Deploying and Optimizing Your PortfolioLesson 5.2

How to connect a custom domain to a portfolio site

domain registrar, DNS records, CNAME record, A record, nameserver configuration, HTTPS provisioning, domain verification, propagation time

Custom Domains Signal Professionalism

yourname.dev or yourname.com signals you take your work seriously. Portfolio URLs like random-hash-vercel.app do not.

Step 1: Buy a Domain

Use Namecheap, Porkbun, or Google Domains. A .dev domain costs around $12/year. A .com costs $10–$15/year. Do not buy from GoDaddy — their interface is designed to upsell you into subscriptions you do not need.

Step 2: Add Domain in Vercel

# Vercel Dashboard
# 1. Open your project → Settings → Domains
# 2. Add your domain (e.g., janedoe.dev)
# 3. Vercel shows you the DNS records to add

Step 3: Configure DNS

# Add these records in your domain registrar's DNS settings:

Type: CNAME
Name: www
Value: cname.vercel-dns.com
TTL: 3600

Type: A
Name: @
Value: 76.76.21.21
TTL: 3600

DNS changes take 10 minutes to 48 hours to propagate. Vercel and Netlify provision HTTPS automatically via Let's Encrypt once your DNS is verified — you do not need to buy an SSL certificate. Once HTTPS is live, your portfolio is accessible at https://yourname.dev and the HTTP version redirects automatically.