Problem

You want to use a branded top-level domain name for your public Force.com site—without exposing the force.com domain in the URL.

Solution

With Sites, you can register a branded domain name for your public site. When users visit your site, they see only the URL that you registered, and not the Force.com domain. For example, if you registered http://www.mycompany.com with a domain name registrar, all site traffic is redirected from that domain to your Force.com domain. Users see only http://www.mycompany.com in the browser's address bar.

To enable Sites, contact your salesforce.com representative.

To use a custom Web address for your public site:

1. Register your Force.com domain.
   1. Click Setup | Develop | Sites.
   2. Enter a unique name for your Force.com domain. This name can contain only underscores and alphanumeric characters, and must be unique in your organization. It must begin with a letter, not include spaces, not end with an underscore, and not contain two consecutive underscores. Salesforce.com recommends using your company's name or a variation, such as mycompany.
      You cannot modify your Force.com domain name after you have registered it.

      Free Edition domain names are assigned automatically and can't be updated. Create a custom Web address if you want to use a custom domain name.

   3. Click Check Availability to confirm that the domain name you entered is unique. If it is not unique, you are prompted to change it.
   4. Read and accept the Sites Terms of Use by selecting the checkbox.
   5. Click Register My Force.com Domain. After you accept the Terms of Use and register your Force.com domain, the changes related to site creation are tracked in your organization's Setup Audit Trail and the Site History related list. It may take up to 48 hours for your registration to take effect.

   This domain is used for all of your sites, even if you use a branded domain.

2. Register your branded Web address with a domain name registrar, such as GoDaddy.com. For this example, let's say you registered www.acme.com. Once you register the domain, you can also register subdomain names, such as support.acme.com, partners.acme.com, developers.acme.com.
3. Create CNAME records with your registrar to point your top-level domain and your subdomains to your Force.com domain. In this example, create CNAME records to point from:
   • acme.com to acme.force.com
   • support.acme.com to acme.force.com
   • partners.acme.com to acme.force.com
   • acmeideas.com to acme.force.com
   If you choose to create a branded top-level domain or subdomain through a domain name registrar, the CNAME record that you provide to that registrar must be your Force.com domain name and not the site URL. For example, if you entered mycompany when registering your Force.com domain, the CNAME must be mycompany.force.com, not the full value of the site URL.
4. Create your site and associate your branded domain or subdomain:
   1. Click Setup | Develop | Sites.
   2. Click New.
   3. On the Site Edit page, define the site and enter your branded domain or subdomain in the Custom Web Address field. This field determines which branded domain or subdomain is associated with each site.
   4. Click Save.

Discussion

By registering a custom Web Address through a domain name registrar and associating it with your site, you can create a completely branded experience for your users. With Sites and Visualforce pages, you can customize the look and feel, the branding, and public security settings for each of your sites.