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Connect Your Own Domain to a Static Site (DNS Guide)

By the Qorlize team · Last reviewed November 11, 2026

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You edited your page in a code editor or in Finipage, saved it, and uploaded the folder to a static host. It now lives at an address like seoul-bakery.netlify.app or kimbakery.github.io, and you want www.seoulbakery.com to show the same page. You've already bought the domain from a registrar such as Gabia, Cafe24, Whois or Namecheap. What's left is telling the host about the domain and adding one or two DNS records at the registrar. The typing takes five minutes; the confusion is about what the fields mean and how long to wait.

What DNS does, in plain words

Computers find each other by IP address, a number like 203.0.113.25. DNS is the phone book that turns a name into that number. When someone types your domain, their browser asks a DNS server "where is www.seoulbakery.com?" and the answer comes from records you set in your registrar's DNS settings (often labelled "DNS 관리" on Korean registrars).

Each record has three parts you fill in:

• Host (also called name or subdomain): the part in front of your domain, such as www. An empty host or @ means the bare domain itself.
• Type: what kind of answer this is, most often A or CNAME.
• Value (or data, target, points to): where the name should lead.

A records vs CNAME records

An A record points a name at an IP address directly. It works everywhere, but if the hosting company moves to a new server, your record goes stale and the site disappears until you notice.

A CNAME record points a name at another name, for example www → seoul-bakery.netlify.app. The browser then looks up that second name to get the IP. The host can change its servers whenever it likes and your domain follows automatically. That's why most static hosts ask for a CNAME on www.

The catch: a name that has a CNAME can't have any other record. The bare domain always carries other records (the SOA and NS records that make the domain work, often MX records for email), so the DNS rules don't allow a CNAME there. Some DNS providers work around it with features called ALIAS, ANAME or CNAME flattening. Gabia's and Cafe24's DNS manuals list A, CNAME, MX, TXT and SRV records and no ALIAS type, so with a Korean registrar assume you don't have it unless its manual says otherwise.

Where your host tells you the value

Every host has a domain settings screen, and the order is the same everywhere: first add your domain on the host's side, then create the record it asks for at the registrar. The host shows the exact value to use; treat that screen, not a blog post, as the authority. Roughly:

For the bare domain, hosts differ. GitHub Pages documents four A records, 185.199.108.153 through 185.199.111.153. Netlify says that without ALIAS support you add one A record pointing to 75.2.60.5. Cloudflare Pages only serves a bare domain that is a zone on your Cloudflare account, which means moving the domain's nameservers to Cloudflare. Copy the addresses from the host's current documentation rather than from here.

www vs the bare domain

With a typical Korean registrar, you have two ways to handle the bare domain:

1. A records, if your host publishes them. For GitHub Pages or Netlify, put www on a CNAME and add the host's A records with @ as the host. This works in any registrar panel.
2. Forwarding, if it doesn't. For Cloudflare Pages without moving your nameservers, send the bare seoulbakery.com to the www address with the registrar's forwarding feature (포워딩 in Korean panels).

Forwarding has limits. Gabia's and Cafe24's manuals both say their forwarding does not support HTTPS, so a visitor who types https://seoulbakery.com may see a certificate warning. At Cafe24, forwarding also means switching the domain to separate forwarding nameservers, so check with the registrar how your www record will keep working. Print and share the www address either way.

TTL and how long to wait

Every record has a TTL (time to live) in seconds. It tells DNS servers around the world how long they may remember the old answer. With a TTL of 3600, a server that looked up your domain a minute ago may keep the old answer for up to an hour.

A new record usually works within minutes; changing an existing one can take as long as the old TTL. If you are about to switch hosts, lower the TTL to 300 a day ahead. For a first-time setup, give it up to a few hours before assuming something is wrong.

Checking whether it worked

On Windows, open Command Prompt; on macOS, open Terminal. Then type:

nslookup www.seoulbakery.com
nslookup -type=CNAME www.seoulbakery.com 8.8.8.8

The first command uses your computer's normal DNS. The second asks Google's public DNS server for the CNAME specifically. A correct result shows the target your host gave you, such as seoul-bakery.netlify.app, as the canonical name. "Non-existent domain" means the record isn't there yet or the host field was typed wrong.

Online DNS checkers query servers in many countries at once. If they all show the right value but your browser doesn't, clear the cache or try a phone on mobile data.

HTTPS comes last. Hosts issue a certificate only after they can see the domain pointing at them, so a "connection not private" warning in the first minutes after DNS starts working is normal. If it lasts more than an hour, check the host's domain screen, which usually shows the certificate status.

Common mistakes

• Skipping the host side. DNS can be perfect and the browser still shows the host's own "site not found" or 404 page, because the host doesn't know which project the domain belongs to. Add the domain in the host's settings too.
• Typing the full domain in the host field. The registrar already appends your domain. Entering www.seoulbakery.com as the host creates www.seoulbakery.com.seoulbakery.com. Enter just www.
• A leftover record on www. Registrars often create a default A record or parking page for new domains, and an A record on www blocks the CNAME. Delete it, and turn off any parking or forwarding set on www.
• The trailing dot. In DNS, seoul-bakery.netlify.app. with a final dot means "this exact name". Some panels need the dot, others add it for you, and a few treat a value without it as relative and attach your domain to the end. After saving, look at how the panel displays the value and fix it if your own domain got tacked on.

Haven't uploaded the page yet? Compare the free hosting options first. With the domain working, run through the landing page checklist before you announce the address.

Want to try it on your own file? Open the Finipage editor. It runs in your browser and your file stays on your device.