You can easily assign domains to your GreenGeeks hosting account directly from your cPanel, or your GreenGeeks Dashboard. This will come in handy if you want to assign extra domains to your account for one reason or another.
Types of Domains
GreenGeeks supports two different types of domains; Aliases which are a simply re-direct to another website, and Addon Domains, which are standalone websites not associated with the primary domain.
To learn more about Alias and Addon domains, please see our Knowledge Base article, Addon VS Parked (Alias) Domains.
How To Assign an Addon Domain Name
In order to assign more domain names to your hosting account, you first need to log in to GreenGeeks using your GreenGeeks email & password.
Method 1: GreenGeeks Dashboard
1. To add an Addon Domain using the GreenGeeks Dashboard, click on the Manage button next to your hosting service, on the Dashboard Homepage, or the Hosting page.
2. On the hosting management page, select the Domains drop-down menu & click the Addon Domains button
3. On the Addon Domains page in the Dashboard, enter the new Addon Domain in the New Domain Name field and click Add Domain.
It may take 90-120 seconds for the new Addon Domain to be added.
4. Once the domain has been added, a confirmation notification will be shown, and the domain will be listed in the Manage Addon Domains table.
5. After the addon domain is configured on the GreenGeeks hosting account, it’s time to point the nameservers for that domain to GreenGeeks to finish connecting the domain to the GreenGeeks hosting account.
Note that Addon Domains added using the GreenGeeks dashboard are setup with a default document root equal to ~/public_html/addon-domain.com.
It’s possible to set a new document root in the Domains section of cPanel without having to re-create the domain.
Method 2: cPanel
1. Inside of the GreenGeeks Dashboard, click on the green “cPanel” button to jump directly into cPanel and get access to the Domain maanager.
2. Once inside your cPanel, scroll down to the section titled “Domains” and click on the “Domains” icon.
3. On the Create a New Domain page, enter the new domain name in the Domain text field.
4. Deselect the “Share document root” check box.
Leaving “Share Document root” enabled will setup an Alias, not an Addon Domain.
It’s fine to leave the default Sub-domain and Document Root path, unless you prefer to set these to a specific value.
5. Double-check the information is accurate & the “Share document root” option is not checked.
Click Submit to create the new addon domain in cPanel.
It will take 60-120 seconds for the addon domain creation process to finish.
Once the addon domain has been created, you’ll be redirected to the Domains page and a Success notification will be shown indicating the domain name + the document root path.
If the process was successful you will now see your new assigned domain as part of your domain’s list in cPanel.
Troubleshooting Options
There are a few reasons why you might not be able to properly assign the domain name to your account.
Domain Already Exists
Domains that already exist elsewhere on the GreenGeeks network cannot be added, as GreenGeeks can only support a single entry for each domain. The domain would need to be removed from that account before you can assign it to another account.
When you visit the domain, if you see a GreenGeeks Parking Page, the domain may have been Parked by the GreenGeeks team for your protection.
If you are unsure where the domain is in use on the GreenGeeks network, or the domain has been parked by GreenGeeks, contact the GreenGeeks Technical Support team for assistance with verifying your domain ownership to configure that domain on your GreenGeeks hosting account.
Addon Domain Not Working
For domains successfully added to the hosting account, but not resolving to the GreenGeeks network, double-check:
- Nameservers – You may have the wrong nameserver set. Double-check the nameservers set with the domain registrar.The proper GreenGeeks Nameservers can be found in the GreenGeeks Nameserver Support Article.
- Propagation – DNS records may not have completely propagated.Once the nameservers have been updated, global DNS propagation can take up to 24 hours, although it’s usually faster it depends on your individual resolvers.For the fastest propagation times, GreenGeeks recommends using a public resolver such as Google(8.8.8.8), or Cloudflare(1.1.1.1).You can check propagation status using a tool like WhatsMyDNS.net; if some servers report different IP addresses, this is a sign propagation is ongoing.
- Cache – If you visited the site prior to updating the nameservers, you may be viewing a cached page, or have the previous DNS records(or lack thereof) cached locally. Try using a different device, or browser, to access the website.
- DNS Configuration Issues – There are some situations, like incorrect A records, or misconfigured DNSSEC, that will result in the domain failing to resolve, even after being pointed to the GreenGeeks nameservers, and setup as an addon domain.You can confirm the DNSSEC status using Verisign’s DNSSEC Analyzer.
If you are still having some issues accessing your new domain, and you don’t see any of the problems listed above, contact GreenGeeks Support and we will be happy to assist you with further troubleshooting.
Resources
Here are some other domain resources you can look into as well if needed.