Using your own domain
On the Sites and Studio plans your website can use your own address, such as yourstudio.com.au. Buy the domain wherever you like — we do not sell them, and it does not matter who you bought it from.
Until you connect one, your site answers at an address of ours (yourname.meridianphotographers.com), which works and keeps working.
Step 1: tell us the domain
You can start from either place:
- In your panel: go to Website → Your address. Under Your domain, type the domain and press **Use this one**.
- In your account on this site: go to Your sites, press **Add your domain beside the site, type the domain and press Add domain**.
Type just the domain: yourstudio.com.au. Leave out www. and https://.
A domain already connected to another Meridian site cannot be added twice, and neither can one of our own addresses.
Step 2: add the records where you bought the domain
The screen now shows a short list of "records". A record is just a line of settings that tells the internet where your domain should go. **The screen shows the exact values for your site** — copy them from there, not from this page.
- Sign in to the company you bought the domain from (your "registrar" — for
example the business that sends you the renewal reminder each year).
- Find the domain's DNS settings. It may be called DNS, DNS records,
Manage DNS or Zone editor.
- Add one record for the bare domain. Your registrar's form will ask for a
Type, a Name (sometimes called Host) and a Value (sometimes called Points to, Target or Data): - If the Type list offers ALIAS or ANAME, choose it, type @ as the Name, and paste the value shown on the screen. This is the better choice: it keeps working even if we move servers. - Otherwise choose A, type @ as the Name, and paste the number shown on the screen for the A record. (If you already have an A record for @ pointing at your old website, edit it rather than adding a second one.)
- Add a record with Type
CNAME, Namewww, and the value shown on
the screen.
- Add a record with Type
TXT, Name_meridian, and the value shown
on the screen (it starts meridian-verify-). This proves the domain is yours, so nobody else can point a domain they do not own at us.
- Save the changes at your registrar.
Some registrars show @ as a blank box or as the domain itself — that means the same thing. If their form adds your domain to the end of the Name for you, type just www or _meridian, not the whole address.
Step 3: wait, and check
Changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to most of a day to reach us, depending on your registrar. Checking more often will not speed it up, and nothing is broken in the meantime.
- In your panel, press Check them now on Your address — or just wait; it is checked automatically every few minutes.
- In your account, press Check the records on the domain page.
Your address in your panel says whether the domain is still waiting or live. The domain page in your account shows a little more:
| What it says | What it means |
|---|---|
| Waiting for DNS | Your records have not reached us yet |
| Issuing certificate | The records are right; the secure padlock (https) is being set up |
| Live | Done — your site answers at your own domain |
| Needs attention | Something is not right; check the records against the screen |
The padlock is set up and renewed for you from then on. There is nothing to remember and nothing to renew yourself.
www.yourstudio.com.au sends visitors to yourstudio.com.au automatically, so you never end up with two copies of your site in Google.
Once your site is live on the domain, you can delete the _meridian TXT record if you like. It has done its job.
Nothing breaks while you wait
Until the domain is live, your site stays on its Meridian address and keeps working exactly as before.
Links in emails, galleries and bookings follow whichever address is live, so a gallery link you send today still opens tomorrow after the domain switches over. You do not need to time the move around your work.
Taking a domain off
- In your panel: on Your address, press Go back to the Meridian address.
- In your account: on the domain page, press Remove this domain.
Your site goes back to its Meridian address. Nothing is deleted, and you can connect the same domain — or a different one — whenever you like.
Moving from an existing site
If the domain currently shows a website you are replacing, the order you do things in matters more than the records themselves. See switching over from your old site.
The free plan
The free plan is for client galleries only and uses a Meridian address. Your own domain comes with Sites ($16.50 AUD a month) and Studio ($39 AUD a month). See the free plan and plans.