Rename your SharePoint Online Public Website address to use your custom domain

To use a custom domain name for your SharePoint Online Public Website in Office 365 operated by 21Vianet, like www.fourthcoffee.com, follow these steps. For example, if your domain name is fourthcoffee.com, this setup lets site visitors use www.fourthcoffee.com to get to your public website.

1. Get your public website ready

2. Rename your public website to use your domain

3. Create a DNS record to point your domain's URL to your public website

Important:  If you also want to use your domain with email and Skype for Business Online, don't follow the steps here. You'll need to follow these instructions instead to set up that scenario correctly.

These steps do not change the name of your team site because you can't rename a team site in Office 365. Your team site name stays yourcompany.sharepoint.cn.

Note: The SharePoint Online Public Website information in this article only applies if your organization purchased Office 365 prior to March 9, 2015.

Step 1: Get your public website ready

Before you start Step 2, be sure to customize your public website so the site looks the way you want. After you complete Step 3, your SharePoint Online Public Website will be visible to everyone.

Step 2: Rename your public website to use your domain

1. Use the Add a domain wizard in Office 365 to Add your domain to Office 365 using a subdomain like www.fourthcoffee.com, not a root domain like fourthcoffee.com. (Note that you can add, or may have already added, the root domain so you can use it with email addresses or Lync.)

2. At the step in the wizard where you're prompted to choose the domain purpose (that is, the services you want to use with the domain), select only SharePoint Online.

3. On the last page of the wizard, click SharePoint Online Administration Center.

4. On the SharePoint Online Administration Center page, select the check box next to your public website and, on the ribbon, click Website Domains.

5. In the Rename your website dialog box, in the New URL drop-down list, select the domain name you just added; for example, www.fourthcoffee.com.

   Note:  If you want to change your SharePoint Online website URL back to the default domain, return to the SharePoint Online Administration Center page and use the Rename your website dialog box to choose the initial domain name (like contoso-public.sharepoint.cn) from the list.

6. Click OK.

7. On the ribbon, click DNS Information.

8. In the DNS Information dialog box, write down or copy the target address that ends in sharepoint.cn. You'll use this information in the next section to create a DNS record that points people to your website on Office 365.

Step 3: Create a DNS record to point your domain's URL to your public website

Create the record by following these steps.

1. At your DNS hosting provider's website, sign in to your account.

2. Create a CNAME record by using the values in the following table.

In the table:

• subdomain is the subdomain that you added, like www.fourthcoffee.com.

• name.sharepoint.cn is the target address you just copied or wrote down in step 8 above.

Hostname	Points to address	Time to live (TTL)
subdomain	name.sharepoint.cn	1 hour

If you need help creating the CNAME record, see the step-by-step instructions for creating DNS records at your DNS hosting provider.

After you create the CNAME record and it updates across the DNS system, traffic for your website (for example, http://www.fourthcoffee.com) will be directed to your SharePoint Online Public Website.

Note:  Typically it takes about 15 minutes for your changes to take effect. But it can take up to 72 hours for the record that you created to update through the DNS system.

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Other things to consider

The steps above help make sure users can see your website when they type, for example, www.contoso.com. If you also want them to see your site when they type just the root domain, contoso.com, contact your DNS hosting provider and ask if they have a URL redirection service to direct traffic from contoso.com to www.contoso.com. Most providers offer URL redirection, and you can check their documentation to learn how to set it up.