Migrating your domain name

If you need to move your domain name away from your existing website provider, you will need to transfer the domain to a new domain name registrar. ShopWired recommends using GoDaddy for your domain name, but you can use any domain registrar.

The process of moving your domain name will follow these steps:

1. Transfer your domain name to a new registrar (e.g. GoDaddy)
2. Keep your domain name pointing to your existing website provider
   • When transferring your domain name, ensure that its existing DNS settings remain unchanged
3. When you are ready to make your ShopWired website live, change the DNS settings on the domain name

ShopWired advises transferring your domain name in preparation for making your ShopWired website live and not attempting to complete all steps at the same time.

During the transfer, your domain name will not experience any downtime:

• During the migration of your domain name to a new registrar, it will remain live and available (your existing/old website will be displayed)
• When you change your domain name's DNS settings, visitors will either see your existing website or your new ShopWired website

Whichever domain registrar you choose to migrate your domain name's registration to, the migration process is always simple. You should consult your new domain registrar for specific instructions on how to migrate the domain name. For example, GoDaddy has a specific help guide which details every step in the process.

You should not be charged a fee for transferring your domain to a new registrar, but the registrar may require you to renew the domain name during the transfer (e.g. purchase another year of domain registration). Whether this is a requirement or not is determined by the domain registrar.

If you are changing your website's domain name, you may want visitors who access your old domain name to be automatically redirected to your new domain name.

For example:

• www.olddomain.com/page-a → www.newdomain.com/page-a
• www.olddomain.com/products/product-1 → www.newdomain.com/products/product-1

This type of redirect is known as a wildcard redirect. Instead of creating a separate redirect for every page, a wildcard redirect automatically redirects all URLs from one domain to the matching URL on another domain whilst preserving the URL path.

ShopWired only supports one domain name per website account. Because of this limitation, ShopWired cannot be used to create wildcard redirects from an old domain name to a new domain name.

If you need to redirect an old domain name to a new one using wildcard redirects, you will need to use a third-party service to manage the redirects.

ShopWired recommends using Cloudflare to create wildcard redirects from an old domain name to a new domain name.

The general process is:

1. Open a Cloudflare account
   • Even if you are using ShopWired's integration with Cloudflare you still need your own Cloudflare account
2. Add your old domain name to Cloudflare
3. Update the old domain name's DNS settings so that it is managed by Cloudflare
4. Create a redirect rule that redirects all traffic from the old domain name to the new domain name whilst preserving the URL path

For example:

• www.olddomain.com/products → www.newdomain.com/products
• www.olddomain.com/contact-us → www.newdomain.com/contact-us

Cloudflare provides tools for creating wildcard redirects and preserving URL paths automatically. If you require assistance setting up the redirect, Cloudflare's support team can help guide you through the process.

Once configured, visitors accessing the old domain name will be automatically redirected to the equivalent page on the new domain name.