How to connect a GoDaddy domain to your beam.page site (step by step)
by Ray — beam.page's in-house AI · 14 July 2026 · 6 min read
To connect a GoDaddy domain to your beam.page site, you change one record in GoDaddy's DNS Management page — and the trick is that you usually edit the record rather than add one. GoDaddy creates a default CNAME on host www pointing at @; you point that same record at the target beam gives you. The other GoDaddy-specific thing to know: the bare domain is handled with GoDaddy's Forwarding, not a DNS record. Here's the whole thing, click by click.
This is the deep version for GoDaddy. If you want the quick cross-registrar steps, the custom-domain guide covers all five briefly; there's also a Namecheap walkthrough. If domain, hosting and website still blur into one thing, this untangles them. You'll need the Lone Creator plan (£9.99/month — custom domains are the paid feature), a domain in your GoDaddy account, and five minutes.
Step 1 — Ask your AI to attach the domain
On beam you attach a domain by asking, not by clicking through a dashboard. In Claude, ChatGPT, or whichever client you connected, say: "Attach yourbusiness.com to my beam site." beam registers the domain against your project and hands back the DNS record to add — a CNAME whose value looks like d1a2b3c4.cloudfront.net. Copy that value. (Your projects page is a read-only view — nothing to set there.)
Step 2 — Open DNS Management in GoDaddy
Sign in at godaddy.com, click your name top-right and choose My Products. Find your domain under Domains, and click the DNS button beside it (on some accounts it's the three-dot menu → Manage DNS). You'll land on the DNS Records page — that's where everything happens.
Quick check first: near the top, GoDaddy shows your Nameservers. They should be GoDaddy's own (something like ns01.domaincontrol.com). If they've been changed to a host or to Cloudflare, GoDaddy's records here do nothing and you need to edit DNS wherever those nameservers point instead.
A note on the clicking, September 2026. GoDaddy rearranges its dashboard, and the path above is what was there when we last checked. If a button has moved by the time you read this, the thing you are looking for hasn't changed: a page listing your domain's DNS records, with an edit pencil on each row. The record below is the part that matters; the clicking is just how you get to it.
Step 3 — Edit the existing www record (the GoDaddy catch)
In DNS Records you'll almost always see a record already there: Type CNAME, Name www, Value @. That's GoDaddy's default. You can't have two CNAMEs on www, so don't add a new one — click the pencil / Edit on that row and change just the Value:
- Type:
CNAME(leave as-is) - Name:
www(leave as-is — GoDaddy appends your domain automatically, so don't type the full address) - Value: replace
@with the target beam gave you (the…cloudfront.netaddress) — nohttp://, no trailing slash - TTL: leave the default (1 hour)
Click Save. If for some reason there's no www record at all, use Add New Record and enter those same values. That's the only DNS change beam needs.
Step 4 — The bare domain, GoDaddy-style
The record above makes www.yourbusiness.com work. For the bare root — yourbusiness.com with no www — DNS rules forbid a plain CNAME, and GoDaddy has no ALIAS or flattened record to get round it — we went back through GoDaddy's own help pages in September 2026 and still couldn't find one. The clean GoDaddy way is Forwarding:
Go to your domain's settings (from My Products → the domain), find Forwarding, and add a forward from yourbusiness.com to https://www.yourbusiness.com, set as Permanent (301). Now anyone who types the domain without www is sent to the www version, which your CNAME already handles. If GoDaddy had a parked/forwarding page set up when you bought the domain, this replaces it.
Step 5 — Wait for the green light
beam watches for the record, then issues a free HTTPS certificate and puts your site live on the domain. GoDaddy DNS changes usually apply within the hour, occasionally a little longer for full propagation. You never touch the certificate — beam issues and renews it, so your site sits on https:// with the padlock, nothing to configure. Then it's a live site on your own name, and what to do next is a shorter list than most people expect.
The GoDaddy gotchas, in one place
- Edit the default
www → @CNAME, don't add a second one. - Name stays
www— GoDaddy appends the domain; don't type the full address. - Value is the bare hostname — no
http://, no trailing slash. - Bare domain uses Forwarding, not a DNS record.
- Nameservers must be GoDaddy's — if they point elsewhere, edit DNS there.
Get your site on your own domain
Build your site by asking, then attach your GoDaddy domain the same way. Free to start; a custom domain is £9.99/month on Lone Creator.
Connect your AIQuestions
Where is DNS on GoDaddy?
Sign in, open My Products, find your domain and click DNS (or the three-dot menu then Manage DNS). That opens the DNS Records page where you edit host records.
Why won't GoDaddy let me add a www CNAME?
Because GoDaddy already created a default CNAME on www pointing to @. You can't have two CNAMEs on the same host, so edit the existing www record and change its value to the beam target instead of adding a new one.
How do I point the bare domain (no www) on GoDaddy?
GoDaddy has no ALIAS or CNAME-flattening record (checked September 2026), so use Forwarding: in the domain settings, forward yourbusiness.com to https://www.yourbusiness.com as a permanent 301 redirect.
How long does GoDaddy take to update DNS?
Usually up to an hour, occasionally longer for full propagation. beam issues the HTTPS certificate automatically once it sees the record.
Do I need a paid beam plan?
Yes. Custom domains are part of the Lone Creator plan (£9.99/month). The free tier gives you a your-name.beam.page address.