How to Add a Domain to Office 365? – Step by Step Guide

Domain names play a vital role in establishing trust and a personalized brand in your organization. It’s typically used in your website addresses and Email Ids. When you first sign up for Office 365, The default domain name “Your-domain.onmicrosoft.com” will be assigned. Until you add your own domain to Office 365, any new users you create will contain the default domain name. E.g., your Email Ids will look like Salaudeen@SharePointDiary.onmicrosoft.com. You can change it to a personalized address like Salaudeen@SharePointDiary.com. Here is my step-by-step configuration guide to add a custom domain to Office 365.

Prerequisites: I’m assuming you have an existing domain registered with GoDaddy.com, and you have credentials to log in to the DNS control panel
of GoDaddy. In my case, I have an existing domain purchased from GoDaddy, “TheCrescentTech.com”.

Adding a domain to Office 365 is a two-step process. First, you need to verify the domain with Microsoft that you are the domain owner. Next, you need to set up the DNS records for Office 365 services. It’s a best practice to add your custom domain before you create user accounts or synchronize your on-premises Active Directory!

Add Custom Domain to Office 365

1. Login to Office 365 Admin Portal https://admin.microsoft.com/AdminPortal/. From the left navigation menu, Expand Setup >> Click on “Domains”. You will see a list of domains associated with your account. To add a new Domain, Click on the “Add domain” button on the top.
2. Enter the name of your domain you want to add, then click Next. In my case it’s “TheCrescentTech.com”.
3. Choose how you want to verify that you own the domain. My domain is registered with GoDaddy, So Office 365 gives me an option to Sign-in and set up records for verification automatically. You can use a TXT record to manually verify your domain. Select the “Sign in to GoDaddy (recommended) option and click Next.
4. This pops up the login page for GoDaddy’s DNS control panel. This step requires you to log in to your domain’s DNS host portal.  Login and Click on “Authorize” from GoDaddy.
5. Choose how you want to make the DNS changes required for Office to use your domain. In my case, I chose “Add the DNS records for me (recommended)” so that Office 365 configures the necessary DNS entries automatically.
6. Click Next – you’re done verifying the domain! After your domain has been successfully verified by Office 365, Office 365 prompts you to set up your online services such as MX records, SRV records, etc. You can select relevant services or select the “Set up my online services for me. (Recommended)” option.
7. You may get a prompt again from GoDaddy. Authorize to continue making changes. The next pages give you the summary of all required DNS changes the wizard about to make, like MX records for Outlook Email, CNAME records for multi-purpose, TXT records for configuration and setting purposes, and Service Protocols for Skype Business services.
8. If successful then you should see the message “Congratulation! Your domain and email addresses are all setup. ”
9. That’s all! You have Office 365 setup ready with a custom domain. You should be able to create users and assign appropriate licenses. Furthermore, you should see the domain in your Domains list.

Now you can add user accounts to the added domain and assign the domain to the existing users.