Connecting your domain to CrawlFixer

Help: connecting your domain to CrawlFixer.

Before you start

You need:

An active CrawlFixer plan (Site or Agency).
A custom domain you control, e.g. www.yourbusiness.com.
Your app's current address on its platform, e.g. yourapp.netlify.app, or your Bolt or Replit deployment URL. CrawlFixer forwards your visitors there. This must be different from your custom domain.

Step 1: Add your site in your account

Go to https://crawlfixer.com/account and sign in with your checkout email. We'll send you a sign-in link.
Enter your domain (www.yourbusiness.com) and your app's current address, then press Add site.

Notes:

*.crawlfixer.com addresses and free platform addresses (*.lovable.app, *.bolt.new, *.bolt.host, *.replit.app, *.replit.dev, *.netlify.app, *.vercel.app, *.pages.dev, *.workers.dev) can't be added as the domain. Put the platform address in the second box instead.
A Site plan covers 1 site. An Agency plan covers up to 10.

Step 2: Add one DNS record

If there is already a record named www (type A, AAAA or CNAME), delete it or edit it. You can only have one record for a name, and a CNAME can't sit alongside other records with the same name.
Add this record:

Type	Name / Host	Value / Points to	TTL
CNAME	`www`	`customers.crawlfixer.com`	Automatic (or 5 minutes)

Save.

Provider-specific notes

The menu paths below are general guidance; provider dashboards change. If something looks different, follow your provider's own help page linked under each one.

Cloudflare (help page)

Open the domain, then DNS, then Records.
Edit or delete any existing www record, then add a CNAME with Name www and Target customers.crawlfixer.com.
Set Proxy status to "DNS only" (grey cloud). An orange (proxied) cloud stops the connection check from seeing your CNAME and can block your secure certificate.

GoDaddy (help page)

Go to My Products, then your domain, then DNS (Manage DNS).
GoDaddy usually has a default www CNAME pointing to @. Edit it so the value is customers.crawlfixer.com.
Delete any A record named www.
If your domain uses GoDaddy "Website Builder" or "forwarding" on www, turn it off.

Namecheap (help page)

Go to Domain List, then Manage, then Advanced DNS.
Remove any www URL Redirect, A, or CNAME record (for example a parkingpage.namecheap.com record).
Add a CNAME Record with Host www and Value customers.crawlfixer.com.
If you use Namecheap BasicDNS, there may be a trailing dot on the value. That's fine.

Squarespace Domains (including former Google Domains) (help page)

Go to Domains, then your domain, then DNS (DNS Settings), then Custom records.
Delete any Squarespace default www record if there is one. Squarespace site presets add these.
Add a CNAME with Host www and Data customers.crawlfixer.com.

Other providers (Porkbun, Hover, IONOS, Route 53, etc.)

Same idea: one CNAME record, host www, value customers.crawlfixer.com, with no other www records.

Platform notes (Lovable, Bolt, Replit)

Lovable-hosted sites don't need CrawlFixer: they're already rendered for Google. CrawlFixer is for Lovable projects you've exported and host elsewhere.
Bolt / Replit / Netlify / Vercel: in the "current address" box, enter the platform address your app runs on (e.g. yourapp.netlify.app), not your custom domain.
Your platform address must stay live, because CrawlFixer fetches your pages from it. Keep the app published there. If your custom domain is also attached in the platform's custom-domain settings, you can leave it; remove it there only if the platform won't let you change the www record or it conflicts.
After the change, your platform may show the custom domain as "misconfigured" or "not pointing here". That's expected and safe to ignore.

Step 3: Redirect your root domain to www

Your root domain (yourbusiness.com) should send visitors to https://www.yourbusiness.com.

Cloudflare: use a Redirect Rule (Rules, then Redirect Rules) from yourbusiness.com/* to https://www.yourbusiness.com/$1, status 301. The root record must be proxied (orange cloud) for the rule to run. Only www needs to be grey.
GoDaddy: use Domain Forwarding to https://www.yourbusiness.com, set to Permanent (301).
Namecheap: add a URL Redirect Record with Host @ and Value https://www.yourbusiness.com/, set to Permanent (301).
Squarespace Domains: use Domain forwarding to https://www.yourbusiness.com.

Always connect www and redirect the root domain to it. Don't connect the root domain directly.

Step 4: Check your connection

After 5 to 30 minutes, press Check connection next to your site at crawlfixer.com/account. It checks:

DNS: whether your domain has a CNAME to customers.crawlfixer.com.
Secure certificate: whether HTTPS is active for your domain.

Once both pass, the site shows connected. Then:

In Google Search Console, submit https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
Optional quick tests:
- https://www.yourdomain.com/__crawlfixer/ping should return JSON with "connected": true.
- curl -sI -A Googlebot https://www.yourdomain.com/ should show an x-crawlfixer: prerendered-... header.

Your account page also shows when each site was last checked, its last render, and its sitemap link.

How long does it take?

DNS change: usually 5 to 30 minutes, sometimes up to an hour. Longer if your old record had a long TTL.
Certificate: usually ready within 15 minutes after DNS points to CrawlFixer.
First rendered snapshot: on the first bot visit, or during the weekly refresh.

Troubleshooting

What you see	Cause	Fix
"No CNAME record to customers.crawlfixer.com found yet"	The record isn't saved, hasn't spread yet, or was added to the wrong domain or host	Check the host is exactly `www` (not `www.yourdomain.com` at providers that add the domain for you), then wait up to an hour
"DNS points to X, not customers.crawlfixer.com"	Wrong target, or an old CNAME is still there	Edit the `www` CNAME value to `customers.crawlfixer.com`. Watch for typos and extra text.
Provider says "record already exists" or "CNAME conflicts"	An A, AAAA or CNAME record named `www` already exists	Delete the existing `www` record(s), then add the CNAME
Cloudflare: check fails or the certificate stays pending	Record is proxied (orange cloud)	Switch to DNS only (grey cloud)
"Secure certificate: pending"	Certificate is still being issued	Wait about 15 minutes, then check again. Make sure the record is grey (not proxied), and check CAA records (next row).
Certificate never issues and you have CAA records	Your CAA records don't allow our certificate authorities	Add CAA records (tag `issue`) for `letsencrypt.org`, `pki.goog` and `ssl.com`. If you have no CAA records, nothing is needed.
Page says "This domain is not connected to CrawlFixer yet"	DNS points to CrawlFixer, but the domain isn't added in your account, or the domain you added doesn't match exactly (www vs. root)	Add the exact hostname at crawlfixer.com/account
Bots get your original page (no `x-crawlfixer` header)	Plan isn't active, or a bot wasn't detected (normal browsers always get your original app)	Check your plan status in your account, and test with a Googlebot user agent
Visitors see an error or your old site	Your app's current address is wrong or down	Make sure the platform address loads on its own. To change it, remove the site in your account and add it again with the correct address.
"Use your own custom domain here"	You entered a platform address as the domain	Put your custom domain in the first box and the platform address in the second

Disconnecting

Remove the site in your account, then point your www record back to your original host. Your platform's custom-domain instructions will give the right value.

Need help?

Email info@crawlfixer.com with your domain and a screenshot of your DNS records.