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A Simple Guide · Domains & DNS
How to Point Your IONOS Domain to Your New Website
If we built your personal-brand site and your domain is registered at IONOS (formerly 1&1 — nameservers that look like ns1060.ui-dns.com), this is the two-minute change that makes your new site appear on your own domain. We give you one IP address, you paste it into two records and click Save — and your email keeps working, untouched.
There are two ways to connect a domain to a site: change a DNS record, or change the nameservers. For an IONOS domain we recommend the first one. It is simpler, it is reversible in one click, and it keeps your email working, because you leave your MX mail records exactly as they are.
Method 1 — Edit the A record (recommended)
Keep IONOS’s nameservers. Change two lines (the
Keep IONOS’s nameservers. Change two lines (the
A records for @ and www) to our server’s IP. Your mail and every other record stay as they are.Method 2 — Change nameservers
Hand your whole DNS zone to our host. Only use this if we told you to. It moves every record, so email has to be rebuilt on the new side.
Hand your whole DNS zone to our host. Only use this if we told you to. It moves every record, so email has to be rebuilt on the new side.
If you have an @yourdomain email address, use Method 1. IONOS sets up mail on your domain by default, so a lot of people have working mail on the domain even when they mostly read it somewhere else. Method 1 leaves that alone. Method 2 would stop it.
Method 1 — Change the A record at IONOS (2 minutes)
What you need from us: one IP address, e.g.
34.199.192.119. Use the exact IP in the email we sent you.
- Sign in to IONOS at ionos.com (or ionos.de / ionos.co.uk — whichever you registered with) and open your account. If you have more than one contract, pick the one your domain sits in.
- Open Domains & SSL. In the main menu choose Domains & SSL (German: Domains & SSL). You’ll see the list of domains in your account.
- Open the DNS settings for your domain. Click the gear / three-dot menu next to your domain and choose DNS (German: DNS-Einstellungen). You’ll now see the list of DNS records.
- Edit the root
Arecord. Find the row with TypeAand Host name@(that means the bare domain). Click the pencil / Edit (German: Bearbeiten), replace the Value / Wert with the IP we gave you, and save. Leave TTL at whatever it already is. - Do the same for
www. Look for anArecord with host namewww. If it exists, edit it to the same IP. If instead there is aCNAMEforwww, delete it and add a new record: Add record (German: Record hinzufügen) → typeA→ host namewww→ the same IP. - Leave your mail records alone. Do not touch or delete the
MXrecords (they look likemx00.ionos.de/mx01.ionos.de) or theTXTrecord startingv=spf1. Those are what keep your email arriving. You are only changing the twoArecords. - Save. IONOS applies the change on its own nameservers, usually within a few minutes and at most an hour. That’s the whole job.
What the two records should look like when you’re done
Type: A · Host name: @ · Value: 34.199.192.119
Type: A · Host name: www · Value: 34.199.192.119
Everything else — MX, TXT/SPF, any CNAMEs you didn’t touch — stays exactly as it was.
Two things you might see, and what they mean
“This domain is already registered” / Diese Domain ist bereits registriert
That is the IONOS holding page — the placeholder IONOS shows for a domain that has no website attached yet. It disappears the moment your A records point at your new site. It does not mean anything is wrong.
That is the IONOS holding page — the placeholder IONOS shows for a domain that has no website attached yet. It disappears the moment your A records point at your new site. It does not mean anything is wrong.
The
Also normal on a domain that hasn’t been connected yet: the IONOS holding page has no security certificate for your name. As soon as your records point at our server, a certificate is issued automatically and
https:// version of your domain shows a security error todayAlso normal on a domain that hasn’t been connected yet: the IONOS holding page has no security certificate for your name. As soon as your records point at our server, a certificate is issued automatically and
https:// starts working, usually within minutes. You don’t need to buy an SSL certificate from anyone.
How to check it worked
Wait ten minutes, then open your domain in a private/incognito window. If you still see the old holding page, give it up to an hour — browsers and networks cache the old answer for a while. If it hasn’t changed after that, send us a note and we’ll look at the records with you.
The one rule worth remembering: changing an A record moves your website. Changing nameservers moves everything, including your email. When in doubt, change the A record.
Registered somewhere else? We have the same guide for GoDaddy, TransIP and MyDevil. The whole intake process these guides belong to is written up in how we process group website requests.
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is the CEO of Local Service Spotlight, a platform that amplifies the reputations of contractors and local service businesses using the Content Factory process. He is a former search engine engineer who has spent a billion dollars on Google and Facebook ads for Nike, Quiznos, Ashley Furniture, Red Bull, State Farm, and other brands.
Dennis has achieved 25% of his goal of creating a million digital marketing jobs by partnering with universities, professional organizations, and agencies. Through Local Service Spotlight, he teaches the Dollar a Day strategy and Content Factory training to help local service businesses enhance their existing local reputation and make the phone ring.
Dennis coaches young adult agency owners serving plumbers, AC technicians, landscapers, roofers, electricians, and believes there should be a standard in measuring local marketing efforts, much like doctors and plumbers must be certified. He has appeared on 353 podcasts with 619 credited episodes — see the full list of his podcast appearances.