How to point your domain at a new website without breaking your email
"Will my email survive the switch?" is the single most common fear when a website moves to a new platform — and rightly so: a website that's down for an hour is an inconvenience, but lost email is lost business. The good news is that the separation between web and mail is built into how DNS works. You just need to respect it.
DNS in one minute
DNS (the Domain Name System) is your domain's address book. When someone visits yourcompany.com or emails [email protected], their computer looks up your domain's DNS records to find out which server to talk to. Different record types answer different questions:
| Record | Question it answers | Typical value |
|---|---|---|
| A / AAAA | Where is the website? | An IP address like 76.76.21.21 |
| CNAME | Where is the website (by name)? | Another hostname, e.g. sites.host.com |
| MX | Where should email be delivered? | A mail server, e.g. mail.provider.com |
| TXT | Miscellaneous proofs & settings | SPF/DKIM entries that authenticate your mail |
| NS | Who manages this address book? | Your DNS provider's name servers |
The key insight: the website and the email of the same domain can live with completely different providers, connected only by these records. Your site can move from WordPress hosting to a modern platform while your email stays at Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, IONOS or wherever it is today — untouched.
The safe way to switch your website
- Take a screenshot or export of all current DNS records first. It's your undo button. Every DNS provider's dashboard lets you see the full list — capture it before changing anything.
- Change only the web records. Point the A/AAAA record of your root domain (and usually the CNAME of
www) at the new website, following the new provider's instructions. That's typically two records. - Do not touch MX or mail-related TXT records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). If a migration guide asks you to "replace all records" or change your name servers, stop and check — that's the one step that can drag email along accidentally (more below).
- Lower the TTL in advance if you can. TTL ("time to live") is how long the old values stay cached around the internet. Lowering it to something like 5 minutes a day before the switch makes the change take effect quickly — and makes rolling back just as fast.
- Verify afterwards. Load the website, send yourself an email from an external account, and confirm both work. A free checker like MXToolbox shows whether your MX records still point where they should.
The one real danger: changing name servers
Every horror story about "the website move killed our email" traces back to the same mistake: switching the domain's name servers (NS records) to a new provider without copying the mail records over first. Changing name servers replaces the entire address book, not just the website entry — if the new DNS provider's zone doesn't include your MX and TXT records, mail starts bouncing the moment the switch propagates.
A website move almost never requires changing name servers. If your new provider recommends it (some do, to manage DNS for you), the rule is: first recreate every existing record — especially MX, SPF, DKIM — at the new provider, then switch. Compare against the export from step 1, record by record.
What visitors and senders experience during the switch
Done right: nothing. DNS changes propagate gradually — for a while, some visitors see the new site while others still see the old one (this is where a low TTL shortens the window, though some resolvers cache longer than they should). Because the old site stays online during that window, nobody hits an error. Email is even more forgiving: mail servers that momentarily can't reach your mail server queue the message and retry for hours or days — a brief DNS hiccup delays mail rather than losing it. But a wrong MX record doesn't delay mail; it bounces it. That's why the records you don't touch matter more than the ones you do.
Frequently asked questions
Will my email address change when my website moves?
No. Your email addresses and mailboxes live with your email provider, and nothing about a website move touches them — as long as the MX records stay as they are. You keep sending and receiving exactly as before.
How long does a DNS change take to take effect?
Anywhere from minutes to about 48 hours, depending on the records' TTL — the caching time each record declares. Most changes are effectively visible within an hour or two; lowering the TTL beforehand shrinks the window further. Old and new run in parallel during propagation, so there's no gap where the domain is "down."
Do I need to move my email when I change website hosting?
No — and usually you shouldn't. Website hosting and email hosting are independent services connected only through DNS records. Moving both at once multiplies the moving parts and the risk; if you want to change email providers too, do it separately, after the website move has settled.
What are SPF, DKIM and DMARC — and can I ignore them?
They're TXT records that prove email claiming to come from your domain really does — receiving servers use them to decide whether your mail lands in the inbox or in spam. During a website move you shouldn't change them, but don't delete them either: they must survive the move exactly as they are, especially if you switch DNS or name-server providers.
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