On WP Engine, our hosting provider, we have high availability setup for all of our websites, making downtime highly unlikely. However, this is only true when domains are properly configured. WP Engine requires CNAMEs to be set up to point to both www and non-www domains to all sites on their servers. Using a traditional A record will not work, as these direct to IP addresses, which will change from time to time. CNAMES, on the other hand, direct to a website’s primary domain, which will not change.

We ask that for your website [YOUR WEBSITE.com], please create a CNAME for [www.YOUR WEBSITE.com] and [YOUR WEBSITE.com] and point it to [YOUR WEBSITE.wpengine.com].

Please see below for the steps on how to create a CNAME depending on your registrar.


Unfortunately, most registrars don’t have the option to add a CNAME for the root of the domain (the domain without the www), which is required by WP Engine. But, please see if your registrar does have this option. If not, we can add your domain to our CloudFlare account, meaning we’ll take over the management of your DNS. Otherwise, if you would like to maintain control of your DNS, you can create your own CloudFlare account and add your domain here: https://www.cloudflare.com/a/sign-up.