How to Connect a Domain to WordPress | WordPress.com Support (2024)

If you already own a domain name with another provider, you can use that domain with your WordPress.com site. Follow the steps in this guide tokeep your domain registered with your current provider and connect it to your WordPress.com site.

Connecting a domain to your WordPress.com site means:

• Your domain will show the site you created on WordPress.com without the ‘WordPress’ name in the address. Instead of a site address like yourgroovysite.wordpress.com, visitors can reach your site with an address like yourgroovydomain.com. The old .wordpress.com address will redirect to the new domain you add.
• You will continue to renew the domain name through the company you purchased it from (also known as your domain registrar).
• Your DNS records will be managed in your WordPress.com account.
• Connecting a domain (also known as “mapping”) is free with any paid WordPress.com plan.

1. Starting from your site’s dashboard, navigate to Upgrades → Domains (or Hosting → Domains if using WP-Admin).
2. Click the “Add a domain” button in the top-right corner and select “Use a domain I own” from the drop-down menu:

3. Type the domain name you own and click the “Continue” button.
4. On the next screen, you will have two options: transfer or connect. Click the “Select” button next to “Connect your domain“. It may take a few moments to be redirected to the next screen.

You have two options to connect your domain to your WordPress site: automatically setting up the domain connection or manually configuring your domain’s name servers.

If your domain registrar supports the automatic setup of domain connections, we will present that option to you first. Click the “Start setup” button to take you to your domain registrar dashboard:

You should then log into your domain registrar account to confirm the connection of your domain to WordPress.com.

Confirming the connection will take you back to WordPress.com, informing you that we’re verifying the domain connection:

If you click Cancel, the connection will be abandoned, and you’ll be presented with this screen:

If you get an error when trying these steps, don’t panic! Contact your registrar’s support, and they’ll help resolve this issue.

If your domain provider doesn’t support the automatic setup process, you can take the following steps to change your domain’s “name servers.” Name servers tell the domain where to look to display the website’s content. Your domain provider will have a setting for you to change the name servers to point to WordPress.com.

Click the “Start setup” button to guide you through changing your domain’s name servers:

You have two options for updating your name servers to point to your WordPress.com site: update them yourself or contact your domain registrar’s support. We’ll explain each method below.

You can log into your account at your domain registrar and replace any existing domain name server (DNS) addresses with the custom name servers for WordPress.com. If you don’t know where your domain is registered, look it up in the Site Profiler.

ns1.wordpress.comns2.wordpress.comns3.wordpress.com

For convenience, we have included links to instructions for popular registrars below:

You can contact the support team at your domain registrar to make the DNS changes or help you make them. Here is a sample message you can send to them:

I would like to use my domain with a WordPress.com site. In order to do this, I need to point my domain’s name servers to the following:

ns1.wordpress.com
ns2.wordpress.com
ns3.wordpress.com

If you have already connected multiple domain names to your WordPress.com site, you may be prompted to verify your domain ownership before starting the setup process.

To confirm your domain ownership, you can obtain an authorization code from your domain registrar. The authorization code is sometimes referred to as a transfer code, auth code, or EPP code, and is commonly used for domain transfer. However, the domain will not be transferred in this scenario — the code is only used to confirm you are the domain owner.

You can obtain this code from your domain registrar (where the domain is registered.) Once you provide the authorization code, you will be able to proceed with the next step to connect your domain name

After changing the name servers, give it time for the change to take effect. After changing the name servers, the domain might not load right away. It is usually up and running within a few hours, but it can take up to 72 hours for the DNS to fully update across global servers and internet service providers.

To confirm the domain is connected to your site, try visiting the domain in a new tab in your browser. If it loads your WordPress.com website, then it’s working! You can also visit your Domainsand look under theStatuscolumn to the right of your domain. It should sayActive, like this:

If it still saysVerifying, try waiting a few hours before taking the next step. Once you see the status change toActive, then your domain is connected. If the domain is still not loading the correct site, you may need to clear your browser’s cache to see the changes.

The final step is to go to Upgrades → Domains (or Hosting → Domains if using WP-Admin) and select your newly-connected domain as the primary domain. See Set a Primary Address for more.