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Friday, September 26th, 2025

Why is the word homestead in the middle of my url?

I have paid for my website for years. Now all of a sudden there is the word "homestead" in the middle of my url. What is the deal?

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1 month ago

AI Overview
The word "homestead" appears in your website's URL because you are using Homestead, a website builder, to host your site
. Your website is set up on a subdomain of Homestead, rather than on its own unique domain name. 
What this means
  • A subdomain, not a custom domain: When you create a site with Homestead's basic hosting plan, your web address uses the format your-site-name.homestead.com. Your chosen site name is the subdomain, and homestead.com is the primary domain owned by the website builder.
  • A placeholder for your site: This URL structure is the default setup for your site until you connect a custom domain name.
  • Part of a larger company: Homestead, now part of the Network Solutions family of brands, was one of the first and most widely-used website builders, historically providing easy-to-use tools for small businesses. 
How to remove "homestead" from your URL
To replace homestead.com with your own, more professional domain name (like yourbusiness.com), you will need to complete the following steps:
    1. Register a domain name. Purchase a custom domain name through a registrar like Homestead (Network Solutions), GoDaddy, or another service.
  • Point your domain to your Homestead site. In your Homestead account's domain manager, you will need to associate your custom domain with your website. This involves updating your domain's nameservers or DNS settings to point to Homestead.
  • Update your site's URL. Within the Homestead website manager, use the "rename" function or change the site association to use your new, custom domain instead of the default homestead.com subdomain. 
Once these steps are complete, your website will be accessible via your new, cleaner domain name.