Depending on your hosting provider, CNAME records can take anywhere from a few moments to 24 to 48 hours to propagate. Sometimes, your domain may remain in the Looking for CNAME or Configuring status for quite some time:
It could be that your hosting provider is still going through the motions of propagating the CNAME record.
While you wait, here are some steps to double-check that your CNAME record is set up correctly.
Check Your Domain's Propagation Status
You can check if your CNAME record is set up correctly by running a test on your custom domain using DNS Checker or MxToolbox CNAME Lookup.
- Add your custom domain's URL in the Domain Name field.
- Click the CNAME Lookup button.
The checker will look to see if there's a CNAME record set up for your domain. If you've set up the CNAME record in your DNS provider, a green checkmark will appear with the following message: DNS Record Published:
The record may still take some time to propagate, but you can use either tool to double-check that the CNAME record is detectable and correctly set up.
If you see an error message such as DNS Record not found, double-check that you've set up your CNAME record correctly in your DNS provider: Connecting Your Domain to Unbounce.
Double-check the CNAME Record Installation
Where the domain is registered and where the domain is hosted are different.
The main difference here would be with the nameservers the domain is using, and that is relevant to how the CNAME needs to be set up (in short, nameservers help connect traffic to your landing page via a server & IP address).
For example, if your domain is registered with Amazon Route 53, but then forwarded to GoDaddy, it would mean you're utilizing GoDaddy's nameservers instead.
So, you'd set up your CNAME record within GoDaddy's DNS, not Amazon Route 53. You can double-check the location of your nameservers by running a test in MxToolbox DNS.
Create a Test Page
Sometimes, you may still see a Looking for CNAME message even if you've confirmed that the CNAME record is fully propagated. This could mean that the Unbounce app is taking extra time to update its servers in the background.
Try creating and publishing a test page on your custom domain to confirm this is the case:
If your domain is try.yoursite.com, create and publish a page on try.yoursite.com/test to see if the page is viewable on the web when you enter the URL in your browser.
My CNAME shows as being set up correctly, but I still need help seeing my page on my new domain.
Your browser may have cached the page and stored a version that had not yet propagated your CNAME status. Clear your browser cache and history and try again, or launch your landing page in an incognito window and try again.
For more insight into clearing your cache, see this article: Why Do I See the Previous Version of My Landing Page After Republishing?
You can also contact our Support team for insight into troubleshooting your CNAME record and custom domain.
Troubleshooting CNAME Error Messages
If you've got a red Error finding CNAME message like in the image below, you can try reconfiguring your domain using the Retry button.
Click the Retry button beside the domain that you would like to reconfigure. This will allow the Unbounce servers to go through the process of communicating with your DNS hosting service to get that domain up and running once more:
Once you click the Retry button, the domain will revert to Configuring status. Give the domain some time to reconfigure.
Get Support
Though CNAME records can take a few days to propagate, if you've waited a few days, followed these troubleshooting steps, and are still experiencing difficulties with your custom domain, take a screenshot of your current DNS setup and contact us using the support request form.