Going Live By Pointing Your Domain To B2B Direct with Cloudflare

Pointing your domain name to B2B Direct is fairly straight forward but there are a few steps we need to take. We require moving your DNS to CloudFlare. CloudFlare is an amazing free service that has rock solid DNS services as well as other great free services we will utilize. Most importantly, they offer a free SSL Certificate, which is required by B2B Direct. Not only does this free SSL Certificate save you time and money, websites without an SSL Certificate are marked as 'unsafe' by Google

1. Setup A CloudFlare Account

Sign up here for a CloudFlare account. Once you have your CloudFlare account set up, you can complete the following steps. You can also contact us if you need help with the process.

2. Move Your DNS & Update the Name Servers

Login to your CloudFlare account and simply follow the Add Site instructions. It's a very simple process that should only take a few minutes.

Ensure DNS Records Are Copied Over To Cloudflare
CloudFlare attempts to copy your DNS records over from your existing domain registrar but please ensure all DNS records are copied over BEFORE updating your name servers

⚠️ It's a good idea to make a record / copy of your current DNS records on you before moving forward ⚠️

Update Nameservers To Point to Cloudflare 
Once you have verified your DNS records, change your nameservers with your domain registrar...ie: GoDaddy, Network Solutions, NameCheap etc.

Once you have updated your nameservers to point to Cloudflare, you can verify that they are pointing to Cloudflare by following this tutorial (please note it may take up to 72 hours for nameservers to change): 

3. Setup Your CNAME Records

Now need to set up CNAME Records that point your website traffic to B2B Direct.

Your Digital Account Manager will supply you with an address something like this (this is just a sample): redirect-repzio.b2bdirect.io

With that information, once you have logged into Cloudflare, using the left navigation bar, click DNS.

Pointing To A Root Domain & WWW

If you have any existing A records or CNAME records for root domain or WWW, please delete them now.

Now click "+ Add Record" button to create the 2 CNAME records as follows.

Type: CNAME
Name: @
Target: The address supplied by the Onboarder or Customer Success Manager 

Type: CNAME
Name: www
Target: Your root domain...for example YourDomainName.com

This will make your B2B Direct site reachable at YourDomainName.com & www.YourDomainName.com

4. Setting SSL to Full

Using the left navigation within Cloudflare, choose the SSL/TLS icon, then ensure encryption mode is set to Full.

5. Setting HTTPS To Always

Using the left navigation within Cloudflare, choose the SSL/TLS icon again, then click Edge Certificates. Ensure the "Always Use HTTPS" is enabled.

6. Complete Setup & Allow Propagation

Once you have setup your CNAME records and SSL to Full, everything is setup. Your website will then begin "propagation".

Propagation is the process of responding to our server versus your website's old server. This can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 24 hours, and some people will definitely see your new site before others.

This is normal, as different machines get updated at different times.

7. That's It!

Your new website should be up and running. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need help going through this process.