Move to a new domain

Before you start

Before moving your store to a new domain, make sure that:

• You own and have access to the new domain
• The domain is connected to Mystore
• You have access to hosting or DNS for the old domain

How to move your online store to a new domain

Changing your domain can lead to a loss of traffic and Google rankings if it is not done correctly. As a Mystore customer, we recommend following these steps:

1. Confirm ownership of the new domain
   Make sure the new domain is registered to you and that you have access to manage the domain’s DNS settings.
2. Activate the new domain
   Follow the instructions to activate the new domain and point it to the Mystore servers.
3. Keep hosting active on the old domain
   After the move, hosting should remain active on the old domain. This is necessary in order to set up a redirect to the new domain.
4. Create a 301 redirect
   To preserve traffic and search engine rankings, you should create a 301 redirect on the hosting connected to the old domain.
   A 301 redirect tells search engines and browsers that the page has permanently moved to a new address.

How to set up a 301 redirect

Once hosting (web hosting) is activated:

1. Log in to the hosting account via FTP.
   Your hosting provider will supply the login credentials.
2. Open the file .htaccess.
   (This file is often hidden, so you may need to enable the option to show hidden files.)
3. Add the following code and replace olddomain.com and newdomain.com with your actual domain names:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^olddomain.com [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.olddomain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://newdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301,NC]

After saving the file, all traffic to the old domain (both the homepage and subpages) will be redirected to the corresponding URLs on the new domain.

Important to know

• A 301 redirect helps search engines understand that the domain has permanently moved
• This helps preserve traffic and SEO rankings
• The redirect should remain active for as long as possible

Need help?

If you are unsure how to set up the redirect, we recommend contacting your domain provider or hosting provider. They can assist you with the configuration.