Connect your domain to SGEN

How to connect your domain to your SGEN-hosted site

Your SGEN site is live on a SGEN-assigned URL the moment you create it. Connecting your own domain — yourdomain.com, shop.yourdomain.com, or any domain you own — is the step that makes it yours. Once the connection is complete, visitors type your domain and land on your SGEN site. HTTPS works automatically. Pages routing is in sync. The SGEN-assigned URL continues to work in the background, but your domain is the one visitors see and share.

This guide covers every step of that process: from finding SGEN's nameservers to confirming that your domain resolves and your SSL certificate is active. The steps assume you own or control the domain and have access to your registrar's DNS settings. If you are not sure who your registrar is, check your domain's WHOIS record — the Registrar field names the company where the domain is managed.

Domain propagation can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours depending on your registrar and your existing DNS TTL settings. The steps in this guide are complete in under ten minutes on your end. The waiting part is out of your hands — but this guide tells you exactly what to look for when propagation finishes.

By the end of this guide, yourdomain.com will resolve to your SGEN site, HTTPS will be active, and any page you publish through SGEN will be reachable at its live URL on your domain.

What is this for?

This guide is for any SGEN account holder who wants visitors to reach their SGEN site via their own domain name instead of a SGEN-assigned URL. The connection is made in two places: SGEN's Domain settings (where you enter and verify your domain) and your registrar's DNS panel (where you add the records SGEN provides).

You do not need to be technical to follow these steps. You need access to two control panels: SGEN's admin dashboard and your domain registrar's DNS settings. Both are covered here.

The domain connection is also the prerequisite for several things that come after it. SSL/TLS is provisioned against your domain — not the SGEN-assigned URL. Pages routing works by domain. Redirects from old URLs at your previous host only function after your domain is pointed at SGEN. None of those features are available until the domain is connected. This guide is step one.

Good use cases

Domain connection is the right operation in each of these situations.

• **You registered a new domain and want it to point at your

SGEN site.** You registered yourdomain.com through Namecheap and are launching your SGEN site this week. Add the domain in SGEN's Domain settings, copy the nameservers SGEN provides, update the nameservers at Namecheap, and wait for propagation. Within a few hours, yourdomain.com resolves to your SGEN site. This is the most common use case.

• You are moving an existing domain from another host.

Your domain yourdomain.com already has DNS records pointing at the old host. Add the domain in SGEN, update your nameservers (or A records, if you want to manage DNS at the registrar level), and after propagation SGEN serves the site. The old host's records are replaced. The domain is now SGEN's.

• **You are connecting a subdomain for staging or a secondary

property.** You want wholesale.yourdomain.com to serve a separate SGEN site. Add the subdomain in SGEN, add a CNAME record at your registrar pointing the subdomain at SGEN's target, and wait for propagation. The subdomain resolves to the correct SGEN site independently of the root domain.

• You are adding a www redirect alongside your apex domain.

You want both yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com to reach the same site. Add both in SGEN's Domain settings — one as primary, one as a redirect. SGEN handles the redirect logic. Visitors who type either version land in the right place.

• **You are consolidating multiple parked domains onto one

SGEN site.** You own yourdomain.com and yourbrand.com as brand-protection registrations. Add these in SGEN as parked domains so that traffic hitting any of them lands on the main site rather than returning a DNS error.

• **You are rebuilding an existing site on SGEN and need the

domain to cut over at launch day.** You have been building your SGEN site on the SGEN-assigned URL for three weeks. On launch day, you point yourdomain.com at SGEN. Pages, redirects, and SSL are all configured in advance so the moment propagation completes, the site is live with zero downtime window.

What NOT to use this for

• **Do not use domain connection for DNS changes that only

affect email.** If you want to update your MX records, SPF records, or DKIM keys to configure email delivery for yourdomain.com, that is a DNS operation at your registrar — not a SGEN domain connection. SGEN's domain settings manage web traffic routing, not email. Email records go in your registrar's DNS panel directly, independent of whether SGEN is involved.

• Do not use this guide for multi-site domain mapping.

If you manage multiple separate SGEN sites and need to assign different domains to each, each site has its own Domain settings panel. The steps in this guide apply to one site at a time. Repeat the process in each site's settings — the domain panels are independent.

• **Do not use this guide if your only problem is an SSL

error on a domain that is already connected.** If your domain resolves to SGEN but shows a certificate warning, the domain connection is complete — the SSL provisioning step may need to be triggered or may still be processing. Go to the admin then Settings then Domain, find the domain, and check the SSL column. If it shows Pending, wait up to 30 minutes. If it shows an error, see the Troubleshooting section of this guide.

• **Do not change nameservers if your domain controls live

email, active subdomains, or other services through your current DNS provider.** Switching nameservers to SGEN transfers DNS control for the entire domain. Records for email (MX, SPF, DKIM) and other subdomains must be recreated in SGEN's DNS panel before the nameserver switch, or those services will go down during propagation. If you have any doubt, use the A record + CNAME method instead, which leaves your registrar in control of DNS and only routes web traffic to SGEN.

How this connects to other features

Connecting your domain is the prerequisite for several other SGEN features.

• SSL/TLS — SGEN provisions SSL certificates for

domains connected through Domain settings. Once DNS propagation completes and SGEN verifies the domain resolves correctly, the certificate is issued automatically. There is a step in this guide to confirm SSL is active and trigger it manually if it has not auto-provisioned. SSL is scoped to the connected domain — the SGEN-assigned URL has its own certificate already.

• Pages routing — Every page you publish in SGEN is

routed by domain. The URL yourdomain.com/about only works after yourdomain.com is connected. Before domain connection, your pages are only accessible on the SGEN-assigned URL. After connection, every page publishes at both URLs — but the custom domain is the canonical one.

• Redirects — If you are migrating from a previous

host, your old URLs may differ from the new URL structure in SGEN. The Redirects feature (under SG-Admin then Settings then Redirects) lets you map old paths to new ones so that visitors who follow old links land on the right page. Redirects are domain-scoped — they only function after the domain is connected.

• DNS settings — If you switch nameservers to SGEN,

SGEN takes over DNS management for your domain. The DNS Settings panel (under SG-Admin then Settings then DNS) is where you manage those records after the switch — including recreating email records, adding subdomains, and managing any third-party service records. If you use the A record method, your registrar retains DNS control and this panel is not relevant.

Before you start

Before opening SGEN's Domain settings, have these things ready.

Your domain is registered. If you have not yet registered a domain, do that first through your preferred registrar (Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare Registrar, Google Domains, or any other accredited registrar). The domain must be registered and active before you can point it anywhere. Newly registered domains are usually active within minutes.

You have access to your registrar's DNS panel. You will need to log into your registrar, navigate to DNS settings for your domain, and add or update records. If you are not the account holder at the registrar, get the login credentials before starting — you will need them partway through.

You know which DNS method you want to use. SGEN supports two methods: nameservers and A record + CNAME.

• Nameserver method — Point your domain's nameservers

at SGEN's nameservers. SGEN manages DNS for the whole domain. Simpler to set up, but transfers control. Use this if SGEN is the only service using this domain.

• A record + CNAME method — Add an A record for the

apex domain and a CNAME for www at your registrar, leaving DNS control with your registrar. Use this if your domain has email records, active subdomains, or other services that must stay intact.

Your SGEN account is active and your site is created. You must have at least one SGEN site set up before you can connect a domain to it. If you are starting from a new account, go through the initial site setup first.

Where to go

Go to SG-Admin and open the Settings menu in the left sidebar. Select Domain. The Domain settings page lists all domains currently connected to this site and an Add Domain button at the top right.

If you have never connected a domain to this site before, the list is empty except for the SGEN-assigned URL, which appears as a read-only reference at the top.

The Domain settings page is also where you come back to check connection status, trigger SSL provisioning, remove a domain, or change which domain is set as primary.

Steps — Connect your domain to SGEN

These steps take you from the Domain settings page to a live, HTTPS-enabled site at your custom domain.

1. Add your domain in SGEN

In SG-Admin, go to Settings then Domain and click Add Domain. In the Domain field, type your domain name without https:// or a trailing slash — for example, yourdomain.com.

Set the Domain type to Primary for your main domain. If you are adding www.yourdomain.com as well, add it as a separate entry with type Redirect — do that after the primary domain is confirmed.

Select your DNS method. Most accounts starting fresh with a new or unused domain use Nameservers. If your domain handles email or has active subdomains at another provider, select A record + CNAME to leave DNS control at your registrar.

Click Add Domain. SGEN adds the domain and immediately shows you the DNS values you need to enter at your registrar. Do not close this panel until you have copied those values.

2. Copy SGEN's DNS values

After adding the domain, SGEN displays the records you need to enter at your registrar. The exact values depend on which DNS method you selected.

If you chose Nameservers: SGEN shows two or four nameserver addresses (for example, ns1.sgen-dns.com and ns2.sgen-dns.com). Copy all of them. You will replace your domain's current nameservers with these values at your registrar.

If you chose A record + CNAME: SGEN shows an IP address for the A record (apex domain) and a target hostname for the CNAME record (www). Copy both. You will add these as new records in your registrar's DNS panel — one A record pointing @ (the apex) at the IP address, and one CNAME pointing www at the SGEN target hostname.

These values are always available in SGEN — you can return to Settings then Domain and click your domain to see them again if you close the panel.

3. Update DNS at your registrar

Log into your domain registrar. Navigate to the DNS settings for your domain. The location of DNS settings varies by registrar — it is usually labeled DNS, Name Servers, or Domain Management.

Nameserver method: Find the Nameservers section for your domain. Replace the existing nameservers with the ones SGEN provided. Most registrars allow two to four nameservers. Enter SGEN's nameservers and save. The registrar may show a warning that changing nameservers affects all DNS records for the domain — this is expected. Confirm the change.

A record + CNAME method: In the DNS records panel, add a new A record: set the Name or Host to @ (which represents the apex domain), and the Value or Points to field to the IP address SGEN provided. Then add a CNAME record: set the Name or Host to www, and the Value or Points to field to the SGEN target hostname. Save both records.

After saving, your registrar's DNS panel will show the updated records. The change takes effect as DNS propagates across the internet — this typically takes 15 minutes to a few hours, but can take up to 48 hours in rare cases.

4. Wait for DNS propagation and verify in SGEN

Return to the admin then Settings then Domain. Your domain's Status column shows Pending DNS verification until SGEN detects that the DNS records have propagated and are pointing correctly at SGEN.

SGEN checks automatically at regular intervals. You do not need to click anything to trigger the check — but you can click Verify now on the domain row if you want to force an immediate check.

For most registrars with a short TTL, propagation completes within 15 to 60 minutes. If the Status is still Pending after a few hours, see the Troubleshooting section below.

When propagation is complete, the Status column updates to Active and the SSL column shows Issuing or Issued.

5. Enable SSL

Once the domain status shows Active, SGEN provisions an SSL certificate for your domain automatically. The SSL column shows Issuing while the certificate is being generated — this usually takes two to five minutes.

If SSL shows Issued, HTTPS is active and the certificate is valid. No further action is needed.

If SSL shows Pending or has not moved to Issued within ten minutes of the domain going Active, click the domain name to open its detail panel and click Issue SSL. This triggers manual SSL provisioning.

Do not proceed to the next step until SSL shows Issued. A domain that is Active but not yet SSL-issued will serve your site over HTTP only — which most browsers flag with a Not Secure warning.

6. Publish a page and confirm it loads at your domain

With the domain Active and SSL Issued, publish a page through SGEN Pages and open it at your custom domain in a private browser window.

In a private browser window — not your regular window where you are logged into the dashboard — navigate to https://yourdomain.com. Your SGEN site should load over HTTPS. The browser address bar should show a padlock icon and no security warnings.

Navigate to a published page (for example, https://yourdomain.com/about) and confirm it loads. If you have no published pages yet, your SGEN site's default front page should appear at the domain root.

This step confirms three things: DNS is resolving, SSL is active, and Pages routing is working at your domain.

What success looks like

When the domain connection is complete and working correctly, all of these are true.

• https://yourdomain.com resolves to your SGEN site in

a private browser window. The padlock icon is visible in the address bar. No security warnings appear.

• The Domain settings page in the admin shows Status: Active

and SSL: Issued for your domain.

• Published pages are accessible at their full URLs on your

domain — https://yourdomain.com/about, https://yourdomain.com/contact, and so on.

• If you added www.yourdomain.com as a redirect, visiting

http://www.yourdomain.com in a browser redirects to https://yourdomain.com (or https://www.yourdomain.com, depending on your primary domain choice).

• If you connected a subdomain, https://wholesale.yourdomain.com

resolves to the correct SGEN site independently.

• SSL auto-renewal is shown as active — you do not need to

manually renew certificates.

What to do if it does not work

• The domain Status is still Pending after several hours.

First confirm that you saved the DNS changes at your registrar. Some registrars require an explicit save or confirmation step. Log back into the registrar, navigate to DNS settings for your domain, and verify that SGEN's nameservers or A record values are saved and showing. If the records are correct but Status is still Pending after 24 hours, contact SGEN support — some registrar TTL settings can extend propagation beyond the normal window.

• SSL is stuck in Pending even though the domain is Active.

Click the domain name in Domain settings to open its detail panel and click Issue SSL. Wait five minutes and refresh. If it remains Pending, confirm that your domain resolves correctly by opening https://yourdomain.com in a private browser window — a connection error here means DNS is not fully propagated yet, which blocks SSL issuance. Wait for DNS to fully resolve before re-triggering SSL.

• **You set up an A record instead of nameservers but the domain

is not resolving.** Confirm the A record type is A (not AAAA, which is for IPv6). Confirm the Name or Host field is @ or the bare domain (not www). Confirm the value is the exact IP address SGEN provided with no extra characters or spaces. Confirm the record is saved and not in a pending state at the registrar.

• **www.yourdomain.com works but yourdomain.com does not,

or vice versa.** This is a mismatch between the apex domain and the www subdomain. The apex domain (@) needs an A record pointing at SGEN's IP. The www subdomain needs either a CNAME pointing at SGEN's hostname, or a separate domain entry in SGEN's Domain settings set to Redirect. Check that both are present in both places: registrar DNS and SGEN's Domain settings panel.

• Email stopped working after switching nameservers.

When you switch nameservers to SGEN, your domain's DNS is now managed through SGEN's DNS panel (SG-Admin then Settings then DNS). Your old MX, SPF, and DKIM records no longer exist in the new DNS zone unless you recreated them there. Go to the admin then Settings then DNS and add your email provider's required records. Your email provider's support documentation will list the exact records. Once the records are saved, email delivery resumes after the next propagation cycle (usually a few minutes within an already-propagated nameserver zone).

• **The browser shows a certificate warning even though SSL

shows Issued in SGEN.** Check that you are visiting https:// and not http://. If the URL is correct and the warning persists, the certificate may have been issued for a slightly different domain variant (for example, issued for www.yourdomain.com but not yourdomain.com). Check the SSL details in Domain settings to confirm which domain the certificate covers. Add the other variant as a separate domain entry in SGEN if needed.

• **The domain resolves to a SGEN page that says "No site found"

or shows a default SGEN landing.** The domain is resolving to SGEN's servers but is not matched to your specific site. Confirm that the domain is listed in Domain settings for the correct site. If you have multiple SGEN sites, the domain may have been added to the wrong one. Remove it from the incorrect site and add it to the correct one.