Options are: www, non-www, or some other subdomain. e.g. www.limecuda.com, limecuda.com, blog.limecuda.com
If you decide the site will reside at something like limecuda.com then the www version should 301 redirect to that or you will have SEO problems. The converse is true as well. If your site is at something like www.limecuda.com , anything accessed at limecuda.com should all globally 301 redirect to the proper www-version.
The one you set as the main domain will determine if it is www or non-www. If you want www to be the domain that resolves then have it set in the “Domain Name *” spot and non-www in the “Redirect From” spot.
In your WPENGINE install’s dashboard you are provided two vital pieces of information: IP address and CNAME
You will need to be able to make DNS changes wherever the “Total DNS” is hosted. You can tell by where the nameservers point. (Identify Nameservers using a WHOIS lookup)
This is our absolutely preferred way to host DNS. Many reasons… primarily because it allows “CNAME Flattening“. But it also has some caching and security advantages, keeps the DNS management away from where the domain is held (registrar) and it is free!
What is CNAME Flattening?
CloudFlare will follow a CNAME to where it points and return that IP address instead of the CNAME record.
By default, CloudFlare will only flatten the CNAME at the root of your domain
What this means is that you can add a CNAME for @ that points to your WPENGINE CNAME record and not have to use an IP address! Why is this a big deal? Because it is a massive pain if you ever have a bunch of WPENGINE installs migrated to a new WPENGINE server. You are given new IP addresses and will have to go change them for every site. Big hassle. Yes, they forward traffic from one IP to another for a time so there isn’t usually downtime.
Here is what a proper DNS setup for WPENGINE looks like on CloudFlare…
These are the instructions if you are NOT using CloudFlare.
Note: limecuda.com is considered a “root” or “apex” domain. And www is technically a subdomain.
This is the same if you are using CloudFlare, cPanel, or some other registrar-hosted Total DNS.
Further Reading