Custom Domains for Your Online Store

Updated on 27 Oct 2022
3 Minutes to read

Article Summary

Domain Forwarding

This option allows you to use your Custom Domain Name and redirect your customers to your Online Store and automatically update the address bar URL to your Default Subdomain . Some domain registrars like GoDaddy and Namecheap have the option to forward with masking also known as link cloaking, which will redirect your customers to your Online Store and prevent the forwarded Default Subdomain Name from appearing on the address bar URL.

How Forward Only works: Say that you have a domain name 'www.myexample.com', and you forward your domain to point to your Online Store Subdomain. When your customers go to â€˜www.example.com', they will be directed to your Online Store and update the browser URL to 'http://myexample.myhelcimstore.com'

How Forward with Masking works: Say that you have a domain name 'www.myexample.com', and you forward your domain to point to our Online Store Subdomain. When your customers go to â€˜www.example.com', they will be able to start shopping on the Online Store and the address URL will still remain as 'www.example.com'.

Forwarding with Masking

Please be advised that Forwarding with masking can be problematic as site visitors are not able to see the direct addresses of the pages that they are visiting on a webpage, which means they are not able to bookmark or share specific sections of a website. If you have content that you would like your customer to share and link back to, they are unable to because they do not have the actual URL for each page of your website. To modern web browsers the masking looks very suspicious and most browsers will either refuse to load the "masked" site or will display a warning message saying the site cannot be trusted. This feature is inherently insecure and has numerous other negative side-effects, including poor search engine rankings.

To use Domain Forwarding with your domain registrar, please ensure you complete the following steps:

Ensure your Custom Domain Name is pointing to the default nameservers with your domain registrar
Include any DNS records in your domain settings
Find a setting that allows you to Forward your Domain Name to another address. Most domain registrars call this Domain Fowarding
Add your default Subdomain of your Online Store for the Forward address
Select Permanent Forwarding
Select between Forward only or Forward with Masking , if your domain registrar offers both

Redirect customers from your website

If you have an existing website built using JavaScript, HTML, CSS, or any third-party website builder, you can add a button on your website and redirect your customers to your default subdomain of Online Store with Helcim.

Subdomain for your Online Store

To view your Default Subdomain, your Online Store needs to be active. You can activate your Online Store by going into your Dashboard, then going to Online Store, then go to Store Overview then activate your website and hit Save

Once your Online Store is active, you will see the Default Subdomain appear next to Your Website URL as shown below.

Alternatively, if you've used Custom Domain Name in the past, you can find the default subdomain by going to your Dashboard, then going to Online Store, then go to Domain Name from the left sidebar. Under Hosting Mode, select Default Subdmain and your subdomain name will appear as shown below.

Domain Forwarding with GoDaddy

Login to your GoDaddy account
Click on your user icon on the top right corner
Under Quick Links go to Manager Domains
Next, select the Domain Name that you want to forward
On the Domain Settings page, scroll down to Additional Settings
Select Manage DNS
Then, go to Nameservers and ensure you are pointing to the default nameserver

DNS Records

If you have any DNS records, please add them under the Records section.

Next, scroll down to the Forwarding Section and click Add

Select https:// and add your Subdomain name for the Online Store in the bank field under Forward To
Under Forward Type, select Permanent (301)
Next, select between Forward only or Forward with Masking

Forward with Masking

If you select Forward with Masking, you'll need to enter your details for at least one of the meta tags

To finish, click Save
Please note these settings can take 24-48 hours for your forwarding to take effect.

Domain Forwarding with Namecheap

Login to your Namecheap account and go to the Dashboard
Then, go to Domain List
Select Manage next to the Domain Name that you want to forward
Scroll down to Nameserver, and select Namecheap BasicDNS
Next, go to Redirect Domain and select Add Redirect
Enter your Custom Domain Name under the Source URL
Enter your Default Subdomain Name for your Online Store under the Destination URL
To finish , hit the button for Save All Changes

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