Disconnecting the domain and deleting the site are different actions. Keep the old one intact for a few days. If anything goes wrong, being able to point the domain back is worth far more than the tidiness.

When www needs its own attention

To the internet, yourbusiness.com and www.yourbusiness.com are two separate addresses that happen to look related. We connect both for you automatically, and send visitors from whichever you did not choose to the one you did — so you do not have to think about it.

Two situations where you do have to think about it, both only when moving from another host:

www needs its own release value — at the same record name. If Step 5 applied to your bare domain, www needs one too. It does not get its own record name: it is a second value on the same _vercel record, and the hostname it covers is written inside the value rather than in the name.

Add a value. Do not replace the one that is there.

Your _vercel record ends up holding two values that differ only in the hostname near the front:

vc-domain-verify=yourbusiness.com,…
vc-domain-verify=www.yourbusiness.com,…

The first is holding your bare domain up. Overwrite it with the second and the bare domain stops being verified. A TXT name can hold as many values as you like — look for Add another value rather than editing the existing one. In Google Cloud DNS this is a record set: open the existing set and add a line.

The old www record may point somewhere host-specific. Some hosts give you a unique address rather than a shared one, and it stops working when you leave them. If the bare domain works and www does not, replace your www CNAME value with cname.vercel-dns.com.

How long each part takes

Expected timing for each stage
Stage	Typical	Checks itself?
Ownership record appears in DNS	Under 5 minutes	No — click Verify
Release record clears (Step 5)	1–2 minutes	No — click Check again
Domain starts serving (Step 6)	Under an hour, up to 48	Yes — we email you
HTTPS padlock	Automatic, with the above	Yes
A changed record with a long TTL	Up to the old TTL	Yes

The pattern worth remembering: the ownership stages wait for you, and the pointing stage waits for DNS. If you are stuck on an ownership stage, nothing will change until you click the button — or fix the record.

Every record, and whether to keep it

By the end you may have several records that look similar. Here is the whole set.

All DNS records used in this process
Record	What it does	Keep it?
_listingnav-challenge	Proves to us that the domain is yours	Forever — we re-check it if you ever reconnect
_vercel	Settles a claim on our hosting provider (Step 5 only). Holds one value per hostname — the bare domain and www each get their own value on this single record	Optional once live — harmless to leave
A @	Sends visitors typing the bare domain to your site	Yes — this is your site
CNAME www	Sends visitors typing www to your site	Yes
MX and anything email-related	Delivers your email. Nothing to do with us	Yes — never change these

What each message means

Find the words you are seeing on screen.

“We could not find the verification record yet”: Expected, not an error. Either the record has not spread yet — wait a few minutes and click Verify again — or it is saved under the wrong name. If you have been at it more than 10 minutes, check for the doubled domain: the full name should contain your domain exactly once.
“We could not reach a DNS server just now”: Our problem, not yours, and temporary. Your record is probably fine. Wait a minute and click Verify again.
“This domain is already registered to another account on our hosting provider”: Step 5. Your domain is connected to a different account on the same infrastructure — usually an old site of yours. Add the second TXT record shown on the card. Removing the domain from that old account does not skip this step; the record still has to be published.
“Your domain is connected but we cannot see the DNS record yet”: Ownership is settled and we are waiting on the A or CNAME record from Step 6. Check it saved correctly, then leave it — this stage does check itself, and we will email you when it goes live.
“This domain is already connected to another account”: A different Listing Nav account has proven ownership of this domain. If that is another account of yours, disconnect it there first. If it is not, contact us — do not keep retrying.
“We verified you own this domain, but could not connect it”: Something failed on our side, not yours. We have already been notified automatically and will follow up. No action needed.
The site loads, but every link gives an error: Tell us immediately — this is a bug on our end, not a DNS problem, and we can fix it quickly. It is not something you can fix from your DNS panel.
Everything says live, but I still see the old site: Almost always your browser or your network remembering the old answer. Try a private window, or your phone on mobile data. If strangers can see the new site and you cannot, it is cached locally and will clear on its own.

Common questions

What does it cost?: Nothing. Custom domains are included on every plan, including trials. You pay your registrar for the domain itself; we charge nothing to connect it.
Do I need to buy an SSL certificate?: No. HTTPS is provisioned and renewed automatically once your domain resolves to us. The padlock appears without you doing anything.
Will my email stop working?: No. Website records (A and CNAME) and email records (MX) are independent. We never ask you to change an MX record, and connecting your domain does not touch one.
Can I use both yourbusiness.com and www.yourbusiness.com?: Yes, and you do not have to ask. Connect whichever one you want visitors to see; we connect the other and send it straight there, so someone who types the wrong one still lands on your site. Add both records from Step 6 — the A record on the bare name, and the www CNAME.
Can someone else connect my domain before I do?: No. Nothing is reserved until the verification record proves the domain is yours. Typing a domain into our dashboard grants no claim on it, so nobody can lock you out of a domain you own.
Do I have to give you my registrar login?: Never. We only ever ask you to add records yourself. Nobody at Listing Nav needs access to your domain account, and you should not give that access to anyone who asks for it.
What happens to my domain if my trial ends?: We disconnect it, so the name is never held hostage, and we never modify your DNS. Subscribe again and — if the ownership record is still published — it reconnects immediately. That is why Step 4 says to keep that record forever.
Can I change my mind and use a different domain?: Yes. Disconnect the current one in your dashboard and start again. Your site stays available at its listingnav.com address the whole time.
Do you sell domains?: No. Buy your domain from any registrar you like; we only connect one you already own.

Still stuck?

Email support@listingnav.com and include these four things. With them we can usually answer in one reply instead of five:

Your domain name
The exact message on the Custom Domain card, or a screenshot of it
A screenshot of your DNS records, showing the full Name column
Whether the domain had a live website before you started

Ready to connect?

Start in your dashboard under Billing & Add-ons. We give you the exact records to add, and take it from there.

Go to My Dashboard

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