You Built a Web Page. Here's How to Put It Live on Your Domain

What you need before you start

Three things. The page itself, as a folder with an index.html file and its images. Your domain name, and the login to wherever you bought it (GoDaddy, Crazy Domains, VentraIP and so on). And a host, which for a page like this can cost nothing.

If your page only exists inside a builder like Wix or Squarespace, this guide doesn't apply: those pages live on the builder's servers and come with its monthly plan. See who owns the files on a website builder.

The steps, with Cloudflare Pages

I use Cloudflare Pages for small sites, including this one. Netlify works the same way.

1. 1. Open a free Cloudflare account in your own name

   Use your business email, not your designer's. Whoever owns this account controls your site.

2. 2. Upload the folder

   In the dashboard, go to Workers & Pages, create a Pages project and choose to upload your files. Drag in the folder that contains index.html. A minute later you get a free address ending in .pages.dev.

3. 3. Test that address first

   Open it on your phone and your computer. Click every button. Fixing things here costs nothing, nobody is looking yet.

4. 4. Add your domain to Cloudflare

   To use yourbusiness.com.au itself (without www), Cloudflare needs to manage the domain's DNS. Add the domain, let Cloudflare scan the existing records, then compare them with your old ones (see the email trap below).

5. 5. Change the nameservers where you bought the domain

   Cloudflare gives you two nameservers. In your GoDaddy (or other) account, replace the current ones with these. It can take from a few minutes to a day to switch over.

6. 6. Connect the domain to your page

   In your Pages project, open Custom domains and add both yourbusiness.com.au and www.yourbusiness.com.au. The HTTPS certificate is issued automatically.

The email trap

Your domain doesn't only point at your website. It also tells the internet where to deliver your email, through records called MX, plus a few TXT records (SPF, DKIM) that stop your emails landing in spam. When you move the domain's DNS to Cloudflare, those records have to come with it.

Cloudflare scans your existing records and copies most of them, but check. Before changing anything, take a screenshot of every record in your current DNS settings. After the change, compare them one by one, then send yourself an email from a Gmail address and reply to it.

If your email lives on a different domain from the website, even better: leave that domain alone.

Check these before you tell anyone

• Both yourbusiness.com.au and www.yourbusiness.com.au open the page, with the padlock
• Email buttons work. On many computers a plain email link opens nothing, so a contact form or a visible phone number is safer
• The page looks right on an iPhone, an Android phone and a desktop browser
• The browser tab shows a real title, not "Untitled" or "Document"
• You still receive email at your business address
• You have the logins for the domain and the hosting, both in your name