Connecting a domain to your online store in 2026: own domain or free link — and the steps

What is the difference between a free link and your own domain for the store?

The free link is a subdomain on the platform's domain, such as your-store.arabybot.store; it works at once, costs nothing and is indexed by Google. Your own domain is an address you own, such as example.com; it carries only your name in ads and messages and stays with you if you ever change platforms. Start with the free one if you like, and move when you are ready.

The biggest difference is not technical but trust and ownership. A shopper who gets a link with only your store's name in a WhatsApp message or an ad hesitates less, and the links you earn from other sites and shares accumulate on an address you own. According to Meta's developer documentation, verifying a domain in Business Manager claims your ownership of it and gives you control over editing privileges for its links — a verification that applies to a domain you own.

Which domain should you buy for the store: .com or your country's domain?

.com is the easiest choice: everyone knows it, it is bought without local conditions, and it can be bought from the store panel itself. Country domains such as .sa and .eg give a local feel, but they are registered under conditions and documents with national bodies. Whatever you choose, register the domain in your own name, not a developer's or an agency's.

In Saudi Arabia, the FAQ page of the Saudi Network Information Center (SaudiNIC) requires one of four to register .sa, .com.sa or .السعودية: an entity physically located in the Kingdom, a person holding a Saudi national ID, an entity with a registration or licence from a relevant Saudi authority, or the owner of a trademark or trade name registered in Saudi Arabia. Registration goes through accredited registrars, with the organisation itself as the registrant. In Egypt, .eg and its extensions also have local registration conditions and documents; check with the accredited registrar before buying.

For the name itself: keep it short, so it is spelled the way it sounds when you say it on a call, with Latin letters, digits and hyphens only; avoid letters that are confused when spoken, and make sure it is not someone else's trademark. Domains in Arabic letters exist, but they are harder to type for a shopper on a Latin keyboard.

How does connecting a domain to an online store work?

Connecting works through DNS records, the address book that tells a browser where to find your site. At your domain registrar you add a CNAME record that makes www another name for the store's address, and a TXT record to prove ownership when asked; then an SSL certificate is issued automatically and the store runs on https. The bare domain without www is usually forwarded to the www form.

Why www? Because DNS rules do not usually allow a CNAME record on the root domain itself, which holds other records that cannot sit beside it. So the www form is connected with a CNAME and the root is forwarded to it. Some DNS providers offer a root solution under names such as «CNAME flattening» or «ALIAS», and the store accepts both forms, but www is what we recommend because it works at every registrar.

The SSL certificate is what makes the address start with https and shows the padlock in the browser. Here it is neither bought nor renewed by hand: it is issued automatically once the records point to the store. DNS changes can take a while to spread depending on the registrar's settings, so do not worry if the effect is not immediate.

How do you connect your domain to ArabyBot Store, or buy one from the panel?

On ArabyBot Store there are two routes: if you have a domain, you type it in the domain settings and add the records the panel shows at your registrar, and the platform checks it and issues the certificate automatically. If you do not, you buy a .com from the panel with the wallet or a card, and the records, certificate and connection are set up without you touching anything; it renews yearly from the wallet.

If you already have a domain

1. Type the domain in the store settings

   In the domain section, in the www.example.com form we recommend, or the root if your DNS provider supports it.

2. Copy the records the panel shows

   A CNAME record that points the domain to the store, and a TXT record to prove ownership when asked. Copy the values exactly, character by character.

3. Add them at your registrar

   From your registrar's DNS management page. Before that, delete any old record on the same www, such as the registrar's parking page or your previous site, and set the root to forward to www.

4. Wait for the check and the certificate

   The platform checks the domain periodically, issues the SSL certificate through Cloudflare automatically, and you get a notice when the store is live on your domain.

5. Confirm the move

   Open the old free link: it should send you to your domain. Then place a full test order from your phone.

If you want to buy a domain from the panel

Search for an available .com name, and its yearly price appears in your wallet's currency. You pay from the wallet or by card and enter the contact details the domain is registered with in your name, then its records are set up automatically: the www form shows the store, the name without www forwards to it, the certificate is issued and the domain is connected to the store. The yearly renewal is automatic from the wallet, with a notice before it is due and a reminder to top up if the balance is short. Buying from the panel covers .com domains only, in Latin letters, digits and hyphens.

What happens on Google when you move the store from the free link to your domain?

Once your domain is live, the store's pages on the free link redirect to their counterparts on your domain with a permanent 301, the sitemap, canonical address and structured data point to the new domain, and the redirected link keeps its campaign parameters. This is what Google recommends for site moves, with a possible temporary fluctuation in ranking.

GET your-store.arabybot.store/…
    ?utm_source=fb
301 → www.your-store.com/…
    ?utm_source=fb

• The permanent redirect. Google's site-move page says it recommends permanent redirects such as 301 and 308, kept for as long as possible, generally at least a year. In the store, the redirect stays in place as long as your domain is connected.
• Campaign parameters. The redirected link keeps everything after the question mark, so an old ad carrying utm tags or a referral link still records its source on the order.
• Search Console. The platform submits stores to Google Search Console itself, a store on its own domain gets a separate property through a verification tag, and you can be added as its owner to see your store's performance.
• Fluctuation. Google says any significant site change can bring ranking fluctuations while it recrawls and reindexes. So move in a quiet period, not right before a season or a big campaign.
• Your previous platform's links. If you came from another platform, its old product links on your domain redirect to the new product pages where their shape matches, and the store lists broken links for you to fix.

After the move, update the links you control yourself — your ads, your social profiles and your saved replies — to the new domain directly; the redirect works, but a direct link is cleaner. How products show up in search is covered in the guide to store products on Google.

What are the common mistakes when connecting a domain to a store?

The six most common: deleting mail records or changing nameservers without moving the records, leaving the old parking page on www, registering the domain in a developer's or agency's name, forgetting renewal, leaving two forms of the address without forwarding one to the other, and moving in the middle of a campaign. All are avoided with a short review before connecting.

1. Breaking e-mail. Connecting the store needs no nameserver change and no touching of MX records. Whoever moves nameservers to a new provider without copying the mail records stops their e-mail without noticing.
2. An old record on www. The registrar's parking page, or your previous site's record, conflicts with the store's record. Delete it before adding the new one.
3. A domain in someone else's name. When the developer or agency registers the domain under their own account, getting it back in a dispute becomes a problem. Register it with your own details and e-mail.
4. Forgetting renewal. An expired domain stops the store on it, and someone else may buy it. Turn on auto-renew at your registrar; a domain bought from the panel renews automatically from the wallet, so keep its balance sufficient when the notice arrives.
5. Two forms without forwarding. Choose one form as the main address (www, as we recommend) and forward the other to it, so a visitor never lands on an empty page and Google does not see two addresses for the same store.
6. Moving mid-campaign. The redirect preserves ad links, but any record mistake can take pages down for hours. Move on a quiet day, and place a full test order before advertising.

The domain is one step among wider ones; the full order from the first product to opening is in the guide to creating an online store, and everything the store offers is on the ArabyBot Store page.

Frequently asked questions about connecting a domain to a store