Why doesn't my custom domain take me to my new SilkStart website?

If you've recently changed your DNS records to point a custom domain to your SilkStart website, you may find that your URL doesn't take you to your website right away. 

Check your settings

If the DNS records you configured for your website aren't correct, then your URL will not point correctly at your SilkStart website.

Think of your DNS records like a phone number for your website. If the phone number is off by just one digit, then you'll call the wrong person. The same is true with DNS records.

• Check the instructions for setting up a custom domain, and make sure that your DNS records match the required settings.
• Look for other records in your DNS settings that might be interfering. For example, if you have an A records for @ for your old website as well as one for your SilkStart site, the second record will interfere with your new records.
• If you're stumped, send a screenshot of all your DNS settings to your SilkStart onboarding manager. Our team can point out any issues that they might see.

If your custom domain takes you to www.silkstart.com

If you go to your custom domain and see the SilkStart homepage, contact your SilkStart onboarding manager or support staff. After you have correctly configured your DNS records, SilkStart staff must also update your website to confirm you can use your custom domain. 

Wait a while

It can take up to 3 days for changes to your DNS to propagate around the internet. This means that you could still see the old website set for your DNS records for up to 3 days after you configure your DNS records.

A good way to understand this is to think of your DNS records like a phone number for your organization. When you change your phone number, you need to make sure that you update everywhere the number is listed - the phone book, your website, your email signature, etc. It'll take a while for all the people who call you to update their records, and during the transition, a few people will probably still call your old number.

The same thing happens when you change your DNS records, because DNS servers are like massive virtual phone books. They check for changes on a regular basis, but it can take some time for notice of a change to reach them - usually up to 3 days. Until they get notice that your DNS records have changed, they'll continue to direct people to your old website. 

If you need to launch your website on a certain day, we recommend changing your DNS records up to 3 days beforehand. This way you can be sure that all your members will find the right site when they go to your domain.

Want to check?

There are tools that let you check a sample of different DNS servers to see what settings they have for your website. We like to use www.whatsmydns.net to see if the DNS settings used by servers around the web match the DNS settings SilkStart requires for your custom domain.