This document includes information and instructions for

• directing domain traffic to your Web Hosting home page
• directing domain traffic to your Store home page

Pointing Traffic to your Web Hosting home page

If your domain traffic is currently pointing to your Store home page, you can choose to direct that traffic to your Web Hosting home page.

The Domain Traffic Option will only effect your current domain settings if you choose to switch your traffic. Review the Notes and Warnings section carefully to determine potential impacts and service interruptions associated with this change.

Directing Traffic to Web Hosting home page

Notes and Warnings when switching from Store home page to Web Hosting home page:

• WARNING: Switching the traffic from your Store home page to your Web Hosting home page may take up to 90 minutes to complete while Yahoo! updates the store servers with your new DNS information. During this time, some visitors will see your Store home page while others will see your Web Hosting home page. To minimize the impact of this transition period, Yahoo! recommends switching your traffic at a day and time with the least amount of traffic to your store (this may be a weekend night but use your statistics to determine what time is appropriate for your case).
• Note: During the transition period, "view my site" links may not function properly and you may not be able to use Yahoo! SiteBuilder to publish. Wait 90 minutes to 2 hours until all traffic is pointed to your Web Hosting home page before publishing changes to your web site.
• Note: During the transition period, you may not be able to create subdomains. Wait until traffic is pointed to your Web Hosting home page before creating any subdomains.
• Note: Some search engine rankings depend on page ranking or other variables associated with your home page. So in some cases your search engine rankings may suffer if you change to the Web Hosting home page until you are able to build your page rank back up.
• Note: Email will not be impacted by switching your domain traffic.

To point your domain traffic to your Web Hosting home page:

1. Sign in to your account.
2. Click the "Domain Control Panel" link for the account for which you wish to change the domain traffic settings.
3. Click the "Manage Domains and Subdomains" link.
4. Click the "Edit" link appearing in the Domain section.
5. Select the option to "Change the destination to my Web Hosting home page".
6. Click the "Submit" button.

All traffic to your domain (www.your_domain.com) will be directed to your Web Hosting home page (www.your_domain.com/index.html). Your Store home page will then be available at store.your_domain.com.

Pointing Traffic to your Store home page

With the Domain Traffic Option, you can choose to direct traffic from your domain (www.your_domain.com) to your Store home page (store.your_domain.com) rather than having all traffic directed to your Web Hosting home page (built in your Web Hosting account).

By default, all Merchant Solutions accounts direct traffic to the Store home page (www.your_domain.com/index.html). This page is created by default as a placeholder until you publish a home page using the Store Editor or point your domain traffic to a page in your Web Hosting account. If you wish to build using the Store Editor, you may prefer to direct traffic from your domain directly to your Store home page.

The Domain Traffic Option will only effect your current domain settings if you choose to switch your traffic. Review the Notes and Warnings section carefully to determine potential impacts and service interruptions associated with this change.

Directing Traffic to Your Store home page

Notes and Warnings when switching from your Store home page to Web Hosting home page:

• WARNING: Switching the traffic to your Web Hosting home page from your Store home page will result in downtime while Yahoo! updates the store servers with your new DNS information which happens at 12 midnight PST (Pacific Standard Time). To minimize the amount of downtime, Yahoo! recommends switching your traffic on a day with the least amount of traffic to your store and as close but prior to midnight (this may be a weekend night but use your statistics to determine which night is appropriate for your case). If you have a second (or more) domain pointing to the domain you are switching, see the note below.
• Note: If you have a second (or more) domains which you use an alias to point to your Merchant Solutions domain, you must reset your alias for your domain(s) and any subdomains in the Domain Record Manager page of the Domain Control Panel for the additional aliased domains. You can only reset the aliased domain(s) once the traffic has been switched and the store servers updated at 12 midnight (PST).
  
  To reset a domain alias:(instructions for Yahoo! Domains)
  1. Once the pointing process has completed, access the domain which you wish to update .
  2. Click the "Forward Your Domain" link from the Domain Control Panel.
  3. Click the "Create Forward" button.
  4. Choose a domain forwarding option and enter the URL of the domain to which you wish to forward the domain.
  5. Click the "Continue" button.
  6. Click the "Return to Domain Forward" button.
  7. Repeat this process for any subdomains or additional domains pointing to your Merchant Solutions domain.
• Note: Some search engine rankings depend on page ranking or other variables associated with your home page. So in some cases your search engine rankings may suffer if you change to the Web Hosting home page until you are able to build your page rank back up.
• Note: Email will not be impacted by switching your domain traffic.

To point your domain traffic to your Store home page:

1. Sign in to your account.
2. Click the "Domain Control Panel" link for the account for which you wish to change the domain traffic settings.
3. Click the "Manage Domains and Subdomains" link.
4. Click the "Edit" link appearing in the Domain section.
5. Select the option to "Change the destination to my Store home page".
6. Click the "Submit" button.

All traffic to your domain (www.your_domain.com) will be directed to your Store home page; this is the default setting for all new accounts. Your Web Hosting home page will then be available at site.your_domain.com.