Connecting a third-party domain to your Instant Site
Every site has a domain, or URL that appears in a browser's address bar. For example, mystore.com. When you register an Ecwid account, you get a site with your store, Instant Site. It is located on a free URL in the form of store123.company.site that you can edit.
Instead of using the default URL, you can connect a domain purchased from a third-party registrar. That way, customers can enter your custom URL to their browser to open your online store. Having your own domain improves your SEO, which helps you get better placement in search engine results.
Connecting a third-party domain requires setup both in your store admin and in your registrar account.
Where to buy a domain
To use a unique web-address for your site, you need to purchase a domain from a registrar. Use any domain registrar that you are comfortable with.
Some of the most popular domain registrars are:
General steps of buying a domain:
- Go to the domain name registrar you chose.
- Type in your domain into the search box and click Search Domain.
- Select the extension you need (for example .com or .biz) and add the domain to your cart.
- Complete the registration process and make the payment. Remember that your Instant Site is secured with a free TLS certificate, so you don't need to purchase it extra.
That’s it. Once you purchased a domain, it’s yours, and you can now connect it to your Instant Site.
Connecting a third-party domain to Instant Site
A custom domain is connected to your Instant Site in two steps: first you specify domain name in your Ecwid admin, then you adjust the domain in your domain registrar. Steps are the same for connecting a newly purchased domain and for a domain you’ve owned for some time.
Connected domains are not transferred to Ecwid. So all domain settings are located in your registrar’s account where you can manage them if needed.
Step 1 — Specifying your domain in the Ecwid admin
To begin with, you need to specify your domain name in your Instant Site settings:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Website → Domain.
- In the Domain name and site address block, click Connect Existing Domain.
- In the Specify a domain name field, enter your custom domain name (without www):
- Click Save and Continue.
That's it! You’ve saved your domain name in Ecwid.
Now, you should finish the domain setup by adjusting DNS settings in your registrar account so that the domain name is actually connected to your Instant Site. You can either use the automatic domain setup tool (available for part of the domain names), or set up everything manually on the registrar side.
Automatic domain setup tool powered by Entri allows you to adjust DNS settings on the registrar side right from your Ecwid admin, no manual changes in the registrar needed. You can see if automatic connection is available for your domain name after you specify it in the store admin.
Step 2 — Adjusting domain settings on the registrar side
To set up a domain automatically from your Ecwid admin:
- Specify your domain name in Ecwid, then click Adjust Settings:
- Follow the wizard. You will need to enter your domain credentials to give Entri one-time permission to connect your domain.
- Click Done.
Below you’ll find general steps for making DNS changes in your domain registrar account. You can also check the list of domain registrars, find your third-party service and follow the precise steps of setting up.
To set up a domain manually in your registrar account:
- Specify your domain name in Ecwid, then copy the IP-address for manual connection. You will need it to set up your domain in your registrar account.
- Log in to your domain registrar's account. If you do not know who your domain registrar is, you can check it out in online domain checkers like whois.domaintools.com
- Create an A-record for your custom domain (your-domain.com) and point it to the IP-address you copied from your Ecwid admin.
Make sure to delete other A or AAAA records for your root domain (@), so they don’t conflict with the A record pointing to your Ecwid Instant Site. - To make your Instant Site available at www.your-domain.com as well, create a CNAME record for your custom domain your-domain.com and specify www as a name/alias for it. You will need to add the following to DNS record:
www IN CNAME @
or
www IN CNAME your-domain.com
If you are not sure how to make these changes, contact your domain registrar support for more detailed instructions.
That’s it! Now wait for the domain changes to propagate. It can take from 2 to 48 hours.
Once the setup is complete and the changes are propagated, your Instant Site will become available at the specified addresses via a secure HTTPS connection encrypted by an TLS certificate from Ecwid.
Note: If you open your domain name straight after adding DNS records, you will most likely see the "This site can’t be reached" message. That's expected behavior. Give it from 2 to 48 hours for the changes to propagate on the side of the domain and for Ecwid to connect the domain name to your store.
Disconnecting a third-party domain from Instant Site
After you disconnect a domain, it will no longer open your Instant Site. Visitors will see a blank page instead. Still, your Instant Site will be available on the default free domain.
To disconnect a domain from your Instant Site:
- From your store’s admin, go to Website → Domain.
- In the Site address block, click Manage.
- Under the section with your domain name, click the disconnect it from your store link.
- Click Disconnect Domain.
Related articles
Connecting your GoDaddy domain to Ecwid Instant Site
How to Buy the Perfect Domain Name for Your Store (blog)
What’s in a Domain? (blog)