When you sign up for Microsoft Office Live Small Business, you are issued a domain name that is based on the information that you provided when you signed up, in the following format:

http://[Windows Live ID or business name].[organization type name or keyword].officelive.com.

You can, however, rename that domain name so that it is more closely tied to your business, service, or focus. For example, if you own an adventure travel business, and your original URL was www.adventure-workscom.officelive.com, you can register the domain name "www.adventure-works.com" and then promote it to be your primary domain.

However, if you change your domain name after you have already worked on your Web site or made changes to your account, you may have to update your e-mail accounts and Web pages to use the new domain name.

Get help with one of these errors or issues:

A link to a page on your Web site is broken (HTTP 404 error, Web site cannot be found) or a "Server error in '/' application" message appears

When you change the primary domain for your Web site, all of the pages that you created are moved to the new domain. This may take as few as 24 hours or as many as four business days, depending on the domain. During this time, you should check each page for content that refers to old URLs. Links inside of page content cannot be updated automatically.

You receive a “Cannot connect to the SharePoint site” message

When you change the primary domain for your Web site, all of the documents, applications, and lists that you use still exist. However, you may need to update links to those pages in other applications. For example, if you share information from Contact Manager into an Access database, that database still uses the old URL until you update it. After you update the URL, the message “Cannot connect to the SharePoint site” no longer appears.

E-mail accounts for you and your co-workers still use the old domain name

When you change the primary domain name for your Web site, you can choose whether you use old e-mail addresses (such as webmaster@officeliveusers.com) or whether you create new e-mail accounts based on the new domain (such as webmaster@adventure-works.com). The old accounts still work after you change the domain name. If you want to use new e-mail accounts, you may want to forward mail from the old accounts to the new ones. Also, we recommend that you check the About Us and Contact Us pages on your Web site to see if you refer or link to the old addresses; if so, you should change those links to reflect the new addresses.

A View Cart or Add to Cart link is broken

When you change the primary domain name for your Web site, all of the pages that you created in Store Manager are moved to the new domain, and all of the products and services that you listed are still available. However, if your customer uses a link directly to a page other than the home page, you must update that link to use the new URL. For example, if you have an Add to Cart link on a product page, you must update that link to point to the new URL.

A link in an e-mail marketing campaign message is broken

When you change the primary domain name for your Web site, all of the pages that you created are moved to the new domain, and all of the products and services that you listed are still available. However, if your customer uses a link directly to a page other than the home page, you must update that link to use the new URL. For example, if you send e-mail marketing campaigns, and those messages contain a link to a particular item, you must update the link in the message before you resend the campaign.

A contact list that you shared with your co-workers is unavailable

When you change the primary domain name for your Web site, all of your contacts, contact groups, and contact information is still available. However, if you typically access that contact list by clicking a link in another document, you must update that link to point to the new URL.

A link in a shared document, calendar, or other Business Application is broken

When you change the primary domain name for your Web site, all of your shared documents, calendars, and other Business Applications are still available. However, if you typically access those applications by clicking a link in another document, you must update that link to point to the new URL.

A customer signs up for an RSS feed on your site, but receives no updates

If a customer clicks Subscribe to this feed on your site while your domain change is being processed, that customer will not receive the feed, even after the site pages have been moved to the new domain. If your customers do not receive updates, we recommend that you tell them to subscribe to the feed again.

Site reports and statistics are blank

When you change the primary domain name for your Web site, the site reports and statistics show information about your new domain. It takes a while for the site to receive sufficient traffic and enough visitors to generate the same amount of information that it had for the old domain. Unfortunately, the site reports for the old domain are not available after you change the domain name.

Search engines rank your site lower in the search results than in the past

When you change the primary domain name for your Web site, it takes a while for search engines to recognize the new domain. Initially, the search engines still send customers to your old URL, and that URL may fail. If it does fail, the search engines will not show that link as high in the search results list as they did before. However, as your new domain receives traffic and visitors, the search engines automatically adjust to the new URL. For more information about increasing site traffic, see Optimize your Web site for better ranking in search engine results.

Note: If you redirected an existing domain name to Office Live Small Business and are now noticing issues with your user account or your e-mail account, see Redirect your domain name to Microsoft Office Live Small Business.