You've built your site somewhere else, and now you want to bring it to Jottings. Your domain is already out there, people are linking to it, and Google knows it.

Moving your domain? That feels risky. What if you lose traffic? What if those backlinks break?

It doesn't have to be scary. Done right, a domain migration is clean and invisible to your readers. Your traffic stays. Your SEO stays. You just move your site to a platform that respects your ownership.

Let me walk you through it.

Why Move Your Domain?

First, the real talk: you should own your domain. Not Medium's domain. Not Tumblr's domain. Not someone else's platform.

On Jottings, your site lives at yourname.jottings.me by default. But if you already own a custom domain, you can point it here. Your site becomes yoursite.com (or whatever you own). You control it entirely.

That domain has value. It's part of your brand. Search engines know it. Your readers expect it. Moving that domain somewhere else is moving your entire online presence.

Before You Start: The Checklist

Before touching any DNS records, do this:

1. Back up your content

Export all your posts from your current platform. Save them. Don't rely on "we'll keep your old site up"—platforms change, go offline, or delete inactive accounts.

2. Note your current hosting provider

Where is your domain currently hosted? (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, your current site's control panel?) You'll need to access it.

3. Prepare your Jottings site

Import your content to Jottings first. Get your site looking good. Verify that everything works on the temporary yourname.jottings.me URL before switching anything.

4. Plan your downtime window

DNS propagation isn't instant. For the first few hours, some users might see your old site, others your new one. Pick a time that works (like Tuesday afternoon, not Saturday night when you're unavailable).

Step 1: Update Your DNS Records

This is the actual "switch." Your domain registrar has a control panel where you manage DNS. Log in there.

You need to add or update two records:

CNAME Record (for the www subdomain):

• Type: CNAME
• Name: www
• Value: yourname.jottings.me

A Record (for the root domain, if your registrar allows):

• Type: A
• Name: @ (or leave blank)
• Value: Contact support—we'll provide the exact IP

Not all registrars allow CNAME on the root domain. If yours doesn't, just do the CNAME on www and set up a redirect from the root to www.yourdomain.com. Most modern registrars support ALIAS or ANAME records that act like CNAMEs on the root—ask their support.

Pro tip: Set your TTL (time to live) to 300 seconds before making changes. This makes the change faster to propagate. After 24 hours, you can set it back to the default.

Step 2: Add SSL Verification

Jottings uses Cloudflare SSL for SaaS, which means you get a free SSL certificate automatically.

In your Jottings dashboard:

1. Go to Site Settings → Domain
2. Click "Add Custom Domain"
3. Enter your domain
4. You'll see a TXT record to add for verification

Add this TXT record to your DNS:

• Type: TXT
• Name: _acme-challenge
• Value: (the value Jottings provides)

This proves you own the domain. Jottings then issues an SSL certificate automatically. It usually takes 5-15 minutes.

Step 3: Wait for Propagation

DNS changes don't happen instantly worldwide. Here's what to expect:

• First 15 minutes: Some ISPs see the new location
• 1-6 hours: Most of the internet updates
• 24 hours: Full global propagation

Check propagation here: whatsmydns.net

While you wait, your old site still works. Visitors won't get errors. Sit tight.

Step 4: Set Up Redirects (Critical for SEO)

This is the part that matters for keeping your traffic and search engine rankings.

Every URL on your old site needs to redirect to the equivalent URL on Jottings.

Important distinction:

• If your old site was at blog.oldplatform.com and you're moving to yourdomain.com, permanent redirects (301s) transfer SEO power to your new domain.
• Your readers hit an old URL → get redirected → see the new URL → traffic flows to your new site.

In Jottings:

If your old content used different URL structures, you might need to set up redirects. Here's how:

1. Test your new site's URL structure first. Are your posts at /post/my-post.html or /my-post.html?
2. Document the old URL structure from your previous platform.
3. Map them: Old post → New post
4. Contact Jottings support if you need help setting up redirect rules. We can configure them based on your old platform.

Example:

Old platform: blog.oldsite.com/2025/12/my-post Jottings: yourdomain.com/my-post.html

You need: yourdomain.com/2025/12/my-post → yourdomain.com/my-post.html

Getting this right protects your SEO. Broken redirects lose all that link equity.

Step 5: Verify Everything

Before declaring victory, test everything:

1. Visit your domain in an incognito window

Hard refresh (Cmd+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+R) to clear cache. Your site should load from Jottings.

2. Check that your old URLs redirect

Test a few old links. They should redirect (if you set up redirects) or ideally go directly to the new location.

3. Test the SSL certificate

Visit https://yourdomain.com (note the HTTPS). You should see a green lock. No certificate warnings.

4. Check social sharing

Share one of your posts on Twitter/LinkedIn. Does the preview show your correct domain, title, and image? This confirms Open Graph tags are working.

5. Verify email works (if applicable)

If you have a contact form or newsletter signup, test it end-to-end.

The SEO Perspective

Search engines usually handle migrations well if you do it right:

You're winning if:

• Old URLs redirect to new URLs (301 redirects pass ~99% of authority)
• Both URLs don't serve the same content (no duplicate content penalty)
• You submit a change of address to Google Search Console
• Your new site loads as fast as (or faster than) the old one

You're at risk if:

• You delete the old site without redirects (links break, lose traffic)
• You do temporary redirects (302) instead of permanent ones (301)
• You change URL structures randomly (Google can't map old → new)
• You forget to update internal links (your own links should point to new URLs)

In Google Search Console:

1. Add both your old domain and new domain as properties
2. Go to Tools → Change of Address (if available for your situation)
3. This tells Google: "Everything moved here"

It usually takes 2-4 weeks for Google to fully recrawl and reindex your new domain. Your traffic shouldn't drop, but it might dip slightly during transition.

Handling the Transition Period

For a week or two, keep your old site up. Some visitors might have the old URL bookmarked or cached. Some link checkers might still be hitting the old domain.

Once traffic fully moves (check your analytics), you can:

• Let the old hosting plan expire
• Delete the old site
• Keep just the DNS redirects for a while longer

But don't rush. A month of dual hosting is cheap insurance against missing traffic.

Custom Domain Specific Notes

If you're using Jottings' custom domain feature:

• Jottings handles SSL automatically (no certificate hassles)
• Your old domain's analytics don't transfer—set up Google Analytics on the new domain
• Email forwarding (if your domain had it) needs to be re-configured in your registrar
• Subdomains can redirect independently

Common Mistakes (Don't Do These)

Switching DNS without redirects

Your old site disappears. Broken links everywhere. Users bookmark old URLs and get 404 errors. Search engines see missing pages.

Using temporary redirects (302)

Google doesn't transfer ranking power with 302 redirects. It treats it as temporary. Use 301s (permanent) so Google moves your authority to the new domain.

Not testing SSL first

Your site loads fine on HTTP, but https://yourdomain.com shows a certificate error. Visitors distrust it. This kills conversions.

Forgetting about forgotten pages

Old platform had an /about page. New site has /about-me. The old URL gets no redirect. That was a top landing page from search. You just lost that traffic.

Changing everything at once

New domain. New design. New URL structure. You can't tell what broke what. Do the domain move first. Redesign later.

You're Not Alone

Domain migrations happen every day. Thousands of people have done this. If something goes wrong, it's almost always fixable. No data is destroyed. No traffic is lost forever.

The worst case: you wait a few days, fix your redirects, and try again. The web is forgiving like that.

Next Steps

Ready to move your domain to Jottings?

1. Make sure your site is imported and looks good on the temporary URL
2. Go through the DNS checklist above
3. Contact support if you need help with your specific registrar
4. Give DNS 24 hours to propagate
5. Verify everything works
6. Watch your analytics as traffic transitions over

You've built something worth owning. Now own it properly.

Get started with a custom domain →