Setting Up a Subdomain – Inksoft

Subdomains enable you to stand out from the crowd, organize your site better, and keep you in control of site traffic.

Introduction

A subdomain is an additional part of your main domain name. These will attach at the beginning of the custom domain instead of a traditional www. Subdomains are created to organize and navigate your users to different sections of your website. This is the most common reason to get a subdomain.

Here at InkSoft, we use the subdomain "stores." and this is likely what you have right now if you have not set up a custom domain. And that is the first step.

Setting Up a Custom Domain in Your InkSoft Account

Please Note: Examples in this guide will be from GoDaddy, but the information is, in general, applicable to all Domain Providers. Please review your domain provider's resources if you are using a company other than GoDaddy.

The first thing you will want to do is ensure your domain is pointing to InkSoft's IP address. When on your Domain Provider's website, log in to your account and go to your DNS settings. In GoDaddy, you will click on your account in the top right and then click Manage Domains on the left. Here, you will see the current custom domains that you possess. Go ahead and click on the domain that you want to use with InkSoft. Next, scroll down to Additional Settings and click Manage DNS.

For other domain providers, the steps to get to your DNS management may be different but should be somewhat similar.

Under your DNS Manager, you will create a CNAME and point it to stores.inksoft.com since you will be using a subdomain (www, shop, etc...). In other circumstances, you might want to point using an A Record. Not here, use the CNAME method. See below.

CNAME Change:

First, click the Add button at the bottom of your Records section. You will see a small pop-up where you will select CNAME in the Type drop-down. Your pop should look like the example below.

Now, we need to fill in the information. The Host field will be whatever you want. This is entirely up to you. Some examples would be shop, design, order, homepage, etc. Remember, this is what will be BEFORE your custom domain (ex.shop.customshirt.com). Next, enter stores.inksoft.com into the Points to field. Leave the TTL as is and click the Save button.

IMPORTANT: Leave this tab open on this page. You will need to come back here later.

Configuring in InkSoft

There are two routes you might want to take for the next step. Setting up this custom domain for a Store or, a Webstore. The most common scenario will be the stores so, we will start there.

Stores Configuration

Make sure you are logged into your InkSoft account and head to your store. Once there, click the Store Admin button at the top of the page. Next, head to Settings (the gear icon) and scroll down to find the Custom Domain & SSL tab under Advanced.

Select the Yes option and enter your entire domain into the Domain field (this is your subdomain + your custom domain). Then hit the Validate button. If everything is pointed correctly with your provider, you should get a green Connected message.

So far, so good! We now need to secure the page. This is easily done with our free Let's Encrypt SSL service. By scrolling down on this page, you will see the SSL Encryption section. Please hit the Manage SSL button and follow the guide by clicking HERE. This will secure your page so that users will safely and confidently browse on your page.

Once you have submitted your SSL Certificate, you will receive an order confirmation email with the following steps to finish the installation. An example is shown below.

This information is used to Update your DNS Record (the tab you saved from before)
Edit the CNAME - enter the new value into Points to (located in step 1 of the email)
Once you update your DNS Record through your domain provider. You will want to click the link that is provided in step 2 of the email to enable your SSL Certificate for your store(s)
And you're finished!

Note: Your domain provider may take up to 72 hours to update your record changes.

We now need to secure the page. This is easily done with our free Let's Encrypt SSL service. Go ahead and navigate to Settings > Shopping Cart Settings > Site Security/SSL Settings and follow the guide by clicking HERE. This will secure your page so that users will safely and confidently browse on your page.