Updated: March 4, 2024
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You have finally bought your GoDaddy domain name and you want to link it to your GoDaddy website. You are in the right place.
To do this you need both a domain name and a GoDaddy created website. This tutorial is for websites created through the GoDaddy website builder. We discuss the website builder in more depth in our review.
We will start from the beginning.
Login
Go to the GoDaddy homepage and login using your credentials.
Go to your account
After you have logged in, the navigation bar will now show your name at the top.
Click on the name to get a drop down menu. On the drop down menu, you’ll see a link labeled My Products. It is right underneath the ‘ACCOUNT’ section header. Click on My Products.
The page redirects to your account where you’ll see your products listed.
Click on your website
The website you want to connect to your domain name is among the products listed. In our case, we want to use the website we created earlier under the name of ‘Wain Rose’.
The website is currently connected to ‘wainrose.godaddysites.com’. A placeholder domain name you get when working on a website. Yours will be ‘yourdomainname.godaddysites.com’. It helps you see how the actual website is going to look when you connect it to your own domain name.
I’ll go ahead and click on the ‘Wain Rose’ button. Yours will have your website’s name. Click on yours.
Click on website in navigation bar
We should now be on the website dashboard. There is a button on the navigation bar named ‘website’.
When you click on the button, the page redirects to a website simulator.
The left shows how the website would look on a desktop. The right shows how your website will look on mobile devices.
Hit Publish.
The button is to the right. It is above the mobile simulator.
Choose a domain
You should see a banner telling you that your website is live.
Right below the banner, click on Choose a Domain.
Click on ‘I already own a domain’
You get another banner showing you the options available.
There is a question that comes up often. Is it possible to get a free domain with GoDaddy? The short answer is yes. Once you build a website through the website builder, you become eligible. From the image above, you’ll first choose the domain name you want and then select a plan. You get the free domain for a year. We discuss the plans in our GoDaddy website builder review.
Note that the domain is free for the first year. Those are the current terms that GoDaddy offers and they may change. You will pay renewal fees once the free period is over. The renewal fees for the recommendations above are listed in the image. Beware! Your domain is free in the first year but the renewal fees could be thousands of dollars. Confirm the amount renewal fees. You should also ensure you are comfortable with them before taking the free period.
For this tutorial, I don’t want a free domain because I already own one. I’ll click on ‘I already own a domain’. It will expand once you click on it.
Click on your domain name
The row expands to show the domains you own. Click on the one you want to use.
Click Select plan
Now that you have clicked on the domain name, select the plan that you would like to use.
Click Select Plan
This button appears if you have not selected a plan. The plan goes into effect when your free trial period is over.
Choose your plan
You get an overview of your available plans once you have clicked.
These are the current pricing plans as of the time of writing. They may change at any time. Use this image as a guide in the process.
The prices displayed are what it will cost you monthly but GoDaddy will bill you yearly. Multiply the numbers in the image above by 12 and you get the lump sum you will pay.
You can change the payments to monthly if that is your preference. You won’t pay one lump sum as is the case with yearly payments. When you total the monthly payments, they may be higher at the end of the year than the yearly bill.
Click on Bill me after trial for the plan you would like to work with.
Purchase is complete
It may take a minute to load. Once that is done, you’ll see a banner showing that you have completed the process.
Hit Publish
Wait for connection
It will take some time for the connection to take place. GoDaddy asks you to wait for the connection.
In the meantime, you can use your placeholder domain name as you edit.
Finally
Congratulations, you have connected your GoDaddy domain name to your GoDaddy created website. The process is simple and straightforward. There is a great article on connecting your GoDaddy domain name to websites hosted by other providers that you could check out. It is also a short read and great if you are evaluating your options.
Cover image by storyset on Freepik
