How DNS works: a plain-English guide for domain owners

November 4, 2026, 3 min read

If you own a domain, you'll eventually need to change its DNS settings: to connect a website, set up email or verify ownership with a service. DNS can look intimidating, but the core ideas are simple.

DNS is an address book

Computers find each other on the internet using numeric addresses called IP addresses. People prefer names. DNS, the Domain Name System, is the system that translates names like yourbusiness.com into the addresses computers use.

When someone visits your website or sends you an email, their device asks DNS: "Where do I find this domain?" Your domain's DNS settings provide the answer.

Nameservers: who holds your records

Your domain's nameservers decide which company manages its DNS records. They're set at your registrar.

If your nameservers point to your registrar, you manage DNS there.
If they point to your hosting provider, you manage DNS at the host.
If they point to a separate DNS service, you manage it there.

This matters because DNS changes only take effect at the provider your nameservers point to. A common mistake is editing records at one company while the nameservers point to another.

Records: the individual entries

Within your DNS settings, each record does one job. The most common types are:

A record: points a name to an IPv4 address, usually your web server. The host "@" means the domain itself.
AAAA record: the same as an A record, but for the newer IPv6 addresses.
CNAME record: makes one name an alias of another name. It's often used for the www version of a site, or for services that give you a hostname rather than an IP address.
MX record: says which servers receive email for the domain. MX records have priority numbers; lower numbers are tried first.
TXT record: holds text. It's used for email security settings such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and for proving domain ownership to services.

Hosts and subdomains

Each record has a host, or name, that says which part of the domain it applies to:

@ means the domain itself, such as yourbusiness.com.
www means www.yourbusiness.com.
shop would mean shop.yourbusiness.com, a subdomain.

You can create subdomains freely and point each one somewhere different, such as a store on one platform and a blog on another.

TTL: how long answers are remembered

Every record has a TTL, or time to live, measured in seconds. It tells other systems how long they may remember the answer before checking again.

A long TTL means fewer lookups, but changes take longer to reach everyone.
A short TTL means changes spread faster.

If you're planning a change, such as moving email providers, lowering the TTL a day beforehand helps the change take effect faster.

Why changes aren't instant

When you change a record, systems around the world may still remember the old answer until its TTL runs out. This is often called "propagation." Many changes show up within minutes, but some take hours, and nameserver changes can take up to a day or two. During that time, different people may see different results.

Practical tips

Before changing anything, screenshot your current records. If something breaks, you can put it back.
Change one thing at a time, and test.
Don't delete records you don't understand without finding out what they do, as they may be keeping your email working.
Use an online DNS lookup tool to see what the rest of the world sees.

Once you're comfortable with these basics, most DNS tasks are just a few minutes of careful copying and pasting. If you're listing a domain on our marketplace, that's exactly what verifying ownership involves: adding one TXT record. You can list a domain for free and follow the step-by-step instructions.