Guide

Your blog under your own domain.

You don't need a CMS or a developer. makeseo hosts the blog, you just connect your domain — one DNS record, five minutes.

Have your own Next.js project? Then the Next.js integration is the better fit.

1 · Choose an address

Create the blog, then enter your desired address — usually blog.your-domain.com. It must belong to your project domain; that's the first half of the ownership proof.

2 · Set the DNS record

Two records at your domain provider: a CNAME that routes visitors to us, and a TXT record that proves the domain is yours. makeseo shows both values ready to use.

3 · Wait for verification

As soon as the records are visible, the TLS certificate is issued and renewed automatically. Usually minutes, with some providers up to 24 hours. You don't have to do anything.

4 · Blog is live

Posts appear automatically on their scheduled date. A sitemap and RSS feed are created along with them — you submit the sitemap once in Search Console.

The two DNS records

After you enter the address, makeseo shows you exactly the values you need. They look like this:

DNS records at your domain provider

Type:   CNAME
Name:   blog
Value:  cname.vercel-dns.com

Type:   TXT
Name:   _makeseo-verify.blog
Value:  (the value makeseo shows you)

In makeseo there's a guide next to each field for your specific provider — IONOS, Strato, Namecheap, Cloudflare and more, including the pitfall that each provider has.

What the status display means

No domain connected: The blog is already running — under the preview address. Everything works, just not yet under your name.
Proof pending: The TXT record isn't visible yet. Without it we don't register your domain with the hosting — that's the safeguard against someone entering a domain that isn't theirs.
DNS pending: The CNAME is still missing or not yet propagated everywhere. The most common cause is the Name field: many providers add the main domain themselves.
Certificate being issued: Everything checks out, the TLS certificate is being issued. Seconds to minutes.
Active: Done. From now on all links, canonicals and sitemap entries point to your address.

Until the domain is ready: the preview address

Your blog is reachable from the very first click — at an address on our side:

Preview address

your-name.blog.makeseo.co

It's not a dead end but the normal state before the DNS record: you can view, share and check posts.

Your brand comes along automatically

When analysing your website, makeseo detects your brand color, logo and typography. Both are applied automatically:

the frame of the blog (header, cards, buttons, footer) carries your color,
the embedded links within the article appear in your company color,
the body text stays black on white — it's meant to be read, not to glow.

Every color runs through a contrast check first: a neon yellow is deepened until it's legible on white (4.5 : 1). If no color was detected, the blog stays black and white — one is never guessed and ours is never used.

You can change everything under Settings › Integrations › Hosted blog: logo, primary and secondary color, typography, the target of the „To the website“ button, and the links to your legal notice and privacy policy.

Blog under /blog instead of a subdomain

Possible, but technically more involved: your existing website has to forward requests to /blog to us (reverse proxy). On Vercel via rewrites, on Cloudflare via a Worker, on nginx via proxy_pass.

next.config.ts (example)

async rewrites() {
  return [
    {
      source: "/blog/:path*",
      destination: "https://dein-name.blog.makeseo.co/:path*",
    },
  ];
}

Let us know afterwards — we set the path prefix so that all links, canonicals and sitemap entries point to your-domain.com/blog/…. Without this setting they would still point to the subdomain, and you'd have the same content under two addresses.

When something's stuck

The most common cases and what's behind them.

The status stays on „DNS pending“.: Check the Name field. Many providers add the main domain automatically — in that case only „blog“ belongs there, not „blog.your-domain.com“. If it ends up as blog.your-domain.com.your-domain.com, that was exactly the mistake.
The certificate isn't being issued.: Almost always the Cloudflare proxy. Set the record to „DNS only“ (grey cloud). With the proxy enabled, the certificate check can't reach us.
„The address must belong to your domain.“: The blog can only live under your project domain. If the domain in the project is wrong, change it under Settings → Company and enter the blog address again afterwards.
No post is visible.: The blog only shows published posts. Scheduled ones appear on their date — you can see the schedule in the content plan.
A change doesn't appear immediately.: Blog pages are cached and refreshed selectively on publish. If you edit an older post, it can take up to an hour.
Can I switch to my own CMS later?: Yes. Connect the new target and set up a redirect from the blog subdomain to the new addresses. Your posts stay in makeseo and can be exported as HTML or Markdown.

Unsure about DNS?

Send us the name of your provider — we'll tell you field by field what belongs where.

Contact support To the docs overview

Own Next.js project? Connect Next.js blog