However, I'd read quite a few complaints about using GoDaddy for custom domains with Blogger hosting, so I was rather careful to make sure I did everything correctly!
Please do note that you can only link your site as http://yoursite.com or http://www.yoursite.com. Not both. It just doesn't work that way. My advice is to use the www prefix, and if you can make a simple redirect page in your host root, as I'll explain later.
I followed Blogger's advice to the letter, and everything works fine. Here are the basics of their tutorial, or you can read the whole thing yourself on this page.
- Buy your chosen domain name and create your account.
- Once your domain has been registered, log in to your control panel, and choose to "manage domains".
- Click on the area marked Total DNS Control, and then on Total DNS Control And MX Records.
- Look for a record prefixed "WWW". If there isn't one, add a new CNAME record; if there is one, you'll need to edit this record instead.
- Insert these settings exactly as they are described! For the "Name" type "www" (as in www.yoursite.com). For the Host Name, you need to enter "ghs.google.com". Don't change or enter anything else except for these two functions. If this is a new CNAME, click "add". If you are editing an existing CNAME, click "update" and "continue".
Before you link this domain to your Blogspot blog, you may well want to check that all the settings are correct. To do this, you'll need to "ping" your new domain and ensure the host points to ghs.google.com.
If you're a Windows user, this is quite simple to do using the "command" feature. Windows 98 and ME have a "command prompt" program in the start menu; Windows XP has the "run..." feature, which brings up a box; simply type in CMD, hit enter and you'll get your command prompt.
Then all you need to do is enter the following:
ping www.yourdomainname.com
substituting yourdomain.com for your domain name and suffix. Hit enter, and see what happens. It should look something like this:
Notice that the ping recognises that my site is hosted with ghs.1.google.com. This means that I can (and indeed, have) followed the next step in telling Blogspot my new domain name. If you don't notice the host is registered as Google, wait a little longer before following the next step.Pinging ghs.1.google.com [72.14.207.121] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 72.14.207.121: bytes=32 time=85ms TTL=247 Reply from 72.14.207.121: bytes=32 time=89ms TTL=247 Reply from 72.14.207.121: bytes=32 time=86ms TTL=247 Reply from 72.14.207.121: bytes=32 time=86ms TTL=247 Ping statistics for 72.14.207.121: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 85ms, Maximum = 89ms, Average = 86ms
Log in to your Blogger control panel. In the settings section, click on the publishing tab. Near the top of this page, you'll notice "publish to a custom domain". This is what you want to do.
When prompted, enter the domain name you have directed to the ghs.google.com host, including the www prefix! Continue, and you should see that your new settings have been saved.
View your blog to ensure everything works and looks okay. Don't worry if at first you get a "404 file not found" page: it can take a few days for DNS settings to propogate across the whole internet. You can always switch back to Blogspot hosting and try again in a day or two. When this does work okay, you'll see your blog exactly how it is normally seen, with the exception that your new domain name is in the address bar. Blogger takes care of all the inter-blog links, page titles and such for you, and even redirects traffic from your old name.blogspot.com address to your new www.yoursite.com address! This is great as it means it's unlikely you'll lose traffic or page ranking stats.
Now here's the awkward part: as I mentioned earlier, you can only have http://www.yourblog.com or http://yourblog.com. Not both. Blogger/Google simply haven't recognised that this may be important, and only offer the function of linking one address to your blog. But in a strange way, this is good: you don't have to worry about having two seperate blogs listed in Technorati, for example.
I advised that you use the www prefix for a good reason. Many domain providers offer a single page (often called a "holding page") with each domain name. This will show when you type http://yourblog.com, even though www.yourblog.com will link to your Blogger blog.
So make use of it!
If you are able to edit the HTML, you could create a redirect page to automatically redirect visitors to your www address. That way, you won't lose any visitors at all. To make the page redirect to your www address, you need to insert this code between the head tags, substituting "mysite.com" for your domain name. You can do this using an HTML editor (I prefer Notepad).
<head><meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://www.mysite.com" /></head>
The part content="0; means that there is no pause before the browser is redirected. You can change this to "5" for example, to give a 5 second pause if you also want to include an explanation for the redirect in the body of the page. It is also a good idea to include a hyperlink to your www address in the body of the page, just in case the visitor's browser doesn't recognise the redirect command.
If you look at my redirect page at http://bloggerbustercom/, you'll notice that there is an 8 second pause and an explanation for the redirect. Play around and see what works for you!
Similar posts:
- How to set up a redirect page for your blog
- How to set up your Blogger custom domain
- Should you have a custom domain for your blog?
Technorati Tags: blogger custom+domain domain+name dot+com+address customizing+blogger+templates blogging



66 Comments:
hello amanda! Thank you for this info. I am wondering where do I put the html code? I tried to put it on the template that is hosted on blogger but the page kept refreshing. So I think thats not the right place. Is it in godaddy.com?
Hello Miss Nice,
To make a redirect page, you'd need to create an HTML page called "index.html" and upload this to your root folder at GoDaddy via FTP. The redirect code will go in the head of the page. This will then redirect readers from http://yourblog.com to http://www.yourblog.com (hosted at Blogger).
I'll be posting a template for a redirect page later today, so I'll let you know when it's there.
Hope this helps!
I've now posted a walkthrough on creating a redirect page, which you can read here.
Hey Amanda,
I'm using a domain with GoDaddy too and I've set it up so that the www CNAME ( http://www.nogoodatcoding.com ) points to my Google Pages site ( with Google Apps ). I've also set up domain forwarding for the A record ( http://nogoodatcoding.com ) to www.nogoodatcoding.com so that both of them now reach the same page.
Since I'd already set this up and I'm publishing my blog to http://blog.nogoodatcoding.com, I can't check whether it works for Blogger too. This could possibly be a solution for the scenario you've described since both Google Apps and Blogger are managed by Google and from what I've seen, both have the same hosting server ( ghs.google.com ).
Also, I'd like to mention that even now, with publishing to a custom domain, http://nogoodatcoding.blogspot.com will take you to http://blog.nogoodatcoding.com, the custom domain name; but http://www.nogoodatcoding.blogspot.com will not! ( But all links will point to the custom domain )
Cheers!
Oh, and DNSstuff.com ( http://www.dnsstuff.com ) provides really detailed reports on all aspects of your domain name. It really helped me while setting up mine.
Thanks so much!
Thanks for your advice.
I have carefully read your post as I am going to use GoDaddy service to redirect my blog , http://epays.blogspot.com/, and tried to click on http://www.bloggerbustercom.com/. it result returns "Server not found". So, what was wrong with it? Just a curiously keyboard...in front of me...to contact you...
@Eric Phuong: Do you mean that you are unable to view this site, or your own custom domain?
Once you have set up your custom domain, it can take up to 48 hours for the DNS settings to propogate over the internet, so if you are unable to view your domain yet, just wait another day or so and you should soon be able to access this.
Hope this helps!
Hi Amanda,
You are doing a great job here by sharing your ideas.
I am starting a new website and I wanted to know if I can have a domain name linked to my Blogger blog.
As in
www.mywebsite/blog = myblog/blogspot.com
I have registered my domain on GoDaddy and plan to use their hosting too.
I prefer the blogger interface. Is it possible?
Thanks
Hello Yogesh,
It is certainly possible to do this. If you prefer your blog's domain to be http://www.yourdomain.com, then simply follow the instructions above. However, if you would prefer your blog to be hosted at http://yourdomain.com/blog or http://blog.yourdomain.com you will need to add a new CNAME record called "blog" to your DNS settings instead of the WWW one. Then add this alternate URL in your Blogger settings when you decide to publish to your custom domain.
Hope this is helpful to you!
You can also have BOTH www.yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com working as well. In order to do this, all you need is a 301 redirect for your custom domain. I published a quick how-to using GoDaddy here:
http://www.somelifeblog.com/2008/02/blogger-custom-domains-using-301.html
Thanks for this post. Everything worked great. I've set up custom domains before but these instructions are much easier than the ones I used the last time.
hi! i just bought a new domain 20 hours ago, from blogger partner with godaddy.
the problem is, i cannot view my blog with my new custom domain. It shows page not found.
Do i need any settings so that my blog redirect to the new domain?
my new domain is http://bibombio.com
thanks!
secondly, sorry for repeat, page not found is SAME with Error 404?
I am quite new in blogging and currently do not know how the dns is working.
again, thank you!
I've just followed you advice and am crossing my fingers. Thanks!
www.coolbabykid.com
Hey Amanda, thanks for the tips. I'm still trying to get my domain set up
I have question about domain management. I use GOdaddy. under "nameserver", which setting do I have to choose... hosted, parked, or just leave it blank?
thanks
Hello Amanda,
Well, I followed your advice and now 4 days, still my custom domain is not up!
Please, have a look at my configuration below, is there anything I missed?
http://i12.tinypic.com/6kk95ow.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/72kcyg2.jpg
Thanks; and awaiting for your help.
update from me,
it's now work for my domain: "www.cottonable.com". previously I tried with "cottonable.com" which was why it didn't work, I prefer with no suffix www- though.
I use Blogger automatically redirection from no-WWW to WWW but doesn't works. I'll try another method.
at least I can make sure that my domain pointing to Blogger
Thanks for the help, Amanda, you're awesome :D
@Rangga, can you have a look at my configuration above yours comment? Is that right?
Thx
@Open door to everyone...
for setting on Blogger setting page, try to use "WWW.looblog.info" instead of "looblog.info"
For Cecilia:
Your new domain seems to be working just fine now :) I love your template, is this one of Gisele's "Birdy" inspired designs?
For Open Door to Everyone:
As Rangga suggested, you should add the "www" to your URL in the Blogger set-up page. Once you've tried this, everything should work just fine for you.
For Rangga: Thank you for your helpful comments! I'm glad to know the custom domain is working fine for you too :)
Yes, I also have this question I have something similar:
http://i12.tinypic.com/6kk95ow.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/72kcyg2.jpg
Is that setting right?
Sorry to interrupt, but it is not working. My setting is:
Blgger: www.looblog.info
Godaddy: what to enter then? Can you attach your picture of the configuration?
Thx
hei sorry, i did the setting as u mentioned and did ping thru cmd and
da results were as below
its saying that destination net unreachable. wot does that mean???
why did message come. plssss help..
thank u
ping www.blooddy-tears.com
Pinging ghs.l.google.com [66.249.91.121] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 10.40.1.1: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 10.40.1.1: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 10.40.1.1: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 10.40.1.1: Destination net unreachable.
Ping statistics for 66.249.91.121:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
hi! amanda i contacted you thru your contact form 2 times but you seems a li'l bit snobbish huh ;)
btw, i ask you there how to set-up a custom subdomain:
the domain name is purchased from godaddy & will be hosted by blogger.com i wanna have a subdomain name like:
http://www.blog.makemoneyonline-x.com/
but still hosted in blogger
PLEASE... help me
Hurray :)
I have done it using Net4Domains domain.
http://www.atoztoa.com.
It got activated in 10 minutes :)
Thanks Amanda
wow! I'm glad someone referred me to this info. This is great. my only question is how does it work for other formats such as bravejournal?
Amanda,
If you are using GoDaddy.com as your domain provider you can redirect the traffic to yourblogname.com to www.yourblogname.com through Forwarding feature provided by GoDaddy.
See the post : USE CUSTOM DOMAIN WITH OR WITHOUT WWW FOR BLOGGER BLOGS
Thanks Amanda for the tips. I followed them exactly and will wait a few days to see if it is up. Great post.
Great guide. My blog www.electricvagabond.com is working great now hosted on Blogger with the domain on GoDaddy! Works well in Explorer and Firefox, however Google Chrome and Safari experience server loops. This may be because I have removed a URL forward from GoDaddy that might take time to propagate I imagine.
Good guide though and great site that I have definitely used a bit in the past :) thanks!
I tried this but there is nothing in Total DNS field ?
http://i37.tinypic.com/2j4xank.jpg
I had a problem, can someone pls help mi out!
I just brought a domain with godaddy.com, but even if i followed all the instruction to add the cname on my domain, i tried to ping it but the ping is not coming from ghs.google.com and i try to put it in blogger but my blog cant show up. Why is it so? Please help mi
Nice tip for people using blogger custom domain especially with GoDaddy . For those are not using having a facility to control and change CNAME in their control panel ( purchased from resellers and local hosting providers) i have a small tip here :www.techknowl.com/2008/10/using-blogger-custom-domain-or-own.html
Hi. I was got PR3. After changing domain, my Page Rank drop drasticly from PR3 to zero. Now I'm working hard to get it back
A great article, as usual!
Hi Amanda, I find this post very informative and timing for my husband's dilemma. He recently purchased a domain from blogger/google on October 22 and the confirmation email says that it was registered on godaddy. Do this means that we have to set up an account there? Its been a week since my husband can't view his page anymore. I did not have this problem when I purchase mine with the same source so I don't know how to fix it. Both the old and new url have error 404 when viewed.. Please help! Thank you!
Hi Amanda, great instructions, thanks! Can you tell me how your A record is setup in go daddy? And for the DNS, should I choose parked dns, host dns here or custom dns? Thanks!
Thanks for these instructions! I've written my own blogger custom domains godaddy instructions so hopefully we'll get help to more people!
Amanda, I follow your instruction by placing this code
meta content='8 url=http://biocelebrity.com' http-equiv='refresh'/> in my html editor.
But then my website is constantly refreshing itself every 8 seconds nonstop. plz help..
I dont know what i did wrong.
Amanda, I got a real serious related question here. I got couple of javascript files to be hosted. Now, if I CNAME my www.mydomain.com to mydomain.blogspot.com, then where do I put the javascript files that is hosted by Godaddy? How do I call it? I ask because once you have CNAME it, you can't retrieve the file, say from www.mydomain.com/my.js, right?
How?
Hi,
I've followed these instructions but I get an error message that says "another blog is hosted at this address" - how can I fix this?
Zach i used option provided in godady managed account -> site redirect option to point to my actual index php page because my index page is not at root and it is working perfect for me. also i would like to share that i have pointed my page not found setting to Home page. that way if 404 happens then it goes to their respective index page, Note: you can host multiple domain in one hosting plan if you have delux plan atleast. www.giftonline2india.com
just my 2 cents.
Thanks for posting this. I used this tip about 3 months ago. It has and continues to work perfectly. Thanks again
http://designz-by-e.blogspot.com
http://www.designz-by-e.com
This site is a blog from blogger.com. How did you create such a beautiful template and layout? I used to have a blog with a .com. I used blogger's template. I never thought of a site like this using blogger. I wish you could write a tutorial.
Hi Amada,
I am urgently in need of your help and AFAIK, you are the only person who can help me out on this regards.
Actually I am trying to setup blogger custom domain with Godaddy and I followed your guide here
http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2007/06/how-to-set-up-your-blogger-custom_21.html
The Cname has been set properly, and the domain (www.sadikk.com) has been pointed towards google server, but while trying to add the domain in my blogger blog I am getting a message: "Another blog is already hosted at this address."
So, please help me out. how can this issue be resolved? Why I am getting such error messages?
I am really waiting for your reply.
Thanks & Regards,
Deepak Jain. :-)
Hi Amanda,
Much appreciate if you can help in sub-domain as well!
I have a custom domain with GoDaddy and upload posts in Blogger. But, now I have problem in setting up the sub-d.
I am wondering why Sub-d need to do forwarding? I forward it to my sub-d but failed and GoDaddy support team also pointed out this is not right but they asked me to get help from blogger or Google Apps.
And I read from you post above, it's seem I have to add a Host name for this Sub-d : "ghs.google.com". Am I right?
I am sick to read all theirs help pages one by one and can't get my problem solved!
Best Regards
Nic
Thanks Amanda!
I read several forum and blog posts giving bits of the solution, but it didn't work until I followed your advice and reset the Publish settings on Blogger.com back to blogspot.com and then back to my own domain, and made sure that time to use the "www." in my domain. Working at last! Check out openmarriageblog.com if you are interested.
Hi Amanda, thanks for sharing your tips. Please help me if I am in the right path. while pinging my blogspot domain www.freezebox.blogspot.com it returns "blogspot.1.google.com" unlike the traditional "ghs.google.com" do I need to change it to "blogspot.1.google.com"? instead of ghs.? thanks... while waiting for the proper transfer from my blogspot.. i momentarily redirecting or the url forwarding from my freezebox.blogspot.com redirected to www.freezebox.net but this is for the mean time only.
Finally my problem was solved...though I made some tricks but thanks anyways.
http://www.freezebox.net/2009/05/how-to-transfer-blogspot-to-your-own.html
Want some Free Money. You know you want it. Go here. http://freemoneyforteens.webs.com/
I've registered a new domain in godaddy.com But when I try to ping my domain pinoyonline.tv it returns an error "Ping request could not find host pinoyonline.tv. Please check the name and try again."
I have followed the steps, but I'm not sure what I have missed.
Here is the solution for forwarding domain without WWW (naked domain) to blogger custom domain, if you purchased from Yahoo or Godaddy and probably all other Registrar
http://www.ialwayscapital.com/2009/0...omains-to.html
http://www.ialwayscapital.com/2009/0...domainurl.html
I was facing the same issue long back, then i solved it and wrote a blog post for this. After applying these settings (which you will find in above links) your site will work with or without WWW for an example look my site http://ialwayscapital.com which is in blogger and domain purchased from Yahoo.
nice post, it really helps me a lot to setup my custom domain with blogger.
i was use this to my blog...thank's for tutorial
After 4 days, my custom domain not indexed by google. I'm not sure what's happening. I purchase the domain from GoDaddy via Blogger itself. Can you tell why, Google still non indexed my new domain? Thanks,
HI thanks for the info... and by the way GoDADDY gives a expiration date... waht shd we do once it gets expired??
I'm redirecting to my blogger blog..
thanks for you info
http://moreshareinfo.blogspot.com
thanks and yes it works!, I set the www.top10dslr.com using CNAME.
but redirect top10dslr.com using forwarding tool.
hi you can register cheap domain only in $3.88 from http://kwebonline.supersite.myorderbox.com/
Nice Post....Your post is really helpfull for me, I am searching for setup domain using blogger hosting and finally find this usefull article..great BLOGGER BUSTER
Thanks...
At www.WolfDomains.com you can do both. you set up your Google DNS Cname as www.yourdomainname.com and the ghs.google.com. However to the yourdomainnames on searches. also do a fowarding that will cover both.
Great site Amanda, Great Information. You material always comes in handy at Wolf Business Media
HiAmanda
I have registered with name.com as http://www.kstechno.com and i changed dns to custom with blogger site. my blogger site is http://kstechno.blogspot.com. I think i have done every thing rite. Now I m trying to open the site but it is not working. I can see the message welcome to kstechno.com but my page is not opening. Can you tell me that I have to wait upto 3 days to setup or I have done anything wrong.
The issue that lots of people are having with domain not working without www can be solved very easily. Please read this http://amiatypist.blogspot.com/2010/04/domain-not-working-without-www.html
hi!
i found your blog very nice.
Hi,
Good great post.
Thanks,
Jeux
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Your post is really helpfull for me, I am searching for setup domain using blogger hosting and finally find this usefull article..great BLOGGER BUSTER
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