In the recent months, anytime I am asked to help a client to set up domain purchase, email and web hosting, I’ve been using a combination of Google App and 3rd party web hosts such as GoDaddy.com. I prefer to register the domain via Google App for $10/yr which include private registration and everything Google has to offer. The same purchase will cost twice to three times as much elsewhere. For example, at GoDaddy, the cost of any given domain might look something like this:
- Domain: $14.99/yr
- Private Domain Registration: $8.99/yr
- Email: $19.99/yr (which reduces your domain to just $1.99)
Total: $30.99/yr
The tricky part (while not really tricky at all) is configuring thr DNS of the Google App to point web hosting to the 3rd party while retaining email and everything else on Google.
To configure DNS for your Google App to work with a 3rd party web host:
- Go to the admin dashboard for your domain
- Click Domain Settings in the top navigation bar
- Click the Domain Names tab under Domain Settings
- Click Advanced DNS Settings and following the instructions on the next page
- Once you’re logged in, click on your domain name
- Click “Total DNS Control and MX Records” in the middle column of the top box
- Once you’re in Total DNS Control, remove all the A Records and put in a single A record with @ as the host and IP pointing to your 3rd party web host.
- In CNAMES, modify the www record from being pointed to ghs.google.com to @.
That’s it! The changes might take up to 48 hours to propagate but your job is done.
