How to add a domain to your hosting account

Two separate things have to happen before a domain shows a website: it has to be added to your hosting account, and its DNS has to point at that hosting account. People usually do the second one and skip the first, then wonder why nothing changes. This covers adding the domain — the piece that happens inside your control panel rather than at the registrar.

Why the domain has to be added at all

A hosting account can serve more than one domain from a single control panel. For that to work, the server needs to be told which domains it should expect to answer for, and which folder each one's files live in. Adding the domain is that registration step. Skip it and pointing DNS at your server just gets visitors a default page or an error — the server has never heard of the domain and has nowhere to send the request.

Primary domain vs addon domain

Your account has one primary domain, usually set when the hosting was first ordered, and it is tied to the main public_html folder. Anything beyond that first domain is added as an addon domain, and each addon domain gets its own subfolder to keep its files separate from the primary site's.

Adding the domain, step by step

1. Open the domains section of your control panel

   The exact label varies, but it is the section that lists every domain currently attached to the account. There will be an option there to add a new one.

2. Type the domain name correctly

   Enter just the domain — yourdomain.com — without http://, https:// or www in front of it. Those get handled separately later.

3. Let the panel create its folder

   Adding a domain usually creates a folder for it automatically, often named after the domain itself. That folder is where the website's files belong — see what is the public_html folder if you are not sure how the folder structure fits together.

4. Confirm and wait for it to register

   This step is usually immediate on the server side. It does not, by itself, make the domain visible on the internet — that is the DNS part.

Now point the domain's DNS at your hosting

Adding the domain tells your hosting account to expect it. Pointing DNS tells the rest of the internet where to send visitors who type it in. Until both are done, nothing changes for anyone visiting the site.

If the domain is new, or was previously used elsewhere, follow pointing a domain to your hosting for the nameserver or DNS record changes. If you are not ready to switch the live domain yet and just want to check the site works first, see previewing a site before changing DNS instead.

Uploading the site to the right place

Once the domain is added, upload its files into the folder created for it — not into the main public_html folder unless this is your primary domain. Files placed in the wrong folder are the most common reason an addon domain shows the wrong content, or shows nothing at all.

What to do with a subdomain instead

If what you actually want is blog.yourdomain.com or shop.yourdomain.com rather than a completely separate domain name, that is a subdomain rather than an addon domain, and it is a different setting in the control panel. Pointing a subdomain at a folder covers that case.

Common problems

• "Domain already in use" errors. A domain can normally only be added to one hosting account at a time. If it was previously hosted elsewhere on the same platform, it may need removing from the old account first.
• The site shows the wrong content. Usually means the files were uploaded to the wrong folder, or the domain's DNS has not fully caught up yet.
• Nothing loads at all. Check the domain has actually been added in the control panel before troubleshooting DNS — it is an easy step to have skipped.

If the domain still is not resolving correctly after checking both sides of this, contact support with the domain name and we can check how it is currently set up on the account.