Use your domain for a static website in an Amazon S3 bucket - Amazon Route 53
PrerequisitesStep 1: Route DNS traffic for your domain to your website bucketStep 2: Test your website

Use your domain for a static website in an Amazon S3 bucket

This tutorial shows you how to use Amazon Route 53 to route DNS traffic for your domain to an Amazon Simple Storage Service bucket that hosts a static website. You'll create alias records that point your domain to the S3 website endpoint.

This tutorial is part of a complete static website setup workflow. For general information about routing traffic to any S3 bucket, see Routing traffic to a website that is hosted in an Amazon S3 bucket.

When you're finished, visitors can access your static website using your custom domain name.

Note

You can also transfer an existing domain to Route 53, but the process is more complex and time-consuming than registering a new domain. For more information, see Transferring registration for a domain to Amazon Route 53.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, complete these steps:

When you complete the Amazon Simple Storage Service tutorial, you'll have:

  • Amazon S3 buckets configured for website hosting and redirect (if using www subdomain)

  • Website content uploaded to your bucket

  • Public access configured for your website bucket

Step 1: Route DNS traffic for your domain to your website bucket

Now that you have an Amazon Simple Storage Service bucket configured for static website hosting, use Amazon Route 53 to route DNS traffic for your domain to the bucket. This enables visitors to access your website using your custom domain name.

To route traffic to your website

  1. Open the Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Hosted zones.

    Note

    When you registered your domain, Amazon Route 53 automatically created a hosted zone with the same name. A hosted zone contains information about how you want Route 53 to route traffic for the domain.

  3. In the list of hosted zones, choose the name of your domain.

  4. Choose Create record.

  5. Specify the following values:

    Record name

    Leave blank to create a record for your root domain.

    Record type

    Choose A ‐ Routes traffic to an IPv4 address and some AWS resources.

    Alias

    Turn on Alias.

    Route traffic to

    Choose Alias to S3 website endpoint.

    Choose the Region where you created your S3 bucket.

    Choose your S3 bucket. The bucket name should match the name of your domain. In the list, the bucket name appears with the Amazon S3 website endpoint for the Region where the bucket was created, for example, s3-website-us-west-1.amazonaws.com (example.com).

    If your bucket does not appear in the list, enter the Amazon S3 website endpoint for the Region where the bucket was created, for example, s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com. For a complete list of Amazon S3 website endpoints, see Amazon S3 Website endpoints.

    Evaluate target health

    Accept the default value of No.

  6. Choose Create records.

(Optional) To add an alias record for your subdomain (www.example.com)

If you created a bucket for your subdomain, add an alias record for it also.

  1. Choose Create record.

  2. Specify the following values:

    Record name

    Enter www.

    Record type

    Choose A ‐ Routes traffic to an IPv4 address and some AWS resources.

    Alias

    Turn on Alias.

    Route traffic to

    Choose Alias to S3 website endpoint.

    Choose the Region where you created your S3 bucket.

    Choose your S3 bucket for the subdomain, for example, s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com (www.example.com).

    Evaluate target health

    Accept the default value of No.

  3. Choose Create records.

Step 2: Test your website

To verify that the website is working correctly, open a web browser and browse to the following URLs:

  • http://your-domain-name, for example, example.com – Displays the index document in the your-domain-name bucket

  • http://www.your-domain-name for example, www.example.com – Redirects your request to the your-domain-name bucket

In some cases, you might need to clear the cache to see the expected behavior.

For more advanced information about routing your internet traffic, see Configuring Amazon Route 53 as your DNS service. For information about routing your internet traffic to AWS resources, see Routing internet traffic to your AWS resources.

Note

Amazon S3 does not support HTTPS access to the website. If you want to use HTTPS, you can use Amazon CloudFront to serve a static website hosted on Amazon S3. For more information, see Use an Amazon CloudFront distribution to serve a static website.