Not playing nice with Google Domains
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I am one of the owners of the domain firestonecenter.org, which I registered via Google Domains. I have no interest in moving to wordpress as my registrar.
A colleague of mine created the wordpress site firestonecenter.wordpress.com, which we would like to use as our primary website. As I read through your support pages, the only solution seems to be to move to the wordpress nameservers. Why is this? I still will be using several other Google assets, including G Suite. All I want is to point www to the site firestonecenter.wordpress.com. It seems rather backwards to use a wordpress nameserver when most of what I want this domain to do is on Google, whom also happens to be the registrar I choose.
Also, firestonecenter.org is a domain, not a website. I do not want firestonecenter.org, if entered into a web-browser, to go to the website http://www.firestonecenter.org. A domain is a domain, and a website name is a website name. Even worse, using wordpress’ nameserver, entering http://www.firestonecenter.org into a browser URL bar changes so that firestonecenter.org is shown. How do I prevent this?
Finally, I think to get what I want, we need to remove the domain mapping of the site to firestonecenter.org. Can you please remove that?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Why did wordpress add, “The blog I need help with is kenlaberteaux.wordpress.com.” Again, just wrong. As I mentioned, my question has to do with firestonecenter.wordpress.com.
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Hi there,
As I read through your support pages, the only solution seems to be to move to the wordpress nameservers. Why is this?
When connecting a domain here using our domain mapping upgrade we recommend pointing the name servers to us, as that way we can ensure all the DNS records needed for the site to work properly are correctly set up. And if, for example, our IP addresses change, we can automatically update it behind the scenes without you or your site visitors even knowing about it.
We support all common DNS records here, and you can add all the records required for your G Suite email to work with us.
https://en.support.wordpress.com/add-email-through-g-suite/
However, if you prefer you can point the domain to us using A records instead. Just keep in mind should our IP addresses ever change, your site will go offline until you’re able to contact us and get new, updated A records.
You will need to add two A-records with these IPs:
192.0.78.24
192.0.78.25
Both should be set on the root, not the www subdomain.
. All I want is to point www to the site firestonecenter.wordpress.com.
That is not possible, as we do not support the www subdomain on WordPress.com at all. You can connect the root domain, firestonecenter.org, to a WordPress.com site using our domain mapping upgrade. Both the www and non-www versions of the domain will work, but the non-www version will be the primary domain, and will be the one appearing in the browser address bar when viewing the site, and the version indexed by search engines.
Also, firestonecenter.org is a domain, not a website.
And likewise http://www.firestonecenter.org is a subdomain, not a website. A domain or subdomain is a human-friendly address for the site that is easier to remember than the IP address for a website on a server. But while it’s technically true to say it’s not a website, it’s a pointless distinction, as that address is how you reach a website.
Both the domain and the www subdomain are connected to and will load the same website in a browser. It will work this way at any domain provider who have things properly set up, and the only difference from one provider to the next would be if the www version or the non-www version is the primary domain that actually appears in the browser.
While it’s technically possible (though not on WordPress.com) to connect a domain and the www subdomain to different websites, that is not at all recommended and completely ruins a site’s SEO, as well as potentially causing other problems.
I do not want firestonecenter.org, if entered into a web-browser, to go to the website http://www.firestonecenter.org.
Even worse, using wordpress’ nameserver, entering http://www.firestonecenter.org into a browser URL bar changes so that firestonecenter.org is shown. How do I prevent this?
There is no way to prevent this, and it will happen whether you connect the site to us using name servers or whether you use A records. That is how it is supposed to work.
Finally, I think to get what I want, we need to remove the domain mapping of the site to firestonecenter.org. Can you please remove that?
The domain mapping upgrade for the domain firestonecenter.org belongs to the WordPress.com account with the username
benjaminstoltman, who is also the owner of the underlying WordPress.com site. We can only remove the upgrade at that user’s request.They can either comment here, or as the Premium Plan in their account gives them access to live chat support, they can also contact live chat for help with this at https://wordpress.com/help/contact
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Why did wordpress add, “The blog I need help with is kenlaberteaux.wordpress.com.”
Because that is the site set as the primary site in the account you’re using to post here.
You can change the primary site in your account from your Account Settings page:
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Stating that this is how it is “supposed to work” suggests little appreciation of the no-www/yes-www debate. There are a lot of smart people that maintain the yes-www position, and I find their arguments compelling. You seem to advocate the no-www position, and it seems fruitless to continue that debate here. After all, you are a site administrator, so we play by your rules.
That said, is there no way I keep the dns servers at google, and simply do a 301 redirect from www->firestonecenter.wordpress.com?
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Hi @klaberte,
A 301 redirect, created on your end to redirect here, would make the final url say firestonecenter.wordpress.com. If that’s okay with you, you can do that. It would not be a bad plan to remove mapping in that case, so please have benjaminstoltman confirm.
And sorry, to clarify, it’s supposed to work that way here on our servers for SEO and a number of other reasons we’ve thought over and decided on. We won’t be altering it as it would affect our entire user base, but that’s where a WordPress.org installation can come in handy: you can configure the setup as you’d like without affecting anyone else. You just wouldn’t be using our infrastructure and support.
If you need to use that option, again please have the account owner get in touch and we’ll advise on next steps and what not.
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LIsten, I get it. You have a user base that seems to enjoy your offerings. I’m less sure that they fit our needs and budget.
Ours is a simple, low-traffic website, and we shouldn’t need to give over nameserving to our webhost company when most of domain’s assets will be hosted by Google. I’m not even sure that our site is that dependent on WordPress. Even if it is, having already exported the site, shouldn’t it work straight away on another professionally-maintained WordPress server?
I’ll discuss all of this with Benjamin and the Board to see how best to proceed.
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Hi there,
Even if it is, having already exported the site, shouldn’t it work straight away on another professionally-maintained WordPress server?
Ues, it will work. You can easily export and import content to and from a WordPress site hosted here or elsewhere.
I’ll discuss all of this with Benjamin and the Board to see how best to proceed.
Please let us know if you need any other information regarding that matter. We’re more than happy to help you.
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