Make your address work without the www

The rules of the internet do not let a bare domain point at another company’s service the way www can. That is true of every website platform, not just BPA. So the bare address is redirected to the www one, and that redirect is set up where your DNS lives, not by us.

The rule behind all of this. Whatever answers on your bare domain has to present a valid certificate before it can redirect anyone. A redirect cannot happen over a connection the browser has already refused. That one fact is why some options below work and others only look like they do.

Before you start

• Your www address already working on BPA.
• Knowing who manages your DNS. Usually your IT provider, or wherever you bought the domain.

Steps

1. Redirect at your DNS provider.
   Pick this one if you can. Cloudflare, Amazon Route 53, DNSimple and Azure DNS can all redirect a bare domain on their own, with no web hosting behind it. The certificate is included free and renews itself. No ongoing cost, nothing to maintain.
2. If that is not available, move your DNS to Cloudflare first.
   Free, about half an hour, and a change of nameservers only. Every existing record including all your email records is copied across first and keeps answering exactly as before. Then you are on the option above.
3. Or use your existing web host, knowing the catch.
   If you already pay for cPanel or similar, a redirect rule there works and its certificate covers it. The catch is real: that hosting bill becomes permanent. Cancel it in a year and your bare domain quietly stops working, with nothing to say why. Write it down where your team will find it.
4. Registrar forwarding, but test it before you rely on it.
   GoDaddy, Crazy Domains and Vodien offer this and it sometimes works. Many only forward insecure traffic, so a visitor arriving at the https address, which is what browsers try first, gets a warning before the redirect ever runs.
5. Launching on www only.
   A valid way to go live on time, but people do type the short version and print it on business cards. If you do this, make sure everyone publishing your address uses the www form until it is sorted.

What you should see

Typing your address with or without the www lands on your site, with a padlock either way.

If it does not work

The short address shows a security warning.
You are on registrar forwarding and it is only covering insecure traffic. Tell us and we will move you to a DNS provider redirect.

The short address does nothing at all.
No redirect has been set up yet. Work down the list above from the top.