We currently have a website which is on the OpenCart platform.
I would like to start building a trial website on Shopify with a much smaller/simplified range and then long term actually make this my main site.
Questions are;
Can I set the Shopify website up with the same URL as my live site uses but kind of have it dormant?
My Shopify site is going to be set up purely to plug into a marketplace like Amazon, so I don’t actually want it public so to speak but want to use my same name and look/feel?
Eventually this Shopify website will be my main one and all customers who visit my URL will land here, but then do I lose SEO as my current site ranks well.
Sorry, bit of a random one but keen on some feedback on this.
Thanks for posting your question, and welcome to the Community Forums!
You can absolutely operate a dormant Shopify store to connect to third party marketplaces, however it cannot share your domain.
When you create a Shopify store a unique Shopify URL is created in our system. For example: my-store.myshopify.com. You can use this URL to operate Amazon, Wal-Mart, eBay, etc. Sales Channels. If you don’t want an Online Store, you can simply enable the password page to prevent customers from accessing the store. Once you are ready to fully migrate your online store from OpenCart to Shopify, you can then transfer your domain.
Keep in mind, transferring platforms can potentially cause SEO issues. When transferring platforms we recommend you speak directly with an SEO Expert. There are plenty available in the Shopify Experts Marketplace! Additionally, you can check out this guide on best practices, and ways to mitigate the SEO loss when migrating.
I definitely recommend you at least create a trial account to understand the platform and get used to the features. If at any time you need a hand with anything, we have live advisors available 24/7! Additionally, make sure to checkout the Getting Started guide.
Thanks @Skye_1 - you answered the question very well, and I have started building a dormant site which I will use purely to integrate with a large marketplace. Over the next year or so I will fine tune the Shopify site and eventually go live and transfer my domain etc. At that time, yes will make sure I talk to some experts about SEO etc. Thanks again.
@Jeyd good advice from @Skye_1 … oof but bad advice from the other poster. I definitely wouldn’t change your domain name that will damage your business in a few ways, but also you will lose a lot of your hard-earned SEO (including backlinks that are hard to get).
We’ve done site transfers from other platforms and as long as you’re aware that you need to update the url structure and create redirect links, you can maintain your same referral traffic from links + your SEO juice because you’re on the same domain (when you switch your Shopify site live and point to your business domain).
Here’s a post from a migration project our team did from Wix to Shopify - https://speedboostr.com/project-migrate-to-shopify. It included building a Shopify theme to match their old site, doing a consultation on the structure to ensure they retain their SEO, products, data, etc, and help with Shopify apps and functionality to match their old site.
Good luck on the transition. In our experience (Shopify web development and optimization agency), clients have been quite happy with the move to Shopify as their professional ecommerce solution.