Making a website live

Before you put your website live, read through this page in full so you understand the process.

Checklist

Here's what you'll need:

• A domain name, e.g. yourstationfm.com

  If you don't have one, you'll need to choose a domain name provider and purchase one. Domains are typically paid for on an annual basis, it's up to you to continue to pay the renewal fees for as long as you want to keep it. If you already have a website using your chosen domain name, that's fine, you'll be able to point it away from your current service provider to us instead.

• Access to your domain registrar's control panel. 

  You're going to need to make changes in the 'DNS' section. Some domain providers make this quite easy, others not so much. We recommend working with someone who's quite technically confident if you're not sure what you're doing. We can't assist here, unfortunately, as a wrong move may impact other services, such as your email account - so it's best left to your own technical team.

• Access to the Site Settings app in Aiir.

Follow the flow in Aiir

To get started, head to Site Settings in Aiir's main menu (you'll need to have access to it). If you've got access to more than one website, you'll need to select the one you want to put live now.

Then select the "Domain and HTTPS" section from the side menu (or at the top if you're on your phone).

We'll then walk you through the process of putting your website live on your chosen domain. 

You can pause and return to this process at any time.

You'll enter your domain name, set up HTTPS, and copy some DNS records to your domain registrar's control panel. Your website will then be live to the world!

What do the two DNS records do?

The CNAME record containing 'www' is the main point of access for your website.

The A record is what people will hit if they try to access your website without starting the address with 'www' - we'll redirect them to the full address if they do.

We're often asked if the 'www' part can be avoided. Sadly not, it's essential for us to be able to handle variations in traffic levels. You don't need to read it out though, typing in the address without it will work just fine.

What do I need to be aware of if I'm switching from another provider to Aiir?

• If the addresses of pages on your website have changed, you may want to consider how this will impact Google and people who have bookmarked links which will no longer work. You can set up redirection for specific paths by going to Site Settings in Aiir, and then selecting the Files section. Add each path and enable "redirect to another URL". This will use a "301 permanent" redirect, so Google will know to update its search index.
• All websites on Aiir must use 'www' in their URL. If your current website doesn't, that's not a problem as we'll handle redirecting traffic to the 'www' version of your website's URL.