Changing CNAME

[Valerie_Armstro]

Hi Community,

We are changing our top-level domain (e.g. moving from olddomain.com to newdomain.com) and will need to update our CNAME branded tracking links, etc.

I have a few questions on how this will impact our current Marketo assets:

• When I update the CNAME from resources.olddomain.com to resources.newcompany.com and add resources.olddomain.com as a domain alias, will our pages automatically redirect?  In other words, would resources.olddomain.com/page1 redirect to resources.newcompany.com/page1?
• Will I need to update images links in email/landing page templates or will these automatically be updated?

If there are any other tips or red flags I should be aware of to ensure this switch is seamless, please feel free to share.

Thanks!

-Val

[SanfordWhiteman]

If there are any other tips or red flags I should be aware of to ensure this switch is seamless, please feel free to share.

What are you doing about your tracking cookies?  Major question if you want to keep lead activity history.

[Valerie_Armstro]

Sanford Whiteman​ - I did read in this doc (Add additional Landing Page CNAMEs (Administration) - Marketo Docs - Product Docs​) that cookies are not shared, but I haven't been able to find a clear solution to this issue. Have you seen any documentation on this?

[SanfordWhiteman]

cookies are not shared, but I haven't been able to find a clear solution to this issue. Have you seen any documentation on this?

I make my own documentation.

There's no "official" procedure on this. It's a shame because it is a HUGE loss of data that few people seem to comprehend until it's too late.  In fact I strongly disagree with the suggestion that you suddenly redirect everything to the new domain unless you're sure you don't care about all your associated lead activity.  Do you not have thousands+ of leads whose web activity is being tracked?

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Hey Val (long time no see!)

I think this doc will be helpful: Changing Your Primary CNAME​

In order to ensure that old links sent out via email are not broken, you should:

1. Remove the old CNAME
2. Setup your new primary CNAME
3. Add the old one back in as a domain alias.

Also, What happens to existing landing page URL's when the Domain is updated in Admin?

[Josh_Hill13]

Yes, it will redirect automatically. Be sure to test it!!

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Valérie,

in addition to the CNAME setup covered by Dory, answer to question 2 : no, the images will not automatically switch to the new domain. Yet, their path to the old domain will continue to work, so not immediate harm.

to be a little more precise than the online doc is, the steps are:

1. setup the CNAME in the DNS of the new domain and do not remove the CNAME from the old domain
2. go in admin -> landing pages and replace the old domain with the new one
3. still in admin-> Landing page, create the domain redirect to the old domain, and do it quickly after step 2, since the web traffic to your LP old URL goes nowhere until you have do this.

But, for the sake of SEO (as long as this matters ), it's better if you progressively replace their URL.

-Greg

[Valerie_Armstro]

Thanks all for your input on this!  I am also curious if anyone knows or has suggestions for how to handle the branded tracking links in emails.  We want to update them as well to the new domain (e.g. from go.olddomain.com to go.newdomain.com). 

Is there anything I should be mindful of before making this change? My IT team plans to have go.newdomain.com now point to mkto-**######.com. Is this the correct adjustment to make?

[Josh_Hill13]

Yes, that should work. I would call Support to verify if old links will redirect or not.

And yes, you should do this.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Valérie,

Yes, this works, but only for emails you will send after the change is made.

So you should also ask them to at least keep the go.olddomain.com dns entry or even better to redirect it to go.newdomain.com, as people might still click on emails that were sent before the change.

-Greg