How To Link Your Domain Registration To Web Hosting

Now that you have your domain registered with Namecheap and your web hosting set up with Site Ground, it's time to connect the two together. That way, when visitors click on your website or type it into their web browser, Namecheap will point them to where your website is being hosted.

Note: If you kept a pre-existing domain registration with another company besides Namecheap, then you will need to do an internet search to see how to change the DNS nameservers for that company. This section shows you how to do it with Namecheap.

This article is part of the process in creating a website.

Changing Nameservers

Estimated time: 5 minutes of work, but up to 48 hours of waiting with 12 hours typical

1. Site Ground DNS: The first thing you need to do is login to your Site Ground account, go to the "My Accounts" tab near the top, and locate your "Account DNS" servers. Both nameservers should look something like: "ns1.usXX.siteground.us" and "ns2.usXX.siteground.us", where X will be specific for your servers.
2. You want to keep this window open since we will be copying these servers to use next.
3. Namecheap Login: Now, login to your Namecheap account, go to your dashboard on the left side toolbar, and click the Manage button to the right of your domain in the list.
4. Locate Nameservers: Scroll down on the next page until you see the Nameservers section, where the default setting is "Namecheap Basic DNS".
5. Custom DNS: Click on the down arrow next to "Namecheap BasicDNS", and select the "Custom DNS" option.
6. Enter New DNS: Two text boxes will now appear. You want to copy and paste the "Account DNS" servers from your SiteGround account in step 1 into these two text boxes. Make sure you don't accidentally copy any spaces on the front or end of the text.
7. Save DNS Changes: When you have entered in both DNS servers as shown above, click on the check box to the upper right to save the changes.
8. Confirm Changes: Now, go back to your dashboard on the left side toolbar, find your domain, and click the Manage button on the right side. Scroll down and confirm that the Nameservers that you just updated exactly match the "Account DNS" servers in your SiteGround account.
9. Time To Wait: Unfortunately, it can take up to 48 hours for the DNS servers to propagate to the entire internet. You will have to wait until this happens before your website is accessible. You can continue ahead and install WordPress at this point so that it is ready when the internet servers catch up.
10. Problems: If you have some unexpected errors or problems arise, in order to address them, you may need to submit a ticket with Namecheap support. You can do this by logging into your Namecheap account and at the top left, click the "Support" drop down, then you can use the "Live Chat" or "Submit a Ticket". If you click Live Chat, scroll down to the bottom of the next screen and there will be a button to start a live chat session.