Using your own domain name

Move your website from your vadodara.biz address to your own domain name, such as spicegarden.in, and understand the DNS steps and status messages.

Every business gets a free web address such as spice-garden.vadodara.biz. You can also use your own domain name, such as spicegarden.in. This guide is for owners. The work takes about 15 minutes, spread over a day while the change spreads across the internet. You do part of it at the company where you bought your domain, and the vadodara.biz platform team does the rest.

Before you start

Your plan must include your own domain. The Growth and Pro plans do; Starter does not. You can see your plan in the owner app under Business → Plan. To change plans, ask the platform team.
You need a domain name. Buy one from a domain company (a "registrar"), for example GoDaddy, Hostinger, Namecheap or BigRock. .in and .com are the most common choices in India.
You need to be able to sign in at that domain company, or have the person who manages your domain ready to help.

Step 1: Ask the platform team to add your domain

Tell the platform team your domain name, for example spicegarden.in. They add it to your business under Domains, which only they can change. They also tell you exactly which records to add in the next step, including the A record addresses if you need them.

Step 2: Add the DNS records at your domain company

DNS records are like signposts. They tell the internet that your domain should lead to your vadodara.biz website.

Sign in at your domain company and open the DNS settings of your domain. They may be called "DNS management", "Manage DNS" or "DNS zone".
For your main domain, add one of the following. The main domain is spicegarden.in itself, often shown as @ or left empty.
- A CNAME record pointing to your vadodara.biz address, for example spice-garden.vadodara.biz.
- The A records with the addresses the platform team gave you. Use these if your domain company does not allow a CNAME on the main domain. Most do not, so this is the usual choice.
For www, add a CNAME record pointing to the same vadodara.biz address, for example www → spice-garden.vadodara.biz.
Delete any old A or CNAME records for @ and www that point somewhere else, for example a "parked" page from the domain company or an old website.
Save.

Important: Use only the addresses the platform team gives you. Records that point anywhere else are not accepted.

Step 3: Wait while it is checked

DNS changes take time to spread across the internet: often a few minutes, sometimes up to a few hours.

Your domain is checked right after the platform team adds it, and then every 10 minutes. You do not need to tell anyone when you have finished step 2.
As soon as the check succeeds, a secure https certificate is set up automatically. There is nothing to buy or install.
Your website then opens at https://spicegarden.in.

What changes once it works

Your own domain becomes your main address. Google is told to prefer it, and your sitemap and share links use it. Links the platform sends use it too, such as booking emails and your calendar link.
Your vadodara.biz address sends visitors to your own domain. Anyone who opens a page at spice-garden.vadodara.biz is taken to the same page at spicegarden.in automatically, so old links and QR codes still work. Google sees one website instead of two.
The website editor and owner app stay on your vadodara.biz address and are not sent on, for example https://spice-garden.vadodara.biz/admin and https://spice-garden.vadodara.biz/app. Keep using these addresses to sign in.
Google Search Console: if you use it, add your new domain as a new property. See Getting found on Google.

Good to know: Once the www record above is in place, www.spicegarden.in takes visitors to spicegarden.in, so both work. Share and print the shorter one, without www.

What the status means

In the website editor, go to Platform → Businesses → your business. The Domains list shows your domain with two read-only fields: Verified, which is ticked once the domain works, and DNS status. These are the messages you may see:

DNS status	What it means	What to do
CNAME → … or A → …	Your domain points to vadodara.biz, and Verified is ticked.	Nothing. It works.
No DNS record found yet (changes can take up to a few hours)	No record can be seen yet.	Check step 2, then wait. It is checked again every 10 minutes.
CNAME points to … — expected …	Your CNAME points to the wrong place.	Fix the record at your domain company.
A record … is not the platform	Your A record has the wrong address, often an old website or a parked page.	Replace it with the addresses from the platform team.
Custom domains are not included in this plan	Your plan is Starter.	Ask the platform team to move you to Growth or Pro.

If you later remove or change the DNS records, the next check notices. Your domain then stops being used, the vadodara.biz address stops sending visitors on, and your site goes back to its vadodara.biz address.