Custom domains

Your shop can run on your own address — shop.yourbrand.com, or your bare domain — instead of the one Coready gives you. You add the domain here, prove it is yours by adding two records at your DNS provider, and we take care of the certificate.

You will need access to wherever your domain's DNS is managed. That is usually the company you bought the domain from, or whoever hosts your main website.

Add the domain

1. Open Studio → Custom domains and choose Add domain.
2. Type the exact address you want your shop served on, for example shop.yourbrand.com.
3. Coready shows the records to add, numbered in the order to add them. Leave this page open — you will come back to it.

Add the DNS records — in this order

A domain needs two records, and they do different jobs. One sends visitors to your shop; the other proves the domain is yours. The verification record alone is not enough: the domain would be verified, but nobody — including the service that issues your HTTPS certificate — could reach it.

1. Point the domain at Coready

Add one of the records Coready shows under step 1:

• A record — for a top-level domain like yourbrand.com, where most providers do not allow a CNAME.
• CNAME record — for a subdomain like shop.yourbrand.com or www.yourbrand.com. It follows us automatically if our address ever changes.

Tip: A record for a top-level domain, CNAME for a subdomain.

A record on your main domain does not cover your subdomains: shop.yourbrand.com needs its own record even if yourbrand.com already points somewhere.

2. Prove the domain is yours

Add the TXT record Coready shows under step 2, with the name and the one-off value exactly as shown, including any prefix.

Example

For shop.yourbrand.com the two records look like this — always copy the real values from the screen, not these:

Many providers ask only for the part of the name before your domain. In that case enter shop and _coready-verify.shop — typing the full name there would end up doubling it.

DNS changes are not instant. They usually take a few minutes and occasionally a few hours, depending on your provider. Any public DNS lookup tool will show you when your records are visible.

Verify

Back in Coready, choose Verify. We look up the verification record and, when we find it, mark the domain as verified and start serving your shop on it.

If the domain verifies but Coready warns that it does not point at us yet, ownership is confirmed but the record from step 1 is missing or not visible yet — visitors will not reach your shop until it is. Check that record; there is nothing to verify again.

If verification fails, the record has almost certainly not spread yet. Wait a little and try again. If it keeps failing, check for these, in order:

• The record was added to the same domain you typed into Coready, not a different one.
• The name has no extra pieces. Some providers add your domain automatically, so pasting the full name ends up doubling it.
• The value was pasted whole, with no quotes added or trailing spaces.
• There is no second, older verification record on the same name.

The certificate

Once the domain is verified, your shop's HTTPS certificate is requested and installed automatically. There is nothing to buy, upload or renew — it renews itself for as long as the domain points at us.

The first visit after verifying can take a few seconds longer than usual while that happens. If you see a certificate warning in the first minute or two, wait and reload before worrying.

After verifying: keep both records

Leave both records in place for as long as the domain is in use:

• The record pointing at us (A or CNAME) must stay. Without it visitors cannot reach your shop, and its HTTPS certificate cannot be renewed.
• The verification record (TXT) is only checked when you choose Verify, so removing it does not take your shop down — but keep it anyway. It is needed again whenever the domain is verified once more, and it costs nothing to leave in place.

Next to each verified domain, Coready shows the name of its verification record and the last characters of its value. Use them to tell which TXT record at your DNS provider belongs to which domain when you have several.

Changing or removing a domain

Removing a domain in Coready stops it being served straight away. Your shop stays available on its other addresses, and nothing in your catalog or orders is affected.

You can clean up the DNS records afterwards at your leisure — but if you point the domain somewhere else while leaving them in place, remove the record pointing at us first, or visitors will keep arriving at your Coready shop.

More than one domain

A shop can have several verified domains at once. That is the usual way to move house: verify the new address, check it serves correctly, and retire the old one when you are ready.