How to Add Custom Domains for your Zuddl Event

Custom domains allow you to use your own domain for your event landing pages and virtual platform instead of using the default Zuddl URLs. This helps create a seamless experience for attendees and reinforces your brand identity. Setting up a custom domain requires configuration and updates to your domain’s DNS settings.

Where are custom domains used on Zuddl

Custom domains must be configured for your event site and registration page. The table below shows where the custom domains are used in Zuddl:

Event site

Connecting at this level lets your attendee access your virtual event site and its functionalities, such as magic links, invite links, etc., through your branded URL.

You can configure a custom domain at the following levels:

• Organization-level: A single custom-branded virtual event URL for all events and their functionalities in your Zuddl org.
• Event-level: for event-specific usages such as unique event URLs for each event in the organization.

Registration pages

Setting up a custom domain allows you to host the event registration pages under your own domain/subdomain.

This is especially useful for in-person events with little to no dependency on Zuddl’s virtual platform. One way is to set up a domain for a specific registration page using the registration page builder. This is done on a per-event basis. Another way is to set up a domain that can be used for any registration page via path-based URLs, which can be set up from your event dashboard.

Setting up a custom domain for a specific registration page

If you are building your own registration page on Zuddl using the page builder, you can directly connect your domain or sub-domain to the registration page. You can connect a unique custom domain for each event’s registration page. On the Choose your website domain page, choose Use a domain you already own option.

You can add a domain you already own; ensure that you add “www.” to the URL (for example, *www.acmeevents.com*). If you are assigning a subdomain (for example, *landing.acme.com*), “www.” is not required.

Assigning subdomain

The registration page's root domain should be the same as your event root domain. The table below shows the correct way to add a subdomain.

Setting up a custom domain for any registration page

If you are setting up custom domains for both the event site and registration page, both should have the same root domain. Instead of having a separate domain for each event, you can use a single domain with unique paths for each registration page (e.g., "site.acme.com/event1", "site.acme.com/event2"). These custom domains are also known as path-based domains.

Path-based registration page setup involves:

1. Setting up your DNS records
2. Event-level settings

Setting up your DNS records

1. Decide on a suitable subdomain name such as landing.acme.com or registrations.acme.com.
2. Send an email to your account executive or the CSM at Zuddl with the following details:
   • Organization name
   • Name of registration page subdomain
3. Upon receiving your details, Zuddl maps the given subdomain to your organization in the backend. Once the mapping is successful, a confirmation email is sent which contains two CNAME records: a subdomain name and a random unique validation string.
4. Once you receive the confirmation email, sign in to your domain host.
5. If you don’t know your domain host, check your billing records in your mailbox or visit https://lookup.icann.org/.
6. In your domain's DNS, create two CNAME records:
7. The subdomain name that points to your domain. For example, if you want to represent virtual.foobar.com, enter “virtual” in the Name column. In the Value column, copy and paste the value shared in the confirmation email.
8. A unique string for verifying the ownership of the subdomain. For example, "_c3e2d7eaf1e656b73f46cd6980fdc0e". This unique string points to the ACM validation certificate, which is the validation server. For example,  "_cjhwou20vhu2exampleuw20vuyb2ovb9.j9s73ucn9vy.acm-validations.aws". A validated ACM generates an SSL/TLS certificate for your subdomain. To set up a custom domain, you need to update DNS settings as shown in the example below:
   
   

   S.No.	Name	Record type	Value
   1	examplestring.virtual	CNAME	randomstring.acm-validations.aws
   2	virtual	CNAME	foobar.randomstring.cloudfront.net

   The values given about are only examples and must not be consumed.
   

Event-level settings

Path-based domains are useful for organizations hosting multiple events using a single domain. Follow these steps to set this up:

1. In the event setup, go to Registration > Advanced.
2. Under the Registration page link section, toggle on Use custom link for registration page.
   
   
3. In the registration page custom domain, choose the custom domain you’ve configured for your Zuddl organization from the dropdown (Example: ‘site.zuddlevents.com’).
   
   
4. Add a page link for your registration page (Example: ‘registration’). So the full URL for your registration page will be ‘site.zuddlevents.com/registrations’.
   
   
5. Click Save. On the confirmation pop-up, click Confirm.

Setting up a custom domain for your event site

1. Decide on a suitable subdomain name such as, events.acme.com or conferences.acme.com.
2. Send an email to your account executive or the CSM at Zuddl with the following details:
   • Organization name
   • Name of the event subdomain
   • Event name
   • Event Id
3. Upon receiving your details, Zuddl maps the given subdomain to your organization in the backend. Once the mapping is successful, a confirmation email is sent which contains two CNAME records: a subdomain name and a random unique validation string.
4. Once you receive the confirmation email, sign in to your domain host.
5. If you don’t know your domain host, check your billing records in your mailbox or visit https://lookup.icann.org/ 
6. In your domain's DNS, create two CNAME records:
   • The subdomain name that points to your domain. For example, if you want to represent virtual.foobar.com, enter “*virtual*” in the **Name** column. In the **Value** column, copy and paste the value shared in the confirmation email.
   • A unique string for verifying the ownership of the subdomain. For example, *_c3e2d7eaf1e656b73f46cd6980fdc0e*. This unique string points to the ACM validation certificate which is the validation server. For example,  *_cjhwou20vhu2exampleuw20vuyb2ovb9.j9s73ucn9vy.acm-validations.aws*

A validated ACM generates a SSL/TLS certificate for your subdomain.

DNS records setup

To set up a custom domain, you need to update DNS settings as shown in the example below:

How to reach to your IT team

You can copy and paste the following message and replace the example values in the table with the actual values.

"Hi, I'm trying to authenticate our domain with Zuddl, but I don't have the ability to modify our DNS records. We’ve received the following records from Zuddl. Can you help me add these records, so that I can complete the process?"