How to Set up your Custom Domain (CNAME Record)

Having a dedicated domain name for your LearnWorlds school plays a pivotal role in enhancing branding and increasing visibility, making it simpler for potential customers to locate your LearnWorlds school. Your online presence is the key to attracting more leads and customers. Even though we offer a default LearnWorlds subdomain/URL (e.g., yourschool.learnworlds.com), we strongly encourage all schools to connect their own custom domains. 

This process has been streamlined and automated within the school's Site Settings, ensuring a more efficient and seamless transition.

In this article, you will find more information on how to connect your own purchased custom domain at the subdomain level  e.g., www.yourschool.com.  In most online domain providers you need to add A CNAME record for the subdomain e.g., www.yourschool.com.

If you are facing difficulties in creating the CNAME record in your domain provider account DNS settings, you can always contact the support team of your domain provider or check the instructions in their documentation.

You can find more information on creating a CNAME record in:

• GoDaddy 
• Cloudflare
• Google Domains
• Other domain providers (e.g Dreamhost, 1AND1, Bluehost, and Namecheap)

You can connect your own purchased domain to your LearnWorlds school in 3 steps (see below): 

1. Create a CNAME record for your subdomain in your domain provider account.
2. Check if the CNAME record is successfully added.
3. Request the change in your school's settings.

A subdomain e.g., www.yourschool.com is an additional part (e.g. www) that comes before the naked domain e.g., yourschool.com. You can create multiple subdomains or child domains on your main domain to better organize your site. For example, if your naked domain is yourschool.com, you can create two subdomains for www.yourschool.com, academy.yourschool.com, etc.

If you want to configure a naked domain e.g., yourschool.com then you need to follow different steps and add three A records in your domain provider account. You will find more information here: How to Connect your Naked Domain (without www).

Create a CNAME record for your Subdomain

1. Login to your domain provider and navigate to the DNS Zone Editor settings.

2. Create a CNAME record. 

2a. The Host/Name will be part of your domain that appears before the naked domain. For example, if your naked domain is yourschool.com and you want to create the subdomain www.yourschool.com, the Host/Name should be set to www.

2b. The CNAME record should point to your LearnWorlds school URL (e.g., yourschool.learnworlds.com or yourschool.mylearnworlds.com, or yourschool.getlearnworlds.com).

Notes: 

• Make sure to replace yourschool.learnworlds.com (or yourschool.mylearnworlds.com) with your LearnWorlds school URL. 
• Do not include the https:// before your LearnWorlds URL or the / after.

Check if the CNAME Record is Successfully Added

1. Go to Google Admin Toolbox.

2. Insert your subdomain free of https:// or / at the end (e.g., www.yourschool.com).

3. If the CNAME record is correct, the Learnworlds school URL will appear in Target.

If the CNAME record has not been successfully added and you view a message such as "Record not found", you can contact support@learnworlds.com for further assistance or the Support Team of your domain provider.

Request the Domain's change in your School Settings

If the CNAME record has been successfully created:

1. Navigate to Site Builder → Site Settings → Domain.

2. Type the subdomain you created.

3. Click on Change Domain.

4. A pop-up message will appear confirming that your domain will be ready within the next 5 minutes.

Notes: 

• If you already have a CNAME DNS record for the subdomain you want to use, you can edit the existing entry and point it to your school URL. However, if the entry currently points to another live website, this change will affect the site, and it will not be reachable anymore.
• Once the new domain is ready, you and your users should use only this custom domain and not the LearnWorlds one you have used until that moment. The CNAME should not be removed to ensure the accessibility of your school. 
• You can have up to two secondary domains (Domains that redirect to your primary domain) available. 
• You can change the primary domain to a different custom domain, as long as the records remain correct.

• You cannot delete the default LearnWorlds URL.

If you also want to connect your naked domain (without the www), click here to check the steps.

You can find more useful information about custom domains here.

If you have a Mobile app, when your domain has changed, make sure that you change your privacy URL as well in your school's "Prepare Submissions" section. Also, feel free to contact us so we can make the respective changes in your developer accounts on your behalf.