Custom Domains are a continuation of your brand identity as a photographer. They help you stand out in search engine results and make you more recognizable to existing and potential customers.

In this article, we’ll cover how you can connect your custom domain (e.g., https://jbensonphotography.com/) to Aftershoot Galleries.

All this means is that your domain’s DNS records will be pointed towards Aftershoot, while your domain in itself will continue being registered and hosted by your provider.

Two things are necessary for you to connect a domain to Aftershoot Galleries:

Log in to your domain provider’s dashboard and go to DNS Settings. Usually, it’s a tab called DNS Settings, Zone File Settings, Domain Manager, or something similar to that.

Note: When you follow the steps in this article, it’s important not to modify any existing MX records. These manage the email address associated with your domain, and modifying them will interrupt its service.

The next step is to add certain records to your DNS settings, the first one being a CNAME record. If you have another one for www in your records, please delete it before proceeding. Otherwise, it might interfere with the new one you will set up.

If you don’t have or have already deleted the existing one, add a new CNAME record with the following properties.

Note: Do not replace www or domain.aftershoot.com with your own username or personal domain details.

Now we will be adding A records in your DNS settings. Same before, if you have existing ones already, please delete them, so they don’t interfere with the new ones.

In case you’re not able to enter the @ key when creating your A records, try leaving the field blank or entering your own domain name.

Note: We recommend copying and pasting the values from the table below to ensure both records are entered correctly.

If everything was done correctly, your DNS settings should have one CNAME record for www and two A records for @. The exact order may differ depending on your specific domain provider’s dashboard.

If your CNAME and A records don’t have the same values as the ones provided above, please modify them before proceeding to the next step.

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Once you’ve checked that all the records are entered correctly, you can go ahead and connect your domain to Aftershoot Galleries.
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1. Log in to your Aftershoot Galleries account

2. On the Homepage, go to Settings
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3. There, enable the toggle under Custom Domain

4. Enter your domain in the field that appears

5. Click on Verify

That’s it! If you see the following notice afterwards, then your custom domain was successfully connected. Our system will start generating a security certificate for it, and no further action is required on your end.

Note: At this point, the domain connection is in progress, but the DNS and SSL certificate creation can take up to 24-48 hours to be created and applied globally.
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And that’s all there is to it! Next, you should receive a notification confirming that your custom domain was successfully connected. Our system will generate a security certificate for and there’s nothing left for you to do.

Note: In case you’re switching your domain from another provider, and your pages are under different URL slugs, please consider setting up redirects. This will ensure that returning clients and search engines will find your new domain.

If you have any questions or issues, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected] or through in-app support!