Module 8 · Go live
Your own domain
Stage 7 of the kit, continued. Your .vercel.app address works, but it isn’t something to hand a client or a referral source. In this lesson you’ll put the site on your own domain, the address people type, with the padlock in the browser that means the connection is secure.
That’s fine. A Google Workspace inbox needs a domain, so buying one now makes sense. Read “Choosing the name,” then buy the domain at a registrar (Option B below) or through Vercel’s domain search. Stop there: connecting it to your site with Add Domain only works after the deploy lesson, so leave that part for later. Then go back to the Module 5 lesson “The contact form asks only what it needs” and carry on.
Choosing the name
If you already own a domain for your practice, skip to the next section. If you’re choosing one now:
- Use your name or your practice’s name. Something shaped like
janereyestherapy.comreads like a practice. A name that makes a claim, such as a promise about results or a title you haven’t been awarded, is advertising wording, and it belongs to the same check as everything else on the site. - Match the name on your license and your directory profile. Module 9 is about making those say the same thing, and the domain is part of that.
- Short, spellable, easy to say on the phone. Avoid hyphens and numbers. Say it out loud before you buy it.
Option A: buy the domain through Vercel (simplest)
Buying the domain where the site already lives means no technical settings to copy. Vercel connects it and switches on the padlock for you. It can cost a little more than a separate registrar.
- In Vercel, open your project, then Settings, then Domains.
- Search for the domain you want. Vercel documents buying through its domain search at
vercel.com/domains, so the button to buy may sit there rather than in your project. Check what your screen says. - Before you pay, read the renewal price as well as the first-year price. Then pay. Vercel connects the domain to your site and handles the padlock automatically.
A paid Pro plan includes one free domain for the first year, but only on certain endings, and not during a free trial. It doesn’t include .com.
| Included | Not included |
|---|---|
| .app, .dev, .online, .site, .space, .store, .tech, .website | .com, and anything during a free trial |
Option B: buy it elsewhere, then point it at Vercel
A registrar is a company that sells domain names, such as Cloudflare, Namecheap or Porkbun. Buying there can be cheaper, with a few extra steps.
- Search for the name, add it to the cart, decline every add-on, check the renewal price as well as the first year, and pay. Then carry on with the steps below.
- Make sure privacy protection (sometimes called WHOIS privacy) is on, even if it costs a few dollars a year. It keeps your name, home address and phone number off the public registration record, which matters if you work from home.
- In Vercel, open your project, then Settings, then Domains, and click Add Domain. Type your domain.
- Vercel will suggest adding the
wwwversion too. Accept. Vercel recommendswww.yourpractice.comas the main address and sends the plainyourpractice.comto it, so visitors reach you either way. - Vercel shows the exact records to create. Log in at your registrar and find the DNS settings page. DNS is the internet’s address book: it tells browsers where your name points. Enter exactly what your Vercel screen shows, the type, the name and the value for each record.
- Save. Back in Vercel, the domain’s status changes to show it’s working, often within minutes. The padlock is automatic.
Vercel tailors the records to your project and updates its recommendations over time. The values you need are whatever your own Settings, Domains page shows right now. Never copy them from a video, an article or this course.
Registrar pages are confusing and none of them look alike. Take a screenshot and hand it over:
Ask Claude to read your DNS screen
I'm connecting my domain to Vercel. Here's a screenshot of my registrar's DNS settings page, and here are the records Vercel is asking me to add: [paste the exact records from your own Vercel Settings > Domains screen]. Please tell me exactly what to put in each box, one box at a time.
What to check: every value Claude tells you to type matches your Vercel screen exactly. If anything differs, Vercel’s screen wins.
Domain changes can take from a few minutes to a few hours to spread across the internet. If it isn’t working after fifteen minutes, wait an hour before you touch anything. Re-entering the settings while you wait is the usual way a short wait becomes a long problem.
This is the moment the site becomes your practice’s real website. Write the address down once, exactly as you’ll use it everywhere, such as https://www.yourpractice.com. Module 9 puts it on your directory profile.
Once your domain loads with the padlock, check two more things: the plain name sends you to the www address, and a made-up test message sent through the contact form on your real domain arrives in your Workspace inbox, just as it did on the .vercel.app address.
Save the launch archive
Your site is now live at its real address, so save a dated copy of what it says today. Module 6 explains why the archive matters; this is the same routine, done at launch.
- Ask Claude to save a snapshot of the site as it stands.
- Open each page on the live site and use Print → Save as PDF: home, about, fees, contact, every specialty page, every notice page, and each team bio.
- Put the PDFs in one folder in your project folder, named with today’s date first, in the format
YYYY-MM-DD-site-archive, so the folders sort themselves. - Keep a copy somewhere other than the laptop you built on.
- Ask Claude to record the folder name in
compliance-log.md.
You should now see your site when you type your domain into a phone, with the padlock showing at the top of the browser. Both yourpractice.com and www.yourpractice.com land on the same site, a test message sent through the contact form on your real domain has arrived, and your launch archive folder exists.
It still doesn’t load after an hour. The DNS change probably hasn’t spread yet, or a record didn’t save. Check your registrar’s DNS page to confirm the records are still there, and look for a status or propagation notice on the registrar’s site. If the records match Vercel’s screen, keep waiting; it can take a few hours.
The plain name works but www doesn’t, or the other way round. One of the two records didn’t save. www should be the main address, with the plain name sending visitors to it. Compare both entries on Vercel’s Domains page with your registrar, line by line, and fix the one that differs.
No padlock, or the browser warns about the connection. The security certificate usually hasn’t finished issuing. Wait an hour. If it continues, remove the domain in Vercel and add it again.
- Choose your name or practice name for the domain; a domain that makes a claim is advertising wording.
- In Vercel: Settings, Domains, Add Domain, and accept
wwwas the main address. - Copy DNS records only from your own Vercel screen, then give the change time to spread.
- Pro’s free first-year domain covers a set list of endings, not
.com. - Write your address down once, exactly as you’ll use it everywhere.
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