Connecting your Bluehost domain to an Elementor hosted website

Introduction

Creating an Elementor hosted website is your first step on the road to success. Now it’s time to attach a great name to your beautiful site.

In order to do this, you will first need to make some changes to the DNS records of your domain name. This document will walk you through the steps.

Before you begin

Before adding a custom domain name to your Elementor website, make sure you:

• Purchased an Elementor hosted website subscription and created a website.
• Purchased a domain name from Bluehost.
• Have access to your Bluehost login information.

Connecting your domain to your Elementor hosted website

1. From your My Elementor dashboard, go to Websites and click the Manage This Website button located in your website’s card. This opens the Site Details screen. 
2. In the Manage Domains section, click Connect my domain.
    

A pop up window opens.

3. In the popup window, enter the custom domain name you purchased and click Let’s begin. Use the domain name without www in front of it. 

By default, the system uses the name you entered as the primary domain and will connect the name with www in front of it. (e.g. mysite.com will be the primary domain, and www.mysite.com will also be connected.)

Note: Domain connection can take up to 72 hours. 

Editing the domain name settings with your provider

1. If the default checkboxes are okay, click Let’s begin.
   
2. Open a new tab in your browser, and if you haven’t already, sign into your Bluehost account. 
3. Once signed in, go back to the Elementor tab and click I signed in, what’s next?Google Domain account

Adding the DNS records

1. Go back to the Bluehost tab and click My domains.
   
2. Find the domain you wish to use for your Elementor hosted website.
   
3. Click Manage. 
   
4. Now that you’ve found your domain settings, go back to the Elementor tab, and click Found it, what’s next?
   
5. Go back to the Bluehost tab, and click the DNS tab to access the DNS records.
   
6. Once you’ve located the records, go back to the Elementor tab and click Found them, what’s next?
   
   You can now access the A record and CNAME of your Elementor hosted website. 
7. In the Update your DNS records section, under A record and/or CNAME value, click the copy icon to copy the A record and/or CNAME from the Elementor tab.
   
8. Go back to the Bluehost tab and paste in the A record or CNAME as detailed below.

Adding an A record

Important: If your domain DNS records have an AAAA (IPv6) record set, you need to delete it, because IPv6 is still not compatible with Elementor hosted websites.

The DNS Management page is where you create an A record for your domain. If your domain already has an A record set to “Parked” or another address, you need to delete it.

1. Locate the A Record section and click Add a Record.
   
2. Enter “@” in the Host Record field.
   
3. In the Points To field, paste in the A record value of your Elementor hosted website. This is the value you copied from the Elementor tab.
   
4. In the TTL field, use the dropdown menu to select “4 Hours (min)”.
   
5. Click Save. 
   

Using a CNAME record for the www address

To direct the “www” address to your Elementor hosted website, you need to create a CNAME record with the host name set to “www”. You may  already have a CNAME record for the “www” address set to your domain. If you do, you can leave this as-is. If you don’t have a “www” address in your list, you  need to add it from the DNS Management page. 

To add a “www” address:  

1. Locate the CNAME section and click Add a Record.
   
2. Enter “www” in the Host Record field.
   
3. In the Points To field, paste in the A record value of your Elementor hosted website. This is the value you copied from the Elementor tab.
   
4. In the TTL field, use the dropdown menu to select “4 Hours (min)”.
   
5. Click Save. 
   

Alternative CNAME method

You can also point your domain to your Elementor hosted account by adding a CNAME record that points your domain to your Elementor hosted website domain. For example, if your domain name is example.com and your Elementor website is example.elementor.cloud, create a CNAME record with example.com that points to example.elementor.cloud.

Finishing up

1. Go back to the Elementor tab.
2. Click I updated my records. Connect my domain.

So, what’s next?

1. Wait for the DNS changes to propagate (this can take up to 72 hours).
2. We’ll issue an SSL certificate for your website.
3. When your domain is ready, we’ll notify you by email.

Next steps

To get the most out of Elementor, check out the Elementor Academy for more learning resources. If you have any issues or need help, please contact our Support Center.