Custom domains overview

A domain name is the URL or web address where visitors find your site.

By default, any site on Contensis is accessible from its Contensis subdomain, which has the form [alias].contensis.com.

Adding a custom domain allows you to make your site accessible at your own domain names, such as www.yourdomain.com or docs.yourdomain.com. All top-level domains are supported for your custom domain.

• Domain name (or domain for short): full name used to access a site. For example, alias.contensis.com or www.yourdomain.com
• Top-level domain: last part of the domain name. For example, the .com part in www.yourcustomdomain.com.
• Apex domain (also known as a root, bare, or naked domain): the yourdomain.com part in www.yourdomain.com.
• Subdomain: domain that is part of a larger domain; the only domain that is not also a subdomain is the apex domain. For example, www.yourdomain.com and docs.yourdomain.com are subdomains of yourdomain.com.
• Contensis subdomain: Contensis term for the default domain with the form [alias].contensis.com given to each site.
• Custom domain: domain you assign to a site.
• Primary domain: Contensis term for the main custom domain assigned to a production site.
• Domain alias: an additional custom domain assigned to a production site.
• DNS provider: company that maintains the DNS servers that translate a domain name to a destination.
• Name server (or DNS server): specialised server that translates domain names into IP addresses.