Trent Yang

Posted on Jan 2, 2019 • Updated on Jan 6, 2019

How to setup google domain for github pages

#githubpages #googledomain

Intro

Github pages is easy to setup, but to attach a custom domain with google domains, you may run into problems. Here is how you can do it in 4 steps.

Prerequisites

You have a github pages repository, e.g. https://github.com/Chun-Yang/Chun-Yang.github.io
You purchased a domain on google domain, e.g. trentyang.com

STEP 1/4: Let gitHub pages know your custom domain

Go to your github repository settings page
Add you custom domain name at Settings > GitHub Pages > Custom domain

STEP 2/4: Let your custom domain (trentyang.com) points to your github pages

Go to registar page on your google domains, select your domain
Go to DNS > Custom resource records
Add the record shown in the screenshot bellow. Note that you need to use the "+" button to add more urls.

Here is the list of ips in the screenshot:
- 185.199.111.153
- 185.199.110.153
- 185.199.109.153
- 185.199.108.153

Incase these are outdated, you can also find the latest ones at github.

To confirm that your DNS record is set up correctly, use the dig command to do a lookup of your domain

  $ dig trentyang.com +noall +answer
  trentyang.com.  3600  IN  A  185.199.111.153
  trentyang.com.  3600  IN  A  185.199.110.153
  trentyang.com.  3600  IN  A  185.199.109.153
  trentyang.com.  3600  IN  A  185.199.108.153

Once the above is successful, your custom domain should work correctly. Go to your domain and take a look!

STEP 3/4: Let your www sub-domain (www.trentyang.com) point to your github pages

Add the following CNAME record
You can use the following dig command to confirm that your setup is correct

  $ dig www.trentyang.com +nostats +nocomments +nocmd
  www.trentyang.com.      IN      A
  www.trentyang.com. 1263 IN      CNAME   chun-yang.github.io.

STEP 4/4: (optional but HIGHLY recommended) Enable HTTPS for your github pages

Go to your github repository settings page, under Settings > GitHub Pages > Custom domain remove your custom domain and save.
Then add it back and save again.
Now you should be able to check the "Enforce HTTPS" checkbox and secure your site!

If you enjoy reading it, here is my blog https://trentyang.com/how-to-setup-google-domain-for-github-pages/

Top comments (26)

Sayak Paul • Apr 14 '20

Hello. Thanks for the amazing tutorial. A couple of questions:

Here's the output of the dig:

$ dig www.sayak.dev +nostats +nocomments +nocmd

; <<>> DiG 9.10.6 <<>> www.sayak.dev +nostats +nocomments +nocmd
;; global options: +cmd
;www.sayak.dev.         IN  A
www.sayak.dev.      380 IN  CNAME   sayakpaul.github.io.
sayakpaul.github.io.    379 IN  A   185.199.108.153
sayakpaul.github.io.    379 IN  A   185.199.109.153
sayakpaul.github.io.    379 IN  A   185.199.110.153
sayakpaul.github.io.    379 IN  A   185.199.111.153

When I navigate to sayak.dev, I get the following:

My Google Domain settings are correct as well I think:

Help appreciated :)

asura • Dec 8 '22

You will need to get yourself a SSL certificate. SSL basically encrypts any thing that happens on your website so that no attackers and intercept the information

Very sorry for the 2 year late response.
please read support.google.com/domains/answer/...

Alan Jantz • Dec 17 '20

How did you resolve it? I'm getting the same error and I don't know what to do 😕

Nikki Schmidt • Dec 18 '20

Make sure you have www in Github for your custom domain

Marina Delkova-Moro • Nov 12 '19

Hello,

I am stuck on step 2 and having trouble adding the IPs to my Custom resource records on Google domain. I get a notification "Record already in use" for the IPs that you have provided in this article and I can't figure out what are the updated ones. I have been reading through GitHUb documents for the last few hours and can't seem to find the current IPs.

Can you, please, provide the current IPs?

Thank you!!

Kelly • Dec 27 '19

I got this error when I still had a subdomain forwarding on under Synthetic records. It went away after I deleted that!

Marina Delkova-Moro • Dec 28 '19

Thanks, Kelly!! This makes sense now!

Adam Goodkind • Aug 9 '19

When I enter the dig command in Step 3, I only get the same 4 IP addresses from Step 2, and do not get a CNAME result. What have I configured incorrectly?

Enzo Trompeneers • Dec 23 '19

Same problem, any solution?

Adam Goodkind • Dec 24 '19

Unfortunately I do not remember, but it did eventually work. I think you need to make sure there's only 1 entry on that page. In addition, things usually take 10-15 minutes to propagate through the system.

jwsmitherman • Jan 21 '21

I can't seem to get this to work. I've deployed my react app to my git hub pages. I tested it without the custom domain and it came up fine. But when I attempt to add the custom domain it never shows following these steps. I'm at a road block here so any help would be very much appreciated.

Bruno do Rosario Petrucci • Jul 15 '20 • Edited

Hi, thanks for the great tutorial! I'm getting an error, not sure where.

Everything seems to be working correctly - dig commands lead to the same output you show, the website shows up with a check in github "ready to be published at brpetrucci.com" etc, but when I try the URL it says the page cannot be found? I'm very confused

fr3drick545 • Jan 18 '22

I have the same issue. Have you been able to find a fix?

Lena Kroeker • Oct 31 '22

thanks so much! It finally works!!!!!
I must've gone through 10 or more tutorials trying to get this all to come together, accidentally almost lost my whole project a few times somehow etc etc. Nightmare! sometimes you just need to start from scratch a bunch of times before you get the right combo, and this did it for me!

Danny Dore • Mar 18 '19

I just want to say thank you for making this! I was having trouble figuring out how to connect Google Domains and GitHub Pages, but your guide was the tutorial I needed!

Tashan Duncan • Nov 27 '20

Saved me some headache here!

Thank you

TheCarpathianCoder • Apr 18 '20

Thanks man!

Jakkapan • Aug 13 '20

Thanks, Absolutely nice tutorial

Karen Fletcher • May 27 '19

This article is awesome, the most straightforward and thorough outline of the process! Thanks for posting!

Dulani • Apr 7 '20

Very helpful! I was mistakenly treating the "Registered Hosts" as the A record and the "Synthetic Domain" as the CNAME record. Your clear and concise post straightened me out!