Skip to main content
Every site starts with a free address that always works. To have it answer on a domain you own, open the site, choose Site settings, and under Addresses use Connect an address you own. Type the domain — example.com or www.example.com, either works — and press Connect. Goosy Bear connects both halves for you: the bare domain (example.com) and www.example.com. www is your site’s main address, and the bare domain sends visitors to it once it is active.

​
The records to add

Add these at whoever manages your domain’s DNS — usually where you bought the domain, or a host such as Cloudflare or Vercel. The Addresses card shows every record your domain needs, each with its own state, including a certificate record or a CAA record if your domain asks for one. Copy the values from the card rather than from here.

​
The bare domain

Most DNS providers do not allow a CNAME on the bare domain, so they offer a stand-in with its own name:
  • Vercel DNS — an ALIAS record
  • Amazon Route 53 — an alias record
  • Namecheap, GoDaddy and many others — an ALIAS or ANAME record
These point the bare domain at our servers without being a CNAME, and a domain connected that way cannot be activated: our certificate provider only accepts a bare domain that is either a CNAME or hosted on Cloudflare. No extra record changes that, so the Addresses card tells you instead of leaving you waiting. You have two ways to finish:
  1. Move your domain’s DNS to Cloudflare (free). Cloudflare flattens a CNAME on the bare domain automatically (CNAME flattening), so add @ as a CNAME to customers.goosydoes.com there. The bare domain then activates and redirects to www. Cloudflare’s guide covers the move: Add a site.
  2. Keep your DNS where it is and redirect the bare domain. At your DNS provider or registrar, set a redirect (often called forwarding) from example.com to https://www.example.com. Your site lives on www, and anyone who types the bare domain lands there.
Either way, www works as soon as its CNAME is in place.

​
Finishing the connection

After you add or change a record, press Re-check on the Addresses card. Re-check asks for the domain to be verified straight away rather than on the next scheduled pass, so a correct record usually turns the domain active within minutes. The card also checks again on its own while it is open. The steps on the card turn green in order: the record is found, the certificate is issued, and the domain is ready. A ready domain serves your site as soon as the site is published. If the card says your domain currently resolves to a different address, the record at your DNS provider points somewhere else — often a domain still attached to another host keeps serving that host’s records. Update the record there, then press Re-check.