In this article, I’ll show you how to seamlessly add a WordPress blog to your Shopify store and host it in a subfolder (/blog) to boost your SEO. As you probably know, subfolders are more SEO-friendly than subdomains, making this the best choice for search visibility.
Let’s get started!
Requirements
- A live Shopify store on your custom domain.
- If the domain was purchased on Shopify, it must be moved to a registrar (like Namecheap, Dynadot, or similar).
- DNS hosting on Cloudflare.
- O2O enabled on Cloudflare (see instructions below).
- WordPress hosting on PressProxy (no credit card required for the 7-day free trial).
Time required: 5-10min, depending on your experience level.
Why Cloudflare?
Cloudflare‘s primary business is cybersecurity for companies of all sizes. It also offers excellent DNS hosting with special features that enable PressProxy to function seamlessly. Best of all, it’s completely free for our needs. If you’re unfamiliar with Cloudflare, you can learn more about them on Wikipedia.
How to add a WordPress blog to a Shopify subfolder (yourstore.com/blog)
If you’d rather watch than read, check out the short video below (only 3 minutes and 14 seconds) that shows just how easy the setup is when Cloudflare is already handling your DNS.
Moving to Cloudflare when you bought and manage your domain with Shopify
Before you move DNS to Cloudflare, you first need the domain at a registrar, not Shopify. To do this, you will do a transfer of Shopify-managed domain to another domain provider. You can use whichever registrar you want: Namecheap, GoDaddy, Dynadot, etc.
Moving to Cloudflare when you bought and manage your domain with a registrar
Create a free account to host your DNS with Cloudflare. When inside, click Add Site and select the free plan (at the bottom).
In most cases, Cloudflare will automatically detect all your DNS records, but it’s important to review them (it sometimes creates duplicates). At this stage, keep all records DNS-only (orange cloud disabled).
Before proceeding to the next step, make sure to request O2O for your domain (see the yellow section below).
Cloudflare will provide you with nameservers, such as igor.ns.cloudflare.com or eli.ns.cloudflare.com. Head over to your domain registrar, select the option for custom nameservers, and input the new Cloudflare nameservers. Instructions on how to change nameservers can be found by Googling “registrar + change nameservers”, like “Namecheap change nameservers“. Once you’ve changed the nameservers, it takes a few minutes to a few hours to propagate (update) worldwide.
IMPORTANT: request Orange-to-Orage (O2O) after adding the domain to Cloudflare and before changing nameservers
The Cloudflare feature we’re using for Shopify is not yet public but you can get access to it by emailing Matthew Bullock at Cloudflare (mbullock at cloudflare com). A simple email is enough:
Subject: O2O request
Body:
Hi Matt,
Please enable O2O for [YOURDOMAIN].
Thank you
Once you have O2O enabled, go back to the Cloudflare dashboard.
Enable proxying on Cloudflare
Once the DNS is hosted at Cloudflare and the store is loading without issues, we can proceed to change the way your Shopify store loads. Instead of going directly to Shopify servers, it will go first to Cloudflare. That means we need to change the proxy status of all DNS records.
Most probably, you have an A record going to an IP and a CNAME record going to shops.myshopify.com. It will look similar to this (and you will have other records as well):
We need to change the root A record to a CNAME root record that goes to the same address as www, shops.myshopify.com. It needs to have the orange cloud enabled. Then, change the www record to have the orange cloud enabled as well.
The end result should look something like this (you might see your domain name instead of @):
Give it a minute or two and check that your store loads.
Add a new blog proxy on PressProxy (no credit card needed)
With your store now loading via Cloudflare, we can move forward and create a blog on PressProxy.
Sign up for a free trial—only your email is needed, and you’ll gain immediate access to the dashboard. From there, you’ll find a straightforward step-by-step guide to help you through the process. If you’re wondering what to expect, keep reading.
In the dashboard, you’ll see a simple field where you enter your blog URL (e.g., https://yourstore.com/blog). You can also customize your blog setup by choosing between preconfigured WordPress (for a quick start) or a blank blog (if you plan to migrate an existing blog).
Next, you’ll follow a link to create and add a Cloudflare API token. The necessary permissions will already be filled in, but you’ll need to select your account and domain under the zone resource.
Give our system a few seconds to verify everything, and then…
Your blog is live!
That’s all there is to it! In just a few minutes, your new blog is now loading under /blog on your store.
In the PressProxy dashboard, there’s a one-click login button that lets you access your blog without needing a username or password (though those details are also available in the dashboard if you prefer).
Transfer blog and add redirects from the old blog to the new one
If you already had a WordPress blog on a subdomain and want to move it to your new address, the final step is to migrate it. We suggest using the Backup Migration plugin plugin to easily back up and restore your blog. The process is very simple and straightforward.
If you’ve already posted on that blog, you’ll want to make sure those posts redirect to the new URL. You can follow the step-by-step guide for this in our previous blog post.
