If you have a blog on Blogger (Blogspot), you might want to consider setting up a custom domain at the earliest. When we setup a blog on Blogger, the default domain name of the blog is something like “theblogname.blogspot.com”. This is okay for casual use but if you are setting up a blog or site on Blogger for something serious, then you might want to have a custom domain so that the name of the domain or website is of the business for which the blog or website is being setup for. If you want to continue blogging with a custom domain it is also fine. But if you want a more professional domain name for your blog, then you should seriously consider integrating it with a custom domain. In this post, we will discuss How To Setup A Custom Domain For Blogger Blog. By setting up a custom domain, the blog on Blogger will be accessible using the custom domain such as “yoursitename.com” instead of “yourblogname.blogspot.com”.
Tip: If you want your Blogger site to have a static front page instead of the typical blog type front page, read this blog post – How To Create Static Home Page Website with Blog using Blogger?
For setting up a custom domain for Blogger blog, the basic steps are:
- Buy a domain name
- Configure Blogger to use custom domain from Settings > Basic > Publishing > Blog Address > Add custom domain
- Configure CNAMEs and A records in the Domain’s DNS Management
Watch this short video How To Setup A Custom Domain For Blogger Blog
How To Setup A Custom Domain For Blogger Blog
After you have a domain name purchased for your Blogger website, follow the steps below to Setup A Custom Domain For Blogger Blog
Step 1: Things to do on Blogger side
- Login to Blogger
- Go to Settings > Basic > Publishing > Blog Address > Add custom domain
- Enter the domain name you bought for your Blogger website and Click Save.
- You’ll get the following error.
- This error message contains important information for you to follow.
The error message says we need to add the following two CNAMEs to the DNS of the domain name.
(Name: www, Destination: ghs.google.com) and
(Name: xxxxx, Destination: gv-hf3xxxxxxx.dv.googlehosted.com).
See https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/1233387 for detailed instructions.
NOTE: In the second CNAME in the error above, NAME and DESTINATION is different for each person and is specific to your blog and your Google Account.
So we need to enter two CNAMEs given in the error message above on the domain provider side. Detailed instruction is also given in the link provided in the error which we need to follow for setting up the custom domain.
Keep this Blogger page as it is and login to your domain provider website in another browser tab.
Step 2: Things to do on the domain provider side
On the domain provider side, we need to configure CNAMEs and A records in the Domain’s DNS Management.
- Go to your domain provider’s website / control panel and find the Domain Name System (DNS) in the control panel. For example on GoDaddy, after logging in, click on LAUNCH next to DOMAINS, click on the domain concerned, and locate DNS Management where you can add DNS records such as CNAMEs, A records etc.
- Add the first CNAME displayed in BLOGGER to the domain DNS
- In the Domain’s DNS Management, find a CNAME with name = www, and click on edit. If there is no CNAME with ‘www’, then add new CNAME.
- Before:
- Host = www
- Points to = @
- Replace the default value (which is usually ‘@’) and enter ghs.google.com
- After:
- Host=www
- Points to = ghs.google.com
- Add the second CNAME displayed in BLOGGER to the domain DNS
- Find a button to add a new record
- Select CNAME as the type of record to add.
- Get the following (Name: xxxxx, Destination: gv-hf3xxxxxxx.dv.googlehosted.com) details from the Blogger custom domain settings page and enter here
- Host=xxxxx
- Points to = gv-hf3xxxxxxx.dv.googlehosted.com
- Click save
Step 3: Add A record in the Domain’s DNS to Redirect URL without subdomain to your blog’s URL
- While you are still in the Domain’s DNS Management page, find a button to add a new record
- Select A record as the type of record to add.
- Host = @
- Points To= 216.239.32.21
- Save it
- Repeat the same process above for all the IPs address below
- 216.239.34.21
- 216.239.36.21
- 216.239.38.21
After this you can go back to the Blogger domain setting page and turn on Redirect domain (mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com).
Now, try to save the custom domain settings. If every thing is fine, you should be able to save it without the previous error displayed.
NOTE: DNS settings can take up to 48 hours to change. The domain changes will not reflect right away. Wait for it and keep checking to see if the settings have applied. Once it is applied, you can access your Blogger (Blogspot) site with the new domain name. You can open a browser and directly type in the new domain name such as www.mydomainname.com and it should open your Blogger (Blogspot) site.
You can also test without the www to check if the direction is working.
If all is well, enjoy your new domain!
If there is any issue with the custom domain setup, then you should refer to this page to check if anything was missed during the setup – https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/1233387 . You should explore the settings done in the Domain’s DNS Management to check if required CNAME and A records were added correctly.