After you buy domain it is important for you to link it to your website so that when people visit your domain they can view your website. Depending on which domain you have registered on you can follow a series of steps to ensure you can point your domain to Shopify.
Steps To Point A Domain Name To Shopify
If your domain name is registered with Namecheap then you can use the following two methods to point your domain name to Shopify after you buy domain.
Method 1: Using A Template
If your domains are pointed to either PremiumDNS or BasicDNS of Namecheap then you can use the following series of steps to point your domain name to Shopify.
Step 1: You need to sign in to your Namecheap account.
Step 2: You are required to click on ‘Domain List’ which you can locate on the left-hand side navigation bar. Near the bottom right, you will see a button called ‘Manage’. Click on that.
Step 3: You will see a tab titled ‘Advanced DNS’, you need to select that.
Step 4: Right next to the ‘DNS Templates’ you will see ‘Choose DNS Template’. Click on the drop-down menu and then select Shopify.
Step 5: You will see a checkmark in green color which you need to then click. Then you need to click on the ‘Continue’ button when a message box appears.
Step 6: When everything is completed successfully you will see a message that starts with ‘Success! Your template has been set up’. If that is not the case then a message starting with ‘ Uh oh, something went wrong’ will appear.
If the settings could not be applied and you get an error message then contact Namecheap’s customer support team. If the settings have been applied successfully then it will take up to an hour for the changes to take place.
Method 2: Using Manual Method
This method involves using A and CNAME records. You need to log into your Namecheap account before you begin.
Step 1: You need to select ‘Domain List’ from the left sidebar and then click on ‘Manage’ that appears on the bottom right.
Step 2: Select the ‘Advanced DNS’ tab and then in the ‘Host Records’ sub-section you need to click on ‘Add New Record’ which can be found on the bottom-left side.
Step 3: If you wish to use domain such as www.yourdomainname.tld or yourdomainname.tld then you need to create host records.
Step 4: A Record should have @ host and the value should be 23.227.38.65. The second should be CNAME Record with the host www and value shops.myshopify.com. You need to check A Record, URL Redirect Record and CNAME Record to see if any conflicting host records exist for the same host.
Step 5: If you want to use another subdomain such as store.yourdomainname.tld then you need to add store as the host for CNAME Record and change the value to shops.myshopify.com.
Step 6: When you are done, you need to click on ‘Save All Changes’ button. The process will take about half an hour. Once the time is over, then you can add the domain name to your Shopify account.
Hosting On Shopify
Once you create your website and buy domain, you want to ensure your website is running at all times. Rather than choose another hosting provider, you can choose Shopify hosting. With Shopify, you can get a range of benefits such as follows.
- You don’t need to worry about your customer’s data because Shopify is Level 1 PCI compliant which means it has achieved the highest level of compliance.
Shopify ensures security.
- Shopify provides constant updates that ensure your website is running smoothly at all times. The updates are automatic and so you don’t have to spend time updating because Shopify will do it all for you.
- When you buy domain on Shopify you receive unlimited forwarding email addresses. That is, if your domain name is abcd.com then you can create email addresses such as customercare@abcd.com and info@abcd.com.
- Shopify uses a content delivery network or CDN and it is the first hosted e-commerce website solution to do so. Fastly operates Shopify’s CDN to ensure wherever your customers are, they can open your website with ease always.
- Shopify takes the guesswork out of everything and enables you to set up your store with ultimate ease. This enables you to create your store as you wish and make the necessary changes when required.
- When it comes to buy domain on Shopify, the process is very simple. Even if you have an existing domain Shopify makes it simple for you to do so. You can even use Shopify’s free domain if you wish to.
- Shopify enables your website to run properly even when the traffic is high due to Shopify’s unlimited bandwidth.