Connect your Bluehost domain to Kartra and create branded links for a professional look.

A custom domain (like www.yourdomain.com) makes your online presence professional. When you connect your domain to Kartra, you can use branded links and show your visitors a consistent brand. In this guide, you will learn how to set up your Bluehost domain so that it works well with Kartra.

To do this, follow these four steps:

  1. Set up domain forwarding 
    • Only for www. domains. Skip this step if you’re connecting a subdomain—e.g. subdomain.yourdomain.com.
  2. Create a CNAME record in Bluehost.
  3. Link your domain to Kartra (may take up to 24 hours to process).
  4. Customize your URLs in Kartra.

Before you begin...

Review these guides:

They’ll give you helpful context and make the steps ahead much easier to follow—plus, they’ll help you avoid common setup issues.

Key Details:

  • Terminology note: Forwarding is referred to as "Redirect" in Bluehost.
  • Legacy: Older Bluehost accounts have vaguely different steps to reach the Zone Editor. Please see the details in the official setup guides linked below. 

Step 1: Forwarding rule setup

Domain forwarding sends visitors from your primary address to the secure www version of your site. This helps avoid confusion if users type your domain in different ways. Skip this step if you are integrating a subdomain. 

  1. Access Domains in your Bluehost cPanel account.
  2. Go to the Redirecttab to add a redirect.
    • Type: Permanent 301
    • URL to redirect: your domain name
    • Redirects to: https://www.yourdomain.com (replace www.yourdomain.com with your actual domain)
    • WWW Redirect: Redirect with or without www.
  3. Click Add to save the rule.

Step 2: Add the CNAME record

A CNAME record tells browsers where to find your site. This step ensures that when someone visits your branded URL, they’re taken directly to your Kartra-hosted content.

  1. Access the Zone Editor in your Bluehost account.
  2. Add the following details to create the record:
  3. Click Add Record to save.

Official Bluehost Setup Guides

After completing steps 1 and 2 at Bluehost, go back to Kartra for steps 3 and 4.

Step 3: Link your domain to Kartra

To do this:

  1. Go to Settings > Domains and click + Custom domain.
  2. Choose if you’re adding Only the main domain (www.) or Use a sub-domain.
    • Pro-tip: If you already have a published site you want to keep associated with your main domain, a subdomain would better suit your needs.
  3. Insert the domain or subdomain and a favicon and click Next.
    Animated walkthrough showing how to start adding a custom domain in Kartra.
  4. Tick the box to acknowledge Yes, I have completed the steps above to link my custom domain to Kartra in my domain service provider’s account and click Next in upper right.
    Confirmation pop-up asking the user to verify that domain setup steps were completed before proceeding.
  5. Set up your Index (home) and 404 error pages and click Next in the upper right.
    Custom domain settings in Kartra showing index and 404 pages setup.
Important:

Do not input the domain you are connecting to Kartra as the external URL option for the index page. This will create an endless loop. 

It can take up to 24 hours for a domain integration to be connected. You will see a Processing… status next to your domain name until the connection is complete.

Domains page with domain in "Processing" status.

The Connected status shows the domain integration was successful.

Domains page with domain in "Connected" status.

After the domain connects to your Kartra account, you can use it to brand your Kartra asset URLs.

Step 4: Brand your page links in Kartra

Asset links in Kartra must be edited individually. To edit a page link and brand it with your domain:

  1. Go to Pages > All Pages.
  2. Click the link icon button under a published page’s thumbnail.
  3. Choose Get the page link, and click the pencil icon button to edit.
  4. Expand the dropdown, and select your domain.
  5. (Optional) In the next field, you can customize the name of the page as shown in the link (in this example, “opt-in”)
  6. Click the checkmark icon button to save the changes, and Close the link editing wizard.

Now you can access the page using the URL you configured.