Your Website People

Domains & going live 4 min read

Connect a Namecheap domain

Use Namecheap’s DNS settings to connect your business website and preserve the services your email already uses.

Reviewed

Confirm where your DNS lives

Follow our before-you-start checklist and read how your existing email stays connected. Your Website People will send the exact record names, types, and values for your website. Keep those instructions open; the destination is specific to your site.

The steps below apply to Namecheap BasicDNS, PremiumDNS, or FreeDNS. If you use Namecheap Web Hosting DNS, records are managed in cPanel. With another provider’s nameservers, edit at that provider. Keep your current nameservers rather than switching DNS services to follow this guide.

Save a screenshot of your existing records before making changes. Let us know if you cannot find the DNS controls.

Update the website’s host records

  1. Sign in to Namecheap. Open Domain List, choose Manage beside your domain, then open Advanced DNS.

  2. Find Host Records. Click the values of an existing website record to edit it, or select Add New Record if the requested record is missing.

  3. For the root domain, choose A Record, enter @ for Host, and use the supplied IP address for Value.

  4. For the www address, choose CNAME Record, enter www for Host, and use the supplied destination hostname for Value. Enter only the prefix in Host, not your whole domain.

  5. Keep TTL set to Automatic unless instructed otherwise. Save each change using the green checkmark.

Keep your other services in place

Namecheap parking or URL redirect records can conflict with your new website records. Replace only the old destinations for the website hostnames identified in your launch instructions. If you see additional A, AAAA, CNAME, or redirect entries you are unsure about, send us the details.

Your email still belongs with your current provider.

Preserve MX records, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, mail and autodiscover records, and any unrelated subdomains. Some of these services use A or CNAME records too. Keep your existing email subscription active.

Before canceling old hosting, check whether it includes email or DNS hosting. We can help you identify what needs to stay running.

Tell us when the changes are saved

Notify Your Website People so we can verify the setup. Namecheap says new records normally take about 30 minutes to work. Existing cached records can take longer to refresh; that estimate is not a guaranteed deadline.

Check your domain both with and without www, using HTTPS. Confirm the right website appears without a certificate warning, then send and receive a test email.

If you still see the old site, try another network. A private browser window can help with browser state, but it does not clear your network’s DNS cache. Send us any error message or inconsistent result, and let us confirm the launch before you retire the old website.

Sources & further help

Namecheap’s official guides informed these steps. Their example hosting destinations are not your website’s DNS values; use the values supplied by Your Website People.