Loading a wordpress info page website before shopify store help

Katman
Shopify Partner
32 1 6

I'm stumped and need a little help with how to modify our existing shopify store's URL without messing up internal linking, SEO, etc. so that an externally hosted information webpage loads first. 

Currently, our domain points directly to our shopify store and has been for the last 5-6 years or so. My manager wants to change things up in the next month or two, specifically when it comes to customers landing on our site. Instead of our shopify store loading up, he wants an information page to load first (a wordpress based page/site that we've setup and is dormant on bluehost). I've been holding off on trying anything for fear of messing up any SEO, internal linking etc. -- I need to keep all of that intact. 

I thought that perhaps creating some type of forwarding or subdomain with edits to the DNS records could do the trick but I need some hand holding if this is the way to pull it off.  I feel forwarding would get something stuck in a loop if not done properly. I know I can undo any changes I make but that will create down time with our store which I'm trying to highly avoid - I'd get like get it done right the first time.

I did find these helpful links that may or may not work for my situation:

https://www.christopherjmartin.com/notebook/how-add-shopify-store-subdomain-your-existing-website

https://liquify.design/all/setup-shopify-store-subdomain/


Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

 

Replies 13 (13)

OpenThinking
Shopify Partner
321 81 120

Hi there,
Jack from OpenThinking here!

I didn't understand your exact needs. What do you mean with "Instead of our shopify store loading up, he wants an information page to load first"

But yeah, you can create a subdomain landing.example.com and point your subdomain to your WordPress installation.

basically you've your Shopify on example.com and WordPres on landing.example.com

on your landing pages create CTA button with a link to your example.com

 

Doing funky stuff like: visiting example.com get redirected automatically to landing.example.com and from there back to example.com is not a smart approach, and won't work for a lot of reasons.

If you want to display some "message" before viewing a product use an overlay instead.



let me know if this works for your. If yes; accept my answer and give me thumbs up! Thank you.

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Katman
Shopify Partner
32 1 6

Hi Jack, thanks for your reply!

The need is when someone lands on our root URL it would somehow load the wordpress site/page and not our shopify store. Problem is, our root url is our shopify store. 

Thanks for the subdomain details - that is something I am going to do regardless if I can't get it to 'fake' load as the root url.

David_Weru
Shopify Partner
177 16 43

Hello, 

  If you have both sites on the same domain, you can have one in a frame and make a trigger which removes it or hides it when someone goes to the shop.

 

If you'd like further assistance, please feel free to message me.

Katman
Shopify Partner
32 1 6

@David_Weru  thanks for you reply...

Would you happen to have or know of an example of this in action on a shopify store by chance?

David_Weru
Shopify Partner
177 16 43

I have a discourse forum embedded via an iframe in my demo store.  

https://lolxygen.com/pages/the-test-page

 

Check your private message for the password.

Katman
Shopify Partner
32 1 6

@David_Weru 

cool! checking dm.. thanks

Katman
Shopify Partner
32 1 6

Still in need of help on this topic. Thanks

David_Weru
Shopify Partner
177 16 43

This is a simple fix without messing underlying search engine optimization.

 

If you can, have the wordpress site on the same domain, but if it works on an iframe that will be fine.

 

Basically iframe in the wordpress site but have the visibility hide the store and reveal the store when the user presses a button (like continue) or use a timer.

I've written an example below.  It's not going to disturb your seo configuration but the effect of another page appearing to load first still occurs.

 

On your store's head tag do the following:

 

<head>

<script language="text/Javascript">

//put this after jquery has loaded



//use this to hide the shopify store. It's loaded, but invisible.

var loadfirst=getElementsByTagName("body")[0];

$(loadfirst).css("display","none");



//now create a trigger to hide the wordpress page once it's loaded or when someone clicks to go to the store

//you'll give the wordpress iframe an id: "wordpress_iframe"

var wordpress_continue=getElementsByTagId("wordpress_iframe")[0];   //using native js works without lag while sometimes using jquery can have pageload skips

//wordpress_continue is the iframe. You can change it to another welcome tag if you want
//but as it stands, clicking the iframe takes you to the store.

$(wordpress_continue).on("click",function(){$(loadfirst).css("display","initial");$(wordpress_continue).css("display","none");});

//above: when the button is clicked (or element) it shows the store, and hides the iframe.

/*

note:  This code sits in the store.  The iframe for the landing page also sits in the store.  This javascript sits in the store as well.

the wordpress welcome page is windowed into the store via an iframe.  The button to switch visibility is in the store, not in the wordpress site.

ideally the wordpress page is in the same domain as the store to prevent errors.



overview.

{store}  {wordpress}

{store}

-[js code]-

-[wordpress iframe (your welcome page)]-

-[wordpress iframe switch/tag/div]-

{store}

*/

</script>

</head>

 

 

-the head tags are to show they go in the head tag.

 

Katman
Shopify Partner
32 1 6

@David_Weru  thanks I may give this a shot, appreciate the help 😃

David_Weru
Shopify Partner
177 16 43

Good luck!

SeeYellow
Visitor
1 0 0

I have this same question.

 

What I was wondering is if I should build my home landing page (SeeYellow.com) on Wordpress for speed and SEO optimization.

And on a subdomain would be my Shopify shop on SeeYellow.com/shop (or shop.SeeYellow.com). My shop loads slowly (page speed = 22) and I'm unfamiliar with Shopify SEO. I do know how to use WP for SEO.

So, does it make sense to have the home page on WP and Shopify on a subdomain for site performance? I want my home page to load speed to be more like 90 and be optimized better.

Thank you!

David_Weru
Shopify Partner
177 16 43

Hello, @SeeYellow 

I think you should play to your strengths.  If you're better at wordpress' seo, then you should lean into that.  

You could integrate your store into your main site which already has traffic and then sort out what's slowing down your site while turning sales.

This is subjective to each case, so I'm chalking this up as my opinion.

Katman
Shopify Partner
32 1 6

@SeeYellow wrote:

I have this same question.

 

What I was wondering is if I should build my home landing page (SeeYellow.com) on Wordpress for speed and SEO optimization.

And on a subdomain would be my Shopify shop on SeeYellow.com/shop (or shop.SeeYellow.com). My shop loads slowly (page speed = 22) and I'm unfamiliar with Shopify SEO. I do know how to use WP for SEO.

So, does it make sense to have the home page on WP and Shopify on a subdomain for site performance? I want my home page to load speed to be more like 90 and be optimized better.

Thank you!


 

I would suggest you do just that if you're trying to have an info page load before your store from the research I've googled.

The default Shopify SEO is pretty easy to setup when setting up a product listing though (its located at the bottom of the page when setting up a product listing)

If you've already started a store that lands on the root of your domain URL (such as my scenario) it makes it more complicated to load the info page first, though, David_weru's has a workaround solution (in his previous post) as something to give a shot (I have yet to).