Launch Store University
Domain Names and Email Hosts In this lesson, you will learn how to: Apply a domain to your Bigcommerce Store Direct your nameservers to Bigcommerce at GoDaddy.com Setup email forwarding or redirect your MX records Transcript Selecting a domain name for your business is a big decision. After all, the domain you select will service as your web address, your brand, a huge marketing lever and everything in between. So, make sure you pick a good one and you love it cuz you re going to be using it A LOT! Your domain name is what your customers will use to find you. This means you want to keep it simple so they can remember it and so they can get back to your store again and again. Resist the urge to include difficult or incorrect spellings or unknown acronyms. You don t want to make finding your online business a challenge. There is a lot of competition out there in ecommerce, don t CREATE obstacles. For instance, if you already have a brick and mortar store and are trying to bring your
business online or you re moving your online store to Bigcommerce, you ll likely want to keep your domain name the same. This will help your existing customers follow you and prevent confusion for future shoppers. Although choosing a domain isn t the end all be all, it s a big decision, so take your time. Now, whether you ve come already prepared with your domain name or you want to purchase a domain via Bigcommerce, you ll want to go to Settings > > Domain Name located in the Server Settings Column. Here, you may choose to use an existing domain name. This is for those of you who have purchased your domain name from an outside registrar like Namecheap.com, Godaddy, or Register.com. The second option allows for you to check availability of your preferred domain name, and purchase it directly through Bigcommerce. Simply type in your domain idea and check availability. Then you ll just follow the prompts to purchase from your control panel. This will charge your Bigcommerce account and your domain will be automatically applied to your store. No muss, no fuss. However, for those of you who want to purchase a domain from an outside registrar and use it on your Bigcommerce store, the rest of this video will help you get there. ((pause)) Ok, select Use an existing domain name and type in the name of the domain you already own. The next step involves pointing your nameservers from your Registrar to
Bigcommerce. This means you need to go to your domain registrar, namecheap.com, Godaddy, enom.com, or whoever you bought your domain from, and enter the 3 Bigcommerce nameserver addresses. All you re doing is telling your registrar that you re going to be hosting your domain name and all it s files on Bigcommerce. It sounds complicated and there are a few steps but it s all super easy. For this example, let s use Godaddy.com. Make sure you re logged in to GoDaddy and then click on My Account. Then you will want to Open your Domain Manager. Now you should see the domain you purchased, and would like to use for your store. Click the small settings wheel and then Domain Details. You ll see an area for Nameservers. Click on the manage link below the nameserver addresses....and you first see the default nameservers, which are Godaddy s. This means your domain name is currently pointing to Godaddy. We want to make sure we re directing your domain to Bigcommerce, this is where the switch comes in. Select Custom and then Enter Custom Nameservers. Enter these Bigcommerce addresses to point your nameservers to Bigcommerce. From here, click OK and Save and then you re all set! We do have to wait for the domain to propagate, so hold tight as you may not be able
to see the change right away. Propagation can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 48 hours, depending where in the world you are located compared to your server and registrar. Now, we re not quite done yet. When you pointed your nameservers to Bigcommerce your email was also redirected to Bigcommerce as well. You may want to reroute your email back to a specific email provider and you can easily do that from within your control panel. Or, you can simply forward your emails to a preferred email address. The faster you update your email preferences the less likely you will see an interruption in service. OK, so you have two options here; forwarding and rerouting. Here s how to do both. To get your emails to forward first click on Settings, and then select DNS Records, under Server Settings. Bigcommerce automatically sets up a forwarding address so you can start receiving email at your new domain right away. This is great for your marketing and branding purposes. Within the Mail Servers tab, the first email info will be forwarded to the email address you signed up with. This can be replaced with a different email address if you prefer. You can create up to 5 forwarding email addresses. Just click, Add Another. Feel free to make whatever addresses you think your store will need. Now, if you already have email hosting somewhere else, you can also reroute your MX records back to your email host by choosing the next option. For an in-depth article on routing your records click this Learn More button.
Great! You re ready to start selling under your branded domain name. This is a big deal so - congrats!