How to connect a Strato domain to ShiftPress
yourdomain.de) and won't let you delete its root A-record, so with Strato you connect ShiftPress to your www subdomain instead. Add the one CNAME and two TXT records ShiftPress gives you, leave the root A-record on Strato's standard setting, then use Strato's own domain forwarding to send the bare domain to your www address. Result: both yourdomain.de and www.yourdomain.de open your new site, with www as the main address.
Why Strato needs a small workaround
ShiftPress connects a domain by handing you a hostname to point at (a CNAME target, e.g. sites.shiftpress.ai), not a fixed IP address. But the DNS standard forbids a CNAME on the root/apex of a domain, and Strato enforces that strictly: on the root it only offers an A-record (an IP). On top of that, Strato support has confirmed you cannot remove the root A-record in their panel; it can only stay on Strato's standard setting or point at a custom IP. So the clean "root domain straight to ShiftPress" setup isn't possible on Strato. The fix is to make www your main address and forward the bare domain to it. It's done entirely inside Strato, with no nameserver change and no risk to your email.
Connect your Strato domain, step by step
In ShiftPress
- Open the Finalize the migration section (or the Domain panel) and click Connect domain. Type the domain you want to connect. Enter it with
www.in front, e.g.www.yourdomain.de, sincewwwis your main address on Strato, then click Connect domain again. ShiftPress now shows the exact DNS records for your site: one CNAME and two TXT records, each with a Name, Type and Value. Keep this screen open so you can copy these into Strato.
In Strato, go to Domains → Domainverwaltung → DNS
- Open TXT- und CNAME-Records and add all three records exactly as ShiftPress shows them: the
wwwCNAME plus both TXT records. Copy each Name, Type and Value 1:1. A single wrong character means the certificate never issues. - Open the A-Record section and leave it on STRATO Standard IP-Adresse. You can't delete the root A-record on Strato, and you don't need to. The forwarding in the next step takes care of the bare domain. Don't put any ShiftPress IP here.
Still in Strato, set up the forwarding (Umleitung einrichten)
- Create a forwarding for your root domain that points to your own
wwwaddress: redirect target Extern (external), destinationhttps://www.yourdomain.de/, i.e. your own domain includingwww., not the ShiftPress hostname. Set the type to 302 (temporary) for now. - Optional: once the site loads correctly on
www, you can switch that forwarding to 301 (permanent) so search engines clearly pass your ranking on to the new site. Strato sometimes makes this switch on its own after a while, so it's fine to leave it; the site works either way.
Back in ShiftPress
- Click Refresh status to check whether ShiftPress found your records. Once the
wwwrecord is in place, the status flips from Waiting for DNS to Connected and the certificate is issued automatically.
When it's done
Once everything is connected, your site shows as Live and the whole Finalize the migration section disappears from the menu on its own, so there's nothing else to do. Visitors typing the bare yourdomain.de are forwarded to www, which serves your new site.
Give it time: DNS changes propagate gradually, so Strato's and ShiftPress's checks can look wrong for a while; a TXT or CNAME may briefly appear mismatched before it settles. Up to a couple of hours is normal.
Frequently asked questions
Why can't I point my root domain straight at ShiftPress?
Because Strato only allows an A-record (an IP address) on the root domain, never a CNAME, and it won't let you delete that root A-record. ShiftPress hands out a hostname (a CNAME target), not a fixed IP, so the root can't point at it directly. The www subdomain does accept a CNAME, so www becomes your main address and the bare domain forwards to it.
Should I just put ShiftPress's IP address into the root A-record?
No. Never look up an IP behind the CNAME target and paste it into the A-record. Those are shared, rotating addresses, so it's unsupported and will silently break your site later. Use the www CNAME plus the forwarding instead.
My domain has an umlaut (ä, ö, ü). Anything different?
Yes. Enter it in its punycode form (it starts with xn--…) in the ShiftPress connect field, not with the umlaut, otherwise the hostnames won't match and the certificate can't be issued. Your domain provider shows you the punycode version of the domain.
Will this www setup hurt my SEO?
No. ShiftPress sets www as the canonical address for you, and your sitemap points to the www version, so search engines treat it as the one true home of each page. Ideally the root forward is a 301 (permanent) once everything is stable, but the site works from the moment www is connected, and Strato may switch the forward to permanent on its own.
Prefer to have this handled for you?
ShiftPress moves your website off WordPress and takes care of the technical details on this page — redirects, DNS, sitemaps, speed — while you change your site simply by asking.
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