In this article, you will learn more about:

  • Reasons why to connect a custom domain
  • How to connect an existing custom domain

 

Why would I connect a custom domain? 

There are many reasons why you may want to change the domain associated with your BookingKoala account and website. After all, your BookingKoala account primary domain is used for your BookingKoala website (including customer, staff, admin, and provider dashboards) and any links contained in your email and SMS notifications.

  • If you are using the BookingKoala website, you may not want customers to see BookingKoala branding including the ".bookingkoala" part of your default account domain.
  • If you have a pre-existing website with embedded BookingKoala forms, you may want to create and connect a domain to hide/"mask" your default BookingKoala subdomain so users won't see "yourstorename.bookingkoala.com" when they log into their dashboard (hosted by BookingKoala) from your site (hosted elsewhere).  
  • Or, if your business is rebranding, you may have purchased a new domain to reflect the new services or industries you are incorporating. 

Whatever the case may be, you can connect and manage one or more custom domains for your BookingKoala account using the "Change My Domain" option from the Design Forms & Website section. 

Important note: Please do NOT use the same domain for your BookingKoala account if you already have an existing website associated with that domain.  Websites can only have one primary domain, so adding the same domain to another site can result in issues with link routing, authenticating your site, and more.  If you are already using your primary domain for your existing website, you can create a subdomain instead and connect this to your BookingKoala account (discussed later in this article).

 

Connect an Existing Domain

If you already own a domain that is hosted outside of Bookingkoala, you can connect it to your BookingKoala account.  If you do not own a custom domain yet and would like to purchase one through BookingKoala, click here.  

To begin, please go to:

Settings > Design Forms & Website > Change Your Domain

Your primary domain will be listed under the "Domain Name" column.  This is the BookingKoala subdomain that was generated when you first created your account. 

To connect an existing domain, click the blue "Connect " button in the top right corner of the page. 

This will bring you to a "Connect Existing Domain" page. Next, type your domain into the box at the top of the page and click the blue "Next" button.

  • Important: Do NOT include "www" in your domain name unless you are sure you have a subdomain that begins with this. 

After clicking "Next", follow the instructions on the page to edit the A records for your domain.  Address records, or "A records", contain the IP address of your site's host and set the destination of your website.  If you want your domain to be used for your BookingKoala website, you will update your domain's A records to the BookingKoala IP address. The next few steps take place in your domain registrar/hosts' dashboard.

  1. Login to your domain's registrar account.
  2. Locate and open the domain's DNS settings page to edit them.  You may see a section called "Advanced DNS" or "Manage DNS settings".  
  3. Locate the option to add a new A record if there is no existing record, or edit an existing A record and update it with the following information.

    • Record Type:
      • Enter or select "A" or "A record"

    • Name:
      • For primary domains: Enter the @ symbol or leave the section blank if it says to leave the box empty to set up records for the primary domain. 
      • For subdomains: Enter the subdomain's name/extension here.
        • For example, you would enter the word "bookings" here to create a subdomain called "bookings.yourbusinessname.com".  

    • Data/IP Address:
      • Enter 18.188.223.178"(BookingKoala's IP address)
    • TTL: 
      • If you see this option when setting up the A record,  you use the host's default selection such as "Automatic", "3600", or "60 minutes". 

  4. Click whichever option is offered to "Add", "Update", or "Save" your new/edited A record.  

Please refer to the link below on how to edit the DNS records for some of the most common domain registrars used by our clients.  

If you do not see your host listed here, we recommend logging into your account and searching their help section for topics like "How to Edit DNS Records" or "How to Add an A Record", or contacting a member of their customer support team.  You are always welcome to contact support@bookingkoala.com and we can help you locate instructions for your registrar.

 

Check Your Domain A Records

Adding or updating your domain's A records can take up to 48 hours depending on the TTL period you set.  To check if the process has been completed, you can use the What's My DNS tool to see where the IP address has been updated for your site.

  1. After clicking on the link above, enter your domain name into the first box.
  2. Then, select "A" for the record type.
  3. Click "Search". 

The IP addresses for each server location will be listed below. Once the records have populated, all (or the majority of) servers will display 18.188.223.178 as the IP address and will have a green checkmark next to it.  You can refresh this page to check for updates if the records have not been updated yet.

 

Verify the Domain

Once the A records have been added/updated, you'll be able to finish connecting your domain to your BookingKoala account.  

Back under the Connect Existing Domain page in BookingKoala, click the grey "Verify Connection" button to verify that the A records have been updated.

Give the system a few moments to verify the records. Please do not refresh the page while the screen is loading.  

If the connection was successful, you will now see your custom domain listed below the original domain with the status "Connected".  

If the system displays an error message that says "It is taking longer than expected to verify your domain", please contact our support team at support@bookingkoala.com and let us know so we can assist you.

 

Set the Primary Domain

Once your domain has been connected, you can set it as your primary domain. This is important and ensures your system email and SMS notifications contain the domain you want customers to see.  

To the right of the new domain, click "Options", then select "Make Primary".

A pop-up window will appear, asking if you are sure you want to make this your primary domain. Click "Yes to continue.

Your new domain will now have the blue "Primary" label next to it.  

Your new domain has now been successfully connected to your account! To view what customers will see when they type in the domain, click the eye icon/"View" button.

Click the blue "Copy Link" button and then paste it into a private/incognito browser to see what your customers see when they navigate to your website.  

 

Next Steps

Once you have set up and connected a new primary domain for your BookingKoala account and website, you may need to take a few additional steps to ensure your account will work as expected.

 

Update Your Form(s) Embed Codes

If you have an existing website that has BookingKoala forms embedded, you will need to update your forms' embed codes to the new domain instead of the original BookingKoala domain.  

  1. Check that your newly connected custom domain has been set as the primary domain for your BookingKoala account.  If it is not, please follow the instructions in the previous section to complete this step.

  2. Log out of your admin dashboard.
  3. Type the new domain into the address bar in your web browser then add "/login" to the end.  
    • For example, if your custom domain is "demo2llc.store", the login URL would be "demo2llc.store/login"
  4. Enter your admin or staff credentials into the form and click "Log In".
  5. Follow the rest of the steps from our guide on how to embed forms on an existing website.  As long as you have logged in from your new domain, the embed codes will also contain the new domain.

 

Secure & Authenticate Your Website

Once you connect a new domain, your website's SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate may need to be updated to reflect the change.  A valid SSL certificate helps show customers that your website is authentic, secure, and owned by your business.

If your domain is no longer secure due to an expired or inaccurate SSL, you may see the following indicators:

  • A "Not Secure" tag is shown in the address box just before the domain name.
      

 

  • An exclamation point in the triangle icon by the address box or on the page.

  • The "https" part of the domain is crossed out or written in red

  • The page is blocked by a "Connection is not private" message

To fix this, please contact BookingKoala Support at support@bookingkoala.com so our developers can install/update the SSL certificate for your site.

When you email our team, please include the following details so we can help you more quickly:

  • Your BookingKoala account domain
    • Ex: yourstorename.bookingkoala.com
  • Any custom domain(s) connected to your account 
    • Ex: yourstorename.com, bookings.yourstorename.com, www.yourstorename.com

As soon as we receive your request, we will forward it to our developers for processing. Please allow up to 48 hours for the SSL certificate to be updated.  Our team will follow up with you to confirm as soon as the installation is complete.

 

Secure & Authenticate Your Emails

When you connect a new domain to your site, it may require you to update your site's DNS records to prevent your emails from going into spam as well as prevent email spoofing (when people use what appears to be your email address for illegitimate reasons).  These cases can be addressed by adding or updating your DNS's SPF and CNAME files. 

 

Add/Update an SPF Record

A Sender Policy Framework, or "SPF" for short, is an email validation standard designed to prevent email spoofing.  To set this up, you will publish a TXT record to the DNS configuration of your domain. This process varies depending on which web host you use.

Click the links below to view how to add an SPF record for some of the most common DNS/web hosts.

If your domain doesn't have an existing SPF record, you can publish a new TXT record in your DNS Records. 

  1. For the record type, select TXT (SPF is a type of TXT record).
  2. For the name, enter "@" or leave it blank (this depends on your domain host).
  3. For the value, enter "v=spf1 include:amazonses.com ~all"
    1. If you would like to authenticate emails from multiple domains, you can enter each domain separated by a space
    2. For example: "v=spf1 include:demo2llc.com include:amazonses.com ~all"

Once the record has been updated/added and saved, it can take up to 48 hours to update globally.  

 

Configure Your DKIM Settings

If you are using a domain email address, you can configure your DNS settings to help with verifying your sender email address.  This makes it less likely for the email to be marked as "spam".  If you would like to set up your DKIM settings, please follow the steps below.

  1. Email us at support@bookingkoala.com to let us know if you would like to generate a CNAME file so you can configure your DKIM.
  2. One of our developers will generate the records and send you a .CSV file containing CNAME records.
  3. Download and open the .CSV file.
  4. Login to your domain's hosting dashboard and locate the section where you can edit your DNS.
  5. Copy the DNS records from the .CSV file you downloaded and add them to your domain's DNS settings.
  6. Click "Save" or "Update" (this will vary depending on your domain registrar).  
  7. Once the settings are populated, any further emails being sent out will not go into spam unless an email from your site is manually "spammed" by the client. 

Please note: It normally takes anywhere from 4 to 6 hours up to 72 hours for the DKIM settings to become verified.