The situation
The domain was registered and hosted on HostAfrica's shared infrastructure — a reasonable starting point, but not where you want to stay. Shared hosting means shared resources, a server in one location, and a control panel that makes DNS changes riskier than they need to be.
The goal: move everything to Cloudflare Pages (fast static hosting on a global edge network, free at this scale) and hand DNS over to Cloudflare too, without touching email — which still runs on the old server.
The tricky part — keeping email alive
The MX record (which tells the internet where to deliver email) was pointing to the apex domain — `digitalblastmedia.co.za`. Once we repointed the apex to Cloudflare Pages, anything still targeting that apex would break.
The fix is straightforward but must happen in the right order: add a new `mail` A-record pointing at the old server's IP, then update the MX to point at `mail.digitalblastmedia.co.za` instead of the bare apex. Email continues routing to the same physical server through the new name. We did this before touching a single nameserver.
The migration — four steps, no drama
First, we added the site to Cloudflare and let it auto-scan the existing DNS records. We then audited every record, re-added the missing DKIM key (auto-import had dropped it), set the new `mail` A-record, and decoupled the MX. Every record was set to DNS-only — no proxying through Cloudflare yet, which keeps the migration reversible at any moment.
Then we swapped nameservers at HostAfrica from HostAfrica's NS to Cloudflare's assigned pair. The zone went Active within minutes. Finally, we added `digitalblastmedia.co.za` and `www` as custom domains on the Cloudflare Pages project — SSL provisioned automatically for both. Apex and www now serve the site from Cloudflare's edge, email is untouched.
The result
Zero downtime. The site was faster immediately — served from Cloudflare's global network, including a Johannesburg point of presence, rather than a single shared server. SSL was live on both apex and `www`. Email kept flowing without interruption.
The full DNS record inventory and rollback instructions are documented so any future change can be made with confidence. Rollback, if ever needed, is a single nameserver revert at the registrar.
What this means for your business
DNS migrations feel risky because the consequences of a mistake — hours of broken email, a site going dark — are very visible. They don't have to be. The right sequence, a full audit before you touch anything, and a tested rollback plan make it routine.
If your site is on shared hosting and you want it faster and more resilient — or you want to move domain management somewhere you control — this is the kind of migration we handle as part of Operate.