HighNavigationMeasured

Your domain without www (or with it) shows an error page

Shoppers who type your domain the other way, with or without www., get an error page instead of your store.

Checked on: homepage · Zolvio’s check: “The store's other address doesn't open the store”

Why it costs you sales

Shoppers don’t only arrive through links. Anyone who types your domain the other way, with or without www., or follows it from an email, a flyer, packaging or an old post, gets an error page instead of your store.

Nothing on the store itself shows the problem, so it’s easy to miss.

How Zolvio detects it

Zolvio works out the other form of your store’s domain: without www. when your store opens at www.yourstore.com, or with it when your store opens at yourstore.com. It loads that address once, as a shopper typing it would, in a browser session of its own. A redirect to your store is what should happen, and passes.

If the address answers that there’s no store there, such as Shopify’s “This store is unavailable” page (HTTP 423), “not found” (404) or “gone” (410), the homepage is flagged, and the finding gives the address, its answer and the page’s title.

A refused request, a rate limit or a server error isn’t judged: bot protection can challenge an automated browser and not a shopper, and a server error can be momentary. Nothing is claimed when the address doesn’t answer at all, and other subdomains (such as shop.yourstore.com) and your myshopify.com address aren’t checked.

This is a direct measurement, so it’s reported on every plan, including Free and audits with AI turned off. With AI review on, the AI agent also checks it against the audit’s evidence before it reaches your issue list.

How to fix it

  1. In Shopify admin, go to Settings → Domains, connect the address the finding lists and let it redirect to your primary domain.
  2. If Shopify says the domain is connected to another store, remove it from that store first.
  3. At your domain provider, point the bare domain’s A record to 23.227.38.65 and the www CNAME record to shops.myshopify.com, the values Shopify asks for.
  4. Open both addresses, with and without www., and check they reach your store.

This is a domain setting, in Shopify admin and at your domain provider; your theme isn’t involved.

In Zolvio: on paid plans with AI turned on, the guided fix writes these steps for your own store and theme: where to click in Shopify admin or the theme editor, or which file to open, the line to find and the code to add. Each file opens in Shopify’s code editor. Zolvio never edits your theme: you make the change, then Verify fix checks your published theme for code changes (or you mark it fixed), and later audits confirm the problem is gone.

Common questions

Why does “Your domain without www (or with it) shows an error page” cost a Shopify store sales?

Shoppers don’t only arrive through links. Anyone who types your domain the other way, with or without www., or follows it from an email, a flyer, packaging or an old post, gets an error page instead of your store. Nothing on the store itself shows the problem, so it’s easy to miss.

How does Zolvio detect “Your domain without www (or with it) shows an error page”?

Zolvio works out the other form of your store’s domain: without www. when your store opens at www.yourstore.com, or with it when your store opens at yourstore.com. It loads that address once, as a shopper typing it would, in a browser session of its own. A redirect to your store is what should happen, and passes. If the address answers that there’s no store there, such as Shopify’s “This store is unavailable” page (HTTP 423), “not found” (404) or “gone” (410), the homepage is flagged, and the finding gives the address, its answer and the page’s title. A refused request, a rate limit or a server error isn’t judged: bot protection can challenge an automated browser and not a shopper, and a server error can be momentary. Nothing is claimed when the address doesn’t answer at all, and other subdomains (such as shop.yourstore.com) and your myshopify.com address aren’t checked.

How do I fix “Your domain without www (or with it) shows an error page” on Shopify?

In Shopify admin, go to Settings → Domains, connect the address the finding lists and let it redirect to your primary domain. If Shopify says the domain is connected to another store, remove it from that store first. At your domain provider, point the bare domain’s A record to 23.227.38.65 and the www CNAME record to shops.myshopify.com, the values Shopify asks for. Open both addresses, with and without www., and check they reach your store.

Related

Documentation

  • How audits work — What an audit scans and how findings become issues.
  • Guided fixes — Step-by-step fixes written for your theme, with links into the code editor.
  • Session recordings — Watch how real shoppers move through your store.