Written by ryanchristian As a point of good web practice, Carrot now supports bare domains (also known as APEX domains) so that visitors can reach your site without being redirected or encountering errors. Bare domain support for a website means it can be accessed without the “www” prefix (e.g., example.com or https//example.com instead of www.example.com). Without this support, someone entering https//example.com would run into a warning screen like the example here:
For those just starting at Carrot, our domain settings tutorial will walk you through the process with bare domain as the default–but if you have connected a domain to your Carrot site prior to August 12, 2024, you will need to adjust your domain registrar settings to support a bare domain by upgrading your DNS to an A Record. follow the generalized steps below–keep in mind, these directions might not cover all the steps required by a domain registrar, so if you run into trouble, check out the registrar-specific links at the end of this tutorial, or reach out to our live chat team–we’re happy to help!
1. Log in to your registrar account and access DNS settings
- Access your domain registrar’s website and log in to your account.
- Navigate to the DNS management section, often labeled as “DNS Settings,” “Manage DNS,” or similar. This is where you’ll configure your DNS records.
2. Remove your non-www redirect
- Within your domain settings will be a section titled “Redirect Domain” containing fields reading “Source URL” and “Redirect URL” like the example screenshot
- Remove the field entirely–you no longer need this redirect!
⚠️ Note: This setting varies widely across different registrars, please contact us if you need assistance
3. Set up an A record for the bare domain
- Locate where you can add or edit DNS records.
- Add a DNS record and select “A” record type
- Enter the details for your new A record. For the host, either add an
@symbol or leave the field blank, depending on your domain registrar’s preference. - Then point it to the Carrot server IP address (
50.112.162.40)
Note: You can have multiple A Records for your domain, but you should only have one A Record for your bare domain. If an A Record for the bare domain already exists, you will need to either update it with the new value or delete it before adding the new A record.
Example:
- Type: A
- Name/Host: @ (the “at” symbol references your default domain name)
- Value/Points to:
50.112.162.40
4. Configure the www Subdomain (optional but recommended)
We recommend also configuring the www subdomain to point to Carrot, so that both mybusiness.com and www.mybusiness.com load your site.
- Add a New DNS Record and select the CNAME record type.
- For “alias”, “type”, or “name”, add the characters
www - For “host”, “address”, or “points to”, use
carrot.com
5. Check DNS records in Carrot settings
Once the above steps are completed, confirm everything is working correctly: start from your site Dashboard and navigate to Settings, then click on the Custom Domain tab. After entering your domain name in Step 1, click “Check DNS Records” and we’ll verify the domain setup and link to your Carrot site!
Move on to the final step of requesting an SSL certificate (if adding a domain for the first time) and allow for 24 hours for it to be issued.
Voila!
Your Carrot site is now set up to support any valid URL variation a potential visitor could input. Enjoy some peace of mind knowing that your domain is ultra-accessible to future visitors.
Running into any issues validating your domain? Just hop into our live chat and our team will help get this to the finish line.