Can I Use My Own DNS?

Yes. Each service package includes management of one domain. The service includes us taking care of domain name matters on your behalf, including automatic renewal, certification, annual fees, and DNS management. We recommend relying on Seravo for all domain name matters. If you maintain the domain name and its name server yourself, Seravo will not be able to fix any problems related to the domain name or name server on your behalf in the event of a problem. However, you can keep control of the domain name and manage the DNS yourself, or transfer the domain to Seravo's management.

If you want Seravo to manage your domain name, you can transfer it to Seravo's administration. Read our instructions on how to transfer domain name management to Seravo. Please note that transferring a domain is not the same thing as migrating your WordPress site.

If you do not transfer your domain name to Seravo and want to maintain the domain yourself, set the A and CNAME records required for name services to point to the server cluster where your website is located. The message sent with your order contains the necessary records, including information about the website's server cluster and its IP addresses.

If you are pointing additional domains to your website on our server, please contact our customer support at [email protected], and we will activate the additional domains. Activation is needed for each domain, so that they can be routed correctly. Once the DNS has been redirected to Seravo, please notify us of any changes and additional domains by email at [email protected]. A small fee is charged for each additional domain, which covers all maintenance work performed by Seravo, regardless of where it is managed or whether it uses its own name servers.

Seravo has several server clusters in different geographical locations – all existing options are listed below.

fi-coltrane (Finland):

fi-ellington (Finland):

fi-metheny (Finland):

fi-sestak (Finland):

fi-perko (Finland):

fi-haarla (Finland):

fi-rantala (Finland):

fi-tolonen (Finland):

fi-lahti (Finland):

fi-fredriksson (Finland):

se-broo (Sweden):

us-davis (United States):

de-dauner (Germany):

In order for the email messages that are sent by your WordPress site (such as email sent by contact forms) to get through spam filters as well as possible, the DNS zone should also include the records of the SMTP service used by Seravo. (SendGrid).

These include the DKIM records:

Furthermore, you have to modify the SPF-record so that it includes a lookup of SendGrid, the SMTP-service used by Seravo: include:sendgrid.net.

If necessary, a DMARC record can also be added (for the apex domain, or separately for the subdomain) to tighten spam filtering. The format of the record depends on the DMARC policy the domain owner wishes to follow, and Seravo cannot determine the content of the record on behalf of the customer. However, if you wish, you can add a DMARC record such as this one:

If you want to enable a subdomain on your site, such as example.domain.com, and the site was located in the se-broo server cluster, the record would be as follows:

If you wish to also enable the www prefix, such as www.example.domain.com, the record would be as follows:

All domains redirected to the site must also be reported to Seravo. Even if you manage DNS maintenance and redirects yourself, you must still report the domain name to Seravo when placing your order so that the domain name can be routed to the site on the server. This also ensures that the domain name is directed to the correct server cluster. Occasionally, DNS settings that deviate from the main rule may be used, but the correct settings are confirmed at the latest when the domain name is reported to Seravo for routing.

We do not log into external DNS management systems, so if you manage your domain name and DNS yourself, please ensure that the DNS records are added correctly. The DNS administrator must also know which records to delete when changing servers. Seravo's instructions cannot cover all possible situations.

We recommend using Seravo's WP service for domain name matters, as comprehensive maintenance and management of a single domain name is included in the price of the service. If there is an error in the DNS records of a domain name or name service, there is a risk that the website will stop working altogether. That is why it is best to let Seravo guarantee that the entire chain works, from ensuring the validity of the domain name to the server environment settings.

Updating name service changes to the global DNS system requires that thousands of DNS server caches be updated to serve the new records. This can sometimes take hours. Good tools for monitoring record updates include OpenDNS Cache Check, WhatsMyDNS.com, mxtoolbox.com, and the Google Admin Console toolkit.

A good tool for examining name service responses from the command line is the host program, which comes standard on all Linux and Mac computers. For example, the command host seravo.com can be used to check both root domain names and the name server records of the www subdomain with the command host www.seravo.com.