The Custom Domain Addon allows you to show your own website’s URL to your students instead of your Trek subdomain.
If your school is called Mary’s Bakery, your site would live online at marys-bakery.trekhq.com. Using the Custom Domain Addon, your site can live online at any URL that you control, like marysbakery.com or courses.marysbakery.com.
Using a custom domain for your school is preferable for branding purposes if you already have an established website or plan to host your own website in the future. Your students will see the domain name of your choosing instead of your-subdomain.trekhq.com.
Activating the Custom Domain Addon
To activate the Custom Domain Addon, go to the Addons Page, find the Custom Domain Addon, and click “Add custom domain.”
The Custom Domain Addon is a paid addon. You’ll be prompted to add a payment card if there isn’t one already associated with your account.
Setting up Your Custom Domain
After purchasing the Custom Domain Addon, click the “Manage” button.
Setting up Your Custom Domain on Trek
The first step of setting up your custom domain is telling us where you want your school to live on the web.
In the example above, we want our courses to display at courses.marysbakery.com, so we put “courses” in the subdomain field and “marysbakery.com” in the domain field.
- You do not have to use a subdomain. You can display your Trek courses on your site’s index page by leaving the subdomain field blank and only filling in your domain name.
- Do not put “http://” or “www.” or anything else before your domain name in the domain field. It won’t work!
Setting up Your Custom Domain With Your Web Host
Setting up a custom domain is a two-step process. The previous step told Trek where you wanted your courses to display. Now, your site has to tell Trek that it’s okay for Trek to display your courses there.
To do this, you need to create a CNAME record in the DNS settings for your domain with your web host.
This is a very simple process, but can be a little scary if you’re not familiar with DNS records.
While setting up your custom domain on Trek, you’ll be provided with specific instructions for how to complete this step along with a simple script to copy/paste to your web host support team if you run into trouble.
Once you’ve successfully set up your custom domain, it can take up to 48 hours for your school to actually resolve at the domain you chose. Don’t be alarmed if your custom domain doesn’t work right away.
Deactivating Your Custom Domain
If you decide you no longer need to display your school on your own custom domain, you can deactivate it by visiting the Addons Page, locating the Custom Domain Addon, and clicking “Deactivate.”
When you deactivate your custom domain, it will immediately stop resolving and your school will begin displaying at your Trek subdomain again. Be sure to keep your students in the loop about where to find your courses if you deactivate this addon.