How to Connect Your Domain to Shopify
Point an existing domain at your Shopify store, or buy one through Shopify, without breaking your email or taking your site offline.
Your domain is how customers find and trust you. Shopify gives you two routes: buy a domain inside Shopify so everything is managed for you, or connect a domain you already own by editing DNS records at your registrar.
Which route should you take?
| Route | Best for | Setup time |
|---|---|---|
| Buy through Shopify | New stores with no domain yet | About 5 minutes |
| Connect existing domain | You already own the name | 15 minutes plus DNS propagation |
| Transfer to Shopify | You want one place to manage everything | Up to 7 days |
Open domain settings
In your Shopify admin go to Settings, then Domains. You will see your default myshopify.com address listed.
Choose Connect existing domain
Enter the domain exactly as you own it, without https or a trailing slash, then continue.
Log in to your registrar
Open the DNS settings for your domain at the company you bought it from, such as GoDaddy, Namecheap or Cloudflare.
Point the root domain with an A record
Edit or create the A record for @ and set it to the IP address Shopify shows in your domain connection screen. Delete conflicting A records for the same host.
Point www with a CNAME record
Create or edit the CNAME record for www and point it at shops.myshopify.com. Only one CNAME may exist for www.
Watch out
Do not delete MX records. They route your email. Removing them will stop mail arriving at your domain.
Verify the connection
Return to Shopify and click Verify connection. DNS changes are usually live within an hour but can take up to 48 hours.
Set your primary domain
Once verified, set the domain as primary so all traffic and links resolve to one address. Keep redirect all traffic to this domain enabled to protect your SEO.
Check the padlock
Shopify issues an SSL certificate automatically after verification. If the padlock is missing after a few hours, remove and reconnect the domain.
Still stuck? Skip the tutorials.
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Related tutorials
How to Submit Your Shopify Store to Google
Verify your store in Google Search Console, submit your sitemap and get your pages indexed.
Read more elsewhere
Shopify Help Center: Domains overview
The official explanation of buying, connecting and transferring domains, including the exact DNS values Shopify expects.
Link to an external site. We don't republish other people's content.
