Blogger: How to set Custom domain name in blogspot blog

The importance of a custom domain name for BlogSpot blogs and anyone who is on free blogging platform like Blogger or WordPress.com, it’s my recommendation to use a custom domain name instead of free domain name.
Let me clarify you of the difference between a free domain name Vs. custom domain name.

When you start a blog on Blogger.com, you usually get a domain name like (example.blogspot.com)  this is a free domain name. Where as custom domain name is something like name.com.

Before we proceed, let us look at some benefits of using a custom domain name and why you must use it:

• it helps to build authority/trust in your blogging career
• some advertisement programs eg media.net don't accept sub-domains
• you also stand a chance of gaining more returning users (custom domain names are simple and can easily be typed into a browser by anyone unlike a free one that could take ages)
• it helps to build trust with advertisers (you may be loosing some serious ads   deal using a free domain), some advertisers love custom domains
• I've read on some blogs that search engines prefer custom domain name to free sub-domain name.
• people will love to view your blog when it comes out in search results

Setting up the custom domain feature in Blogger is a bit of technical part, but this guide is targeted to non-technical people.

If you are yet to buy a domain name I'll advise you take advantage of cheap domain names at godaddy or use web4Africa for easy convenience if you stay in West Africa

Now, I assume you have two things with you:

    Your BlogSpot blog up and running
    You have access to your domain name

We have to make changes at two places, and once you setup the custom domain feature of BlogSpot, Google will take care of all traffic migration and you will not lose any traffic Or back links.

Add Register domain name to your BlogSpot Blog:

This is the first step where you will be adding the register domain name to your blog. Simply login to your BlogSpot dashboard, and head over to Settings > Basics and you will see an option which says Publishing >Blog address > + Setup a 3rd party URL for your blog:

Setup a 3rd party URL for your blogspot

Here you need to add the domain name that you have purchased, and after adding the domain name, it will give two CNAME records and 4 A records which we will be needing in the next step.

Click on + Setup a 3rd party URL for your blog, and add the domain name which you have purchased.

Note: You need to add domain with www as prefix.

Once you have added the domain name with www, you will see an error saying “We have not been able to verify your authority to this domain. Error 12..” and you will get the CNAME record that you need to configure (See below screenshot)

We have not been able to verify your authority to this domain. Error 12.

Now. once you have these CNAME details, it’s time to login to your domain control panel, and make changes.

Now, follow the next step of this guide and your BlogSpot custom domain name setup will be finished in no-time.
Setting up CNAME and A Record for BlogSpot Custom-Domain Name

Login to your Godady account dashboard & click on manage domains. You will see a screen like this:

Manage Domains on Godaddy

    Click on the domain name which you have purchased inside your dashboard, and you will be on Manage domain page.
    On the next page, click on DNS zone file to start adding the record.(See below screenshot for the reference)

How to edit Domain DNS record on Godaddy

    Click on Add record & from the pop-up select CNAME record & add both the record one by one from your BlogSpot setting screen. Here is both the image to make it easy for you to understand the setup

Add Cname Record Godaddy BlogSpot

Adding 1st CNAME record

Click  on Add another & copy the second CNAME record from your BlogSpot page:
Adding CNAME record on Godaddy

Adding 2nd CNAME record

Click on finish & on the next page you need to click on Save changes.

Save changes editing domain CNAME

    . In case if you do, feel free to ask me for help via comments.

Adding A records to your Domain DNS

This is the last step where you just need to add 4 I.P. Address into your A record. The process is going to the be the same as above, all you need to do is add A record instead of CNAME. I’m sharing one screenshot which will show you how to add A record, and similarly you can add all 4 A records.

    Click on Add record, select A name under record type. In the Hostname part add @ and on Destination IPv4 address add 216.239.34.21

Add A record on Godaddy

Like this you need to have total 4 A record and your final screen for A record will look like this. Here are the  I.P. address of 4 A record which you need to add.

216.239.32.21
216.239.34.21
216.239.36.21
216.239.38.21

Now once you have setup CNAME and A record, you need to wait for 5 minutes to 4 hours for this changes to reflect globally. You need to go back to your BlogSpot dashboard, and click on save changes.

If the CNAME & A record has been updated globally, this time instead of showing error “We have not been able to verify your authority to this domain. Error 12.“, your custom domain will start working. In my case, it took only 5 minutes.

If you see error  that means, you need to wait for some more hours to add the custom domain name. So, here is the final screenshot which I see:

BlogSpot custom domain setup

Once it’s added, Google will take care of redirection part, and anyone if opens your BlogSpot blog address, he/she will be automatically redirected to your new custom domain name.

This will also work seamlessly for internal pages, and you will not lose any traffic or link-juice.

One last thing:

Also, you need to click on Edit here, and redirect non www version of your domain to www. Simply click on Edit and check the options which says “Redirect xxxx.com to www.xxxx.com”

redirect domain to www in BlogSpot

Here is the official help page from BlogSpot team for setting up Custom domain name.

The whole process may look technical, but once you are inside the dashboard and follow all the steps mentioned above, it will be easier for you to implement.

buy domain from GoDaddy & setup custom domain

If you have been blogging on BlogSpot platform for a while or for long time and not using BlogSpot custom domain feature, I highly recommend you to start using it for better branding and to make your blog look more professional.

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