Use your own web address

Click Settings at the bottom of the left-hand menu, then Your own web address. It sits with the other masjid settings, below Facilities and Photos.

The top of the page names your current Sidrah address, so you can see what you are about to give a second front door to.

Type your domain into the Web address box and click Save. Enter the bare domain and nothing else:

• Leave out the www. We serve both yourmasjid.org and www.yourmasjid.org from the one entry, so adding it here would be asking for the same thing twice.
• Leave out https:// and http://. Those describe how a browser connects, not what your address is.
• Leave out anything after the domain - no slash, no page name, no port number.
• Use the domain itself, not a subdomain. Enter yourmasjid.org, not prayers.yourmasjid.org.

If you get any of this wrong, Sidrah says so in plain words and tells you what to take out - nothing is saved until it is right. If it tells you another masjid is already using that domain and you believe that is a mistake, email us rather than trying again.

Saving reveals a small table with two rows. Both are A records. An A record is simply a line in your domain's settings that says "this address belongs at this computer" - it is the one piece of jargon in this guide, and creating one is a form with three boxes.

Copy the value with the Copy address button rather than typing it out, then create the two rows exactly as they are shown:

• Type A, name @, value the address Sidrah shows. The @ means the domain itself - yourmasjid.org with nothing in front. Some providers want it left blank instead, and a few want the domain typed in full; all three mean the same thing.
• Type A, name www, value the same address.

Where to find this at your provider.

Sign in to the company you bought the domain from, open your domain, and look for a section called DNS, DNS records, Manage DNS, Advanced DNS or Zone file. Some hosting companies keep it under a heading like Domains or Nameservers first. Once you are in, there will be a button along the lines of Add record or Add new record.

If there is already an A record on @ or on www pointing somewhere else, edit it to the new address rather than adding a second one beside it. Two A records on the same name send half your visitors to the old place.

Back in Sidrah, click Check now. Sidrah looks up both records as the rest of the world sees them and reports each one:

• pointing at Sidrah - that record is right and there is nothing more to do on it.
• not found yet - nothing is answering on that name yet. This is the normal first answer, and it is a wait rather than a mistake.
• points to something else - a record exists but sends visitors elsewhere. Sidrah prints the address it found and the address it should be, so you can compare the two. Go back and correct the record rather than adding another.

A change to DNS is not instant. It usually takes minutes, it can take a few hours, and very occasionally it takes most of a day. There is no harm in clicking Check now again later, or tomorrow.

At the top of the card is the answer to the question you actually came for. While you are waiting it reads Waiting for DNS; once the main record is right it becomes Live on www.yourmasjid.org, and that is a link - click it and your page opens on your own address. Your page goes live as soon as the main record is right, so the www record can follow at its own pace.

Under Preferred address pick one of two:

• www.yourmasjid.org - recommended, and what most people expect to see.
• yourmasjid.org - the shorter one, if that is how your posters and letterheads already read.

Both addresses work whichever you choose. This only tells search engines which of the two is the main one, so that Google lists your page once rather than treating the two as rival copies. You can change it whenever you like, and changing it does not undo any of the checking above.

If you change your mind, or the domain moves on to something else, click Remove at the bottom of the page and confirm. Sidrah asks first, and names the domain in the question so nobody removes the wrong one.

Your page at sidrah.cloud keeps working exactly as before. Only your own address stops finding it, and only until you set it up again. Tidy up the two A records at your provider afterwards if the domain is going somewhere new.

• HTTPS is automatic. There is no certificate to buy, install or renew - the padlock is handled for you.
• Both addresses work. yourmasjid.org and www.yourmasjid.org both show your page, whichever you set as preferred.
• Your sidrah.cloud link keeps working. Old posters, QR codes and WhatsApp messages carrying it are safe.
• Your email is not affected. Email is carried by different records - MX records - and nothing in this guide touches them. Adding the two A records leaves your masjid's inboxes exactly as they are.
• Your existing website. If the domain currently shows a website of your own, pointing it at Sidrah replaces it. Do this only if the Sidrah page is meant to be your masjid's website, or use a spare domain instead.