Chapter 11: Hosting (4.B)

Exam topic 4.B: Configure domains and manage publishing workflows.
Key terms: Publish to staging, publish to custom domain, SSL certificates, domain settings, restore backup.
Weight: 4% of the exam (about 2 questions)

Webflow hosting is managed: you don’t configure servers, but you do own the domain setup, the publishing workflow and the recovery plan. Mistakes here are visible right away (a site that’s down, a “Not secure” warning, a broken launch), so the exam checks that you can launch and maintain a site safely.

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11.1 Publishing targets

Target	URL	Purpose
Staging (Webflow subdomain)	yoursite.webflow.io	Review, QA, stakeholder sign-off
Production (custom domain)	www.example.com	The live site

Key behaviours:

• You choose which targets to publish to each time. Publishing to staging only lets you test without affecting production.
• Publishing pushes the current state of the site (design, settings, staged CMS content) to the chosen targets.
• Custom code, interactions and forms run on published sites, so QA happens on staging, not in the Designer canvas.
• Staging should be excluded from search indexing once production is live (Chapter 7).

A safe release workflow

Build → Publish to staging → QA (devices, forms, links, performance, accessibility)
      → Stakeholder review → Fix → Publish to production → Smoke test live site

This matches the official sample question’s answer: publish to staging, request review, then publish to production.

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11.2 Connecting a custom domain

High-level steps:

1. Purchase a site plan (custom domains require a paid site plan).
2. In site settings → Publishing, add the domain (e.g. example.com and www.example.com).
3. At the DNS provider/registrar, add the records Webflow shows:
   – A records for the root domain (example.com).
   – A CNAME record for www pointing to Webflow’s target.
   – A TXT record for domain ownership verification, if requested.
   (Always copy the current values from Webflow’s settings. Don’t rely on old tutorials, because Webflow has changed its DNS targets over time.)
4. Remove conflicting records (old A records pointing to a previous host, extra AAAA records, conflicting CNAMEs).
5. Wait for DNS propagation (from minutes up to 48 hours, depending on TTLs).
6. Set the default domain and publish to it.

Root vs. www and the default domain

• Pick one default (commonly www.example.com). Webflow redirects the other variant to it.
• One canonical host avoids duplicate content and split analytics. Pair it with the global canonical URL (Chapter 7).

Domain migration tips (from another platform)

• Lower the TTL on the old records a day before the switch so changes propagate faster.
• Map old URLs → new URLs and add 301 redirects in Webflow before switching DNS (Chapter 12).
• Keep email records (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC) untouched. Changing web records shouldn’t touch email, and deleting MX records by accident is a classic launch-day disaster.
• Launch at a low-traffic time and have a rollback plan.

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11.3 SSL certificates

• Webflow provisions and renews SSL certificates automatically for connected custom domains once DNS points correctly to Webflow.
• HTTPS is essential: browsers mark HTTP sites “Not secure”, it’s a search ranking signal, and it’s required for many modern browser features.
• If SSL fails: check DNS records are exactly as Webflow specifies, there are no conflicting records, and propagation has completed. A third-party proxy or CDN in front of Webflow can prevent certificate issuance and renewal, so point DNS directly at Webflow as instructed.
• Mixed content: HTTP resources (images, scripts) referenced on an HTTPS page can be blocked or flagged. Make sure custom code and embeds use https:// URLs.

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11.4 Backups and restoring

Webflow keeps backups (restore points) of the site, created automatically (e.g. around publishes and periodically), and you can create manual backups before risky changes.

• Restore a backup from site settings (Backups) to roll the site back to an earlier state, then publish to make the restored version live. Restoring changes the project; it isn’t live until you publish.
• Create a manual backup before: major refactors, class clean-ups, large component changes, or big imports.
• Know what a restore covers. A backup restores the site’s design and structure. CMS content and some data (e.g. form submissions, ecommerce data) aren’t necessarily rolled back the same way. Check what’s included before relying on a restore for content mistakes, and export CMS content as CSV before risky bulk edits.

Backup vs. duplicate

• Backup/restore: roll back the same site.
• Duplicate site: a separate copy (e.g. a template or a sandbox for experiments). It doesn’t keep the live site’s domain, history or connections. It isn’t a review workflow either.

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11.5 Other hosting considerations

• CDN: Webflow serves sites through a global CDN, and assets are cached at the edge. You don’t configure caching; publish and Webflow invalidates.
• Plan features: site plans differ in CMS items, form submissions, bandwidth, localization, etc. Choose based on requirements.
• Unpublishing: a site (or a domain) can be unpublished, e.g. for a temporary takedown.
• Code export: you can export static HTML/CSS/JS, but CMS content, forms and other hosting features don’t work in exported code.
• Status checks after launch: HTTPS works on both root and www, redirects resolve, forms submit, analytics records visits, the sitemap and robots.txt are accessible, and Search Console is updated.

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11.6 Launch checklist

• ☐ Site plan active; custom domains added.
• ☐ DNS records match Webflow’s current instructions; conflicting records removed; email records untouched.
• ☐ Default domain chosen; other variant redirects.
• ☐ SSL active (padlock on root and www).
• ☐ 301 redirects for old URLs.
• ☐ Staging indexing disabled; production indexing enabled.
• ☐ Manual backup created before launch.
• ☐ Forms, interactions and custom code tested on the live domain.
• ☐ Sitemap submitted to Search Console.

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Practice questions: Hosting

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