How to Point Your Domain to Tumblr

You may be interested in pointing your domain to Tumblr for a few reasons:

• You have a website hosted with us and a blog hosted with Tumblr
• You want to host your email with us but use a Tumblr blog as your website

Should I Use a Subdomain?

You can use your proper top level domain (domain.com, for example) or a subdomain (blog.domain.com, for example) to point your domain to Tumblr. If you already have a site hosted on our servers under your top level domain, and you would like to simply associate your domain with your Tumblr blog, then the subdomain option would be ideal for you.

Whichever method you choose, if you plan on keeping your mail hosted with us make sure to review our full guide on using third party services with your hosting account.

CNAME or A Record?

There are two important DNS records you can modify to point your domain to Tumblr. You have the choice here between a CNAME record and an A record; both options will have the same effect.

1. Go to your cPanel
2. Click on Advanced Zone Editor
3. Select the domain you want to point to Tumblr

If you created the subdomain through cPanel it already has an A record associated with it. You can modify the A record to point to Tumblr’s IP address, or you can change the record to a CNAME by clicking Edit.

As mentioned above, the A record will point to an IP address provided by Tumblr, the CNAME will point to domains.tumblr.com.

Adding the Domain at Tumblr

Once you have made the above changes, you will need to log into your Tumblr account to add the domain there.

1. Log into your Tumblr account
2. Go to your Tumblr account Settings
3. Edit the Username section by clicking the pencil icon
4. Turn on the Use a custom domain option
5. In the field below put in your domain name
6. You may click Test domain to test the setting or click Save