Custom domain for an existing private Google site

[andy_wo]

I followed a dozen different guides on how to set up a custom domain for a google site. I'm pretty certain that I'm missing something with the DNS/CNAME set-up. 

When I put 'www' in the 'host' field I get an error:

There was an error processing your request. Please try again. If this issue continues, contact support.

My site is published at 'https://sites.google.com/view/*name*"  when I put the *name* in the CNAME records I don't get an error in the DNS manager, but the domain mapping doesn't work (it takes me to the default GoDaddy landing page)

Following this steps from Google:

https://support.google.com/sites/answer/9068867?hl=en

Step 1 and Step 3 worked fine.

[PL281 · Accepted solution]

@andy_wo

That is correct. The reason the google doesn’t tell you that is they don’t know what your current records are so they are just telling you how to set the record you need.

[PL281]

@andy_wo 

Without knowing your actual domain it's hard to say - but the default DNS zone from GoDaddy already has a WWW record - you should be able to just edit that record and then you'll be good to go.

[andy_wo]

So for 'www' I should replace the '@' with  ghs.googlehosted.com ? 

In all the walkthroughs it was always mentioned to just add a new CNAME and the error in the DNS manager is also pretty vague (could just say something like 'www' already exists or something similar)

[andy_wo]

Now I get this error on Google sites. 

This is the entry in the dns manager 

What am I missing here? 

edit: Now the error is gone ... looks like it needed a lot of time to process this. 

[PL281 · Accepted solution]

@andy_wo

That is correct. The reason the google doesn’t tell you that is they don’t know what your current records are so they are just telling you how to set the record you need.

[TLH · Accepted solution]

Hi @andy_wo,

Welcome to the Community!

Here are some general instructions from both GoDaddy and Google to getting your domain to work with a Google website.

You can use the following directions to update the DNS zone files in your GoDaddy account.

1. Go to your GoDaddy Domain Manager and access that domain's DNS.
2. Create 4 A Records - all have a "Host" name of "@" (no quotes) and "points to" the following:
   216.239.32.21
   216.239.34.21
   216.239.36.21
   216.239.38.21
3. Create a new CNAME entry.
4. Enter the subdomain name, for example, "www".
5. Type in the HOST name "ghs.googlehosted.com". This will point your URL to your Google site.
6. Create a forwarding command below the DNS listings in this GoDaddy account
7. Forward your domain to itself. For example, yourdomain.com should be forwarded to http://yourdomain.com. (Do not choose masking for this forward.)
8. This should create a forwarding IP address in the A record of the DNS.

Complete the setup at Google using the following as a guide.