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Custom domain: when it already has a site

How to replace the old site without downtime or connect a separate subdomain

3 min read Admin panel demo
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If the domain already has a site

One address opens one site. When you change the address record to ours, visitors will start reaching the new site, and the old one stops opening at this address (the old site and its hosting stay where they are).

Replace or connect alongside#

Option When it fits
A separate subdomain — menu.example.com, shop.example.com, book.example.com the old site stays (a business card, a blog, a shop on another platform), and ours is needed for the menu, orders, booking
Replacement — the same address moves to our site the old site is no longer needed or ours fully replaces it

The wizard offers a subdomain with a button ("Connect menu.… instead"). A replacement must be confirmed explicitly: the old site will stop opening at this address.

Connect a separate subdomain#

Nothing changes on the old site: you add a new CNAME record for a new name (menu) at the provider and leave the old records alone. Then put a link or button to the new address on the old site ("Menu and ordering", "Book now"). Records guide — Custom domain → subdomain.

Replace the old site#

To keep downtime minimal:

  1. In advance, a day before: if the provider lets you change TTL, lower the TTL of the current address record to 300 seconds. Then after the switch the internet "forgets" the old value in 5 minutes, not an hour or a day.
  2. Move the content: texts, photos, contacts, opening hours — into the catalogue and location settings; "About", "Delivery" pages — into site articles.
  3. Keep old page addresses: if the old site had pages that links and search lead to (/menu, /contacts), set up redirects to the new addresses (the redirect editor in the "Store studio"; for the rest see Website Builder).
  4. Write down the old values of the address record (type and value) — in case you roll back.
  5. Connect the address in the wizard: confirm the replacement, delete the old A/AAAA/CNAME records on this name that the wizard names, and create the new record. Leave email records and other names alone.
  6. Wait for "Done" in the wizard — it checks that the address opens exactly your location and not the old site (SITE_NOT_OURS).

If the old site still has AAAA (IPv6) records, some visitors will keep reaching it — the wizard shows AAAA_STALE; delete them.

How to bring the old site back#

Disconnect the domain in the wizard and restore the old address records at the provider (the ones from step 4). The old site starts opening as soon as the internet forgets the new value — after the TTL.

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