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By default, Blogger uses the blogspot.com url extension on all blogs created through Blogger (e.g. www.myblog.blogspot.com). But what if you want to drop the blogspot.com extension and use a custom URL (e.g. www.myblog.com) as your blog address instead? Well this tutorial will show you how.
It’s a great idea to switch over to a custom URL because they appear more professional and are far better for SEO. When using a custom URL, your readers will enter in your custom URL into the address bar to find your blog instead of your default blogspot.com URL. Your blog will still continue to be hosted by Blogger, which means you’ll still log into your Blogger dashboard the same way and Blogger will continue to host all your content (post, gadgets, images, etc.)– the only difference is that your blog will now have new and professional looking URL when people view it. So lets take a look at how this is done.
PART 1: PURCHASE A DOMAIN
The first thing you’ll need to do is purchase a domain name from GoDaddy (if you already have one, skip to part 2). Head over to GoDaddy.com and click on “Domains” and then “Domain Name Search”
This will then allow you to search for available domain names. You may have to try a few different names in order to find one you like that is available. Once you find an available domain name, then select it and it will be added to your cart. You can then choose whether or not you’d like to make it private. It will offer you to add Website Builder and Linux Web Hosting, but DO NOT purchase those as you will not be needing them for this. If you’d like an email address to match your domain, you can opt for that as well. Then just proceed to checkout and enter in the necessary information to make your purchase.
Now that you’ve secured a domain name, you can move on to part 2.
PART 2: SET UP YOUR DNS ZONE FILE
You will most likely already be logged into your Godaddy account and ready to do your domain transfer, but if not, go ahead and log in by going to GoDaddy.com and entering in your login info.
First we need to set up your DNS settings. DNS stands for Domain Name System, and a DNS server determines what site a given address takes you to. So far, you have a domain name but none of the servers on the internet know what to do with it yet. You’ll need to do two things (1) create a CName and (2) create A(Host)’s so visitors who leave off the www won’t see an error page.
1. Log into your GoDaddy account and click the big green “Manage” button next to Domains.
2. Next click the domain name you’d like to work with.
3. On the Domain Details page click the “DNS Zone File” tab.
4. Scroll down to the CName (Alias) section and find the “www” host. Click the Edit Record button and in the “Points to:” area, first delete whatever is currently there (most likely it’s set to: @) and replace that with ghs.google.com instead. Set the TTL to 1 Hour if it’s not already set to that. Then click the big green “Finish” button.
5. Now scroll back up to the A (Host) section and delete ALL existing A (Host) records by clicking the trash can icons next to each one.
Now click “Add Record.”
6. In the box that pops up, click on the drop down menu under “Record type:” and click “A (Host)”
Then in the “Host:” box, add your new URL WITHOUT the www at the beginning (see example below).
And add the first of these FOUR IP numbers:
216.239.32.21
216.239.34.21
216.239.36.21
216.239.38.21
Then click the big green “Add Another” button so you can add the remaining three IP numbers. After you’ve done this for all four IP numbers, then you can click the “Finish” button. Remember that there are a total of four IP numbers, so you will need to repeat step 6 for each of the four IP numbers listed above!!
7. Your four new A (Host) records will now look like this:
Now you are done with the GoDaddy side of things and can head back over to Blogger to finish things up.
PART 3
Hang in there!!!! You are almost done!
8. Log into your Blogger account. In your dashboard go to Settings > Basic > Publishing and click on “Setup a 3rd party URL for your blog”
9. Type in your new domain name in the area provided. Be sure to check that you want the redirect in place. You can leave the “use missing file host?” option set to no.
Click “Save” and you are…
DONE!
Now view your blog and you’ll see your new URL in place of your old default blogspot.com address. You now you have the benefits of a .com with the easy maintenance of a blogspot! Congratulations! (NOTE: Sometimes it takes a few hours or even a day or so for the transfer to take place. Don’t be nervous, it will happen!)
Remember you can always have us DB girls transfer your domain for you, for a $40 fee. To purchase our help with this, just visit our blog accessories shop and purchase the “domain transfer” option. We currently only transfer blogs using godaddy.com domains, so keep that in mind if you want us to do your transfer.
And as always if you have any questions or ideas for future tutorials leave a comment here or contact us.
Happy Blogging!!
Originally posted 10/5/10 by: Lauren
Updated 10/21/16 by: Erin
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