Every website available on the web has a unique address that you can use to access it. Despite seeming like quite a mouthful of technical jargon, the "Domains" section is simply for managing the address of your store on the web. It involves the sort of settings that you set once and then never really need to think about much more.

Let's jump right into Settings and then Domains in the navigation panel. When you first create your store, it will have a temporary address that ends in myshopify.com: you can see my store's address in the screenshot above is //imposters-poster-prints.myshopify.com. Not exactly the type of address that I'd like to have to communicate over a telephone!

The structure of a website address

Lets break down this address //imposters-poster-prints.myshopify.com and look at each of its parts, starting at the end:

• The last part is .com, or dot com as it's pronounced. This is called the top-level domain. Originally websites using a .com addresses were meant to be commercial. Other examples of top-level domains include: .org for organizations, .ca for Canada, .co.uk for businesses in the UK, etc.
• The last two parts combined myshopify.com in this case is called the domain.
• The imposters-poster-prints, the text before the domain is called the subdomain. The most familiar subdomain is www, as in www.google.com or www.yahoo.com but there are many others are also used, blog for example, blog.shopify.com.
• // or h, t, t, p, colon, slash, slash means that this is an address on the web. Sometimes you will also see https:// which means that you're looking at a secure website: you will see this when you go to the checkout of your store for example.

So then to choose the address for your store, you need to:

1. Choose a top-level domain: Perhaps you want something international like a .com, .net, .org or a .biz. Or maybe your target market is a particular country - .ca for Canada, .us for the United States, .co.uk for the United Kingdom, etc.
2. Choose a domain name: This is probably the most important part from a branding perspective. It is not always possible to get the one you want, as in most cases it's a free for all and anyone can register a domain. You really have to do the research and see what is available.

Registering A Domain Through Shopify

You can register domains in Shopify and it really does simplify the process of setting up your store for the domain. There is a choice of more than fifteen top-level domains. Here are the steps to check the availability and register a domain:

• Open up the domains settings by clicking into Settings and then Domains in the navigation panel. Click on the button Add a domain.

• If you have not yet entered the billing information for your Shopify account, you will need to do so before you can register a domain. In this case, click the link enter your billing information and come back to add a domain after.

• In the pop-up that appears, "I want to..." should be set to "Register a new domain name".

• In the dropdown menu on the right, choose your top-level domain. You can see the registration price for each top-level domain in the menu.

• Next, in the text box type in the name you would like to register for your domain. You can only use the following characters: the 26 letters of the alphabet, numbers and the dash symbol "-". No accented characters (like é or â) or other symbols are allowed.

• Click the Check availability button. If the domain is not available, Shopify will suggest some similar domains that are available. Or if you prefer, you can check the availability of another domain.

• If the domain is available, you will be asked to confirm the purchase of the domain. Read the terms and assuming you agree with them, select the checkbox that you have read and agree with them. Confirm everything is correct then click the Purchase domain button if you are ready to register and pay for your domain: it will be charged to your Shopify account.

If all went to plan then you will see a confirmation that your domain was successfully registered. You should also receive an email shortly after confirming the purchase and providing some extra details on managing your domain should you need it.

Note it can take up to 48 hours for your store to be accessible worldwide through the new domain.

Managing Your Domains And Subdomains

When you register a domain through Shopify, three addresses will be set up automatically for your store. For example if you registered the domain yourstore.com then you will now have: www.yourstore.com, shop.yourstore.com and simply yourstore.com set up.

You will also have your store address on the myshopify.com domain.

Changing your store's primary domain

Your store will be accessible at all the addresses on the list however only one can serve as your store's primary domain. It's generally a good idea to set it up so that if someone tries to view one of the other addresses they will be redirected to the primary domain. To do so:

• On the domain settings page, click on the link Change primary domain.

• In the pop-up that appears, choose your primary domain in the dropdown.

• Under the dropdown, you will now see a checkbox "redirect all traffic to this domain" for the primary domain. Select the checkbox to do so and click the Save button.
  

If you view your store now or try and open the other addresses, you will see how it redirects to the primary domain.

Removing Domains Or Subdomains

To remove an address that you no longer want, be it a domain or a subdomain, click the trash icon to the far right of the address.

You'll have to confirm you really want to remove it. Note that this will not delete or cancel the domain, it will just make it so that your store is no longer accessible through that address. Note also you cannot remove the original myshopify.com address for your store.

Adding An Already Registered Domain

If you have registered a domain outside of Shopify, you can also set it up as an address for your store. It's a bit more complicated as you will have to do most of the setup on the site that you registered the domain.

Follow the instructions on the Shopify support site.