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Dns explained

What happens when someone types your domain

Their computer asks a resolver for your domain. The resolver works its way up to the servers that hold your records, and then it hands an address back.

All of that happens before a single pixel of your site loads — and you never see any of it. The whole exchange usually finishes in well under a second.

When DNS is wrong, nothing else on your site gets the chance to be right.

Most site problems that look like hosting problems turn out to be a record pointing at the wrong place.

So check DNS first when something breaks, because it is the fastest thing on the list to rule out.

The records you will actually touch

Five record types cover almost every change you will ever need to make.

Your DNS host shows all of these on one screen. Change one thing at a time and write down what you changed.

• A record. Points a name straight at a numeric address on a server.
• CNAME. Points one name at another name, and follows wherever that leads.
• MX. Sends mail for your domain to the right mail service.
• TXT. Holds proof and settings, including the records that sign your outgoing mail.
• NS. Names the servers that are in charge of your whole zone.

Why a change takes time to show up

Every record carries a TTL, which tells other servers how long they may keep the old answer before asking again.

Until that clock runs out, some people still reach the old address while others reach the new one. Lower the TTL well before a planned move and you save yourself a long, confusing wait.

Then put it back afterward, because a very low TTL means more lookups for everybody involved.

If a change has not appeared after a day, check that you edited the zone your registrar is actually using.

How Microsite Generator handles this

You can go live on a free subdomain and skip DNS work entirely. Or use your own domain with one CNAME record, and an SSL certificate is issued for you.

Sites are capped at up to 25, 50 or 100 pages each, and the compliance gate runs before anything goes live. Every page is checked against Google Search Essentials and modern web standards, so the page people reach is genuinely useful once it loads.

You can invite a teammate into the account, so the person who holds the DNS login can make the change themselves. Once the record is in place, the certificate and its renewals are handled for you.

Updated September 2026