Blogger To Custom Domain

Shantinath Chaudhary
from Hyderabad
8 years ago

You can have custom domain even on blogger. What do you exactly mean by custom domain? Do you mean to say independent hosting and domain name both? There are two things, web page hosting, and domain name. Right now, your web page (blog) is being hosted on google server, and you are having a blogspot domain name. You can either change one, or both. Though if you are not very frequent blogger, I wonder why do you want to do so :/ At most, you can consider going for a custom domain name on blogger itself. Buy a domain name, and input some settings in blogger settings, then your blog address will change to you own wished name- xyz . com. 

Varma
from trivandrum
8 years ago

If you are planning to add a domain to blogger, this Google FAQ will help you - https://support.google.com/blogger/troubleshooter/1233381?hl=en

Yogita Amit Joshi
from Ghaziabad NewDelhi Nainital Bikaner
8 years ago

Thanks alot both..  I was suggested by a friend to move to custom domain and after doing some Google search I get many  blogs suggesting the same.  I wanna kknow about pros and cons of the same from ur personal experiences.

Shantinath Chaudhary
from Hyderabad
8 years ago

pros- having own domain name, own identity. So it can mean a lot if someone wants to make it big in blogging in longer term. Cons- I can't think of any specific cons except that you will need to spend some  amount of money on annual basis (anything between Rs 200- 1000 per year depending upon what tld you choose to go for, like .in, .com, .co etc)

Yogita Amit Joshi
from Ghaziabad NewDelhi Nainital Bikaner
8 years ago

Thanks its like a motivation for me. Will it be okay to go with custom domain with setting on blogger itself now and moving towards Web hosting later? 

 

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai
8 years ago

Yes it will be. You must learn the nuances of having your own hosting, and should read about it a lot more before you step in there. It brings in a lot more freedom and customization which will help you take your blog to the next level, but if you cannot figure things out then it would not help you as much.

Shantinath Chaudhary
from Hyderabad
8 years ago

Hi Yogita, Moving to a dedicated hosting site will be a big leap. It helps a great deal in design, customization and seo, but it takes lot of efforts too. I would suggest going for it only if you are firmly decided that you want to continue writing for long (i.e. You are really very-very enthusiastic about writing) or you want to set up some sort of website which will have a continuous inflow of articles. Also, doing that needs effort dealing with a bit of technicalities too. So if you like tweaking codes doing hit and try, keep playing with design of blogs, don't mind spending time on blog experimenting with different design features, then you can go for it. If you are not sure about blogging on a regular basis and on a long term view, I don't see much benefit. What you can do, is just try it out on free hosting websites. Buy a domain name, and then go for a free hosting website (u can find many online). These free hosting websites give limited space, just enough for a small website or for short term experimenting. So you can go there, then install wordpressOrg software there, and start experimenting. So you will have your own website abc. com running on WordPress. Org. Post that you should try different different things there and see how difficult or easy it looks to you. If you try wordpress, try learning about Child themes as well. So just experiment on a free hosting website and then go for buying a full fledged hosting if you are ok working with it. Otherwise fall back on the blogger default hosting, just using your custom domain name in blogger only.

SUJATA TAWDE
from Mumbai
8 years ago

Thanks Yogita for starting this thread . I have similar and much more doubts about domain and hosting. I got more confused after attending Woprdpress camp for 2 days.

 

SUJATA TAWDE
from Mumbai
8 years ago

Thanks Shantinath for your elaborate replies . And still I have many doubts as the attendies of the WordPress were discussing about Blogspot closing down , so all Blogspot ( Blogger ) users should export their posts to Wordpress at the earliest , Or must buy domains and Hostings from the same company so as to avoid any technical glitches .  Please can u suggest which 1 is best ?  GoDaddy ? Bigrock ? Bluehosts ? or others ?

Shantinath Chaudhary
from Hyderabad
8 years ago

You are most welcome Sujata  I would like to clarify one more thing. There are three things- Blogger, Wordpress. com and Wordpress. Org. So basically, there are two wordpress things. What is comparable to blogger, is Wordpress. com, which is just another blogging platform like blogger. But Wordpress. org is a completely differnt thing. It's basically a free software or we can say an application-cum-platform, which gives a user facility to create a website (which could be you blog looking website, or any other kind of website). What I wrote above in previous comments, is about the .org one wordpress, not the wordpress. com thing. Otherwise, I think blogger will slightly better than wordpress. com platform (though it's an individual choice too). That said, I don't think Blogspot will be closing down anytime soon. Why will Google close such a great blogging platform. And if at all they will close, they will replace it with better blogging platform. But in anycase, I think, blogging is here to stay. So no need to panick!

Arti
from Mumbai
8 years ago

Hello Yogita!

This thread might help you: https://www.indiblogger.in/forum/topic.php?id=16836

I had gone through all the steps mentioned in that thread and helped myself to custom domain switch two years ago. This is the article I wrote on my blog immediately after the switch, you can go through that too, in case it helps. http://www.myyatradiary.com/2013/08/the-custom-domain-switch-from-blogspot.html

Though I don't remember much of the process now, but if you have any specific doubts, do not hesitate to throw them in and I will try my best to answer! 

Yogita Amit Joshi
from Ghaziabad NewDelhi Nainital Bikaner
8 years ago

Thanks alot

Yogita Amit Joshi
from Ghaziabad NewDelhi Nainital Bikaner
8 years ago

With all motivations and doubts i finally moved to my custom domain with blogger setting. Now m i suppose to change my blog link on indiblogger? If yes how??

Arti
from Mumbai
8 years ago

Great! Congrats, Yogita. Now go ahead, and send a mail requesting the url change at IndiBlogger to indi@indiblogger.in

Yogita Amit Joshi
from Ghaziabad NewDelhi Nainital Bikaner
8 years ago

Thanks Arti

Aquif
from Mumbai, Indore, Vadodara
8 years ago

Hi Yogita,

The concept is pretty simple. You need to remove the CNAME records and A records which you added while associating the domain name with Blogger. Next, you can you. Next, you need to Map your domain name with your Host. If you have the domain name and hosting from the same company, you can map it with a single click. If you have domain registrar and host are different, you can simply change the nameservers of your domain to point to your host.

This process takes just 10 minutes, but the DNS propagation may take anywhere between 2-48 hours. Next, you can transfer your blog using any Blogger to WordPress plugin. I prefer the built in Blogger to WordPress plugin.

You can check out my detailed article on How To Transfer Your Blog From Blogger To WordPress

If you need any help from my side to transfer your blog, you can message me on IndiBlogger or get in touch with me on Twitter

Aquif
from Mumbai, Indore, Vadodara
8 years ago

Please Ignore my earlier comment. I probably misread the question. Mapping a custom domain with Blogger is extremely easy. You just need to change the CNAME Records and A records of your domain to point to your Blogger Blog.  

First you need to go to basic settings section of your Blog and find the option "Set up a third-party URL for your blog". You can enter your domain name there (with www). After that click on save. You will get an error message asking you to change the CNAME record to ghs.google.com and a custom CNAME record ending with .googlehosted.com

Next, head over to your Domain registrar and change your A Records and CNAME records in settings section as followsThe A Records that you need to add to your Domain (Common For Everyone) are

216.239.32.21

216.239.34.21

216.239.36.21

216.239.38.21

And the CNAME Records Are

ghs.google.com(Common For All)Custom CNAME for your Blog ending with .googlehosted.com ( The one which you got in Blogger Error Message)

That is it. Allow 2-3 hours for DNS to propagate. And you can now use your custom Domain to access your Blogger account. If you have any doubts or need any help from my side, you can message me here or on twitter.

Aquif
from Mumbai, Indore, Vadodara
8 years ago

By the way, I would suggest, that you consider moving to a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog. The difference would not be much. You can get Hosting for as less as $12.18 for a year. This is roughly around Rs 830 per year. And with this hosting, you also get a free Domain Name.

But if you are moving from Blogger to WordPress, you may have to spend some time Customizing your Blog at WordPress. Though for me customizing a Blog at WordPress is much easier. . 

The main Advantage of WordPress is that it is extremely easy to make your post SEO friendly. There are plugins like SEO by Yoast which will take care of most of your On-Page SEO needs which include checking the keyword density, providing a unique meta description for each article, Checking the length of article and readability, checking images for Alt Tag etc. 

So if you can spend some extra bucks,  WordPress would be the best option. 

Yogita Amit Joshi
from Ghaziabad NewDelhi Nainital Bikaner
8 years ago

Thanks for all info Aquif. Really want to move to self hosted domain but will take some time in that..  Till then I am on my custom domain with blogger  :) 

Aquif
from Mumbai, Indore, Vadodara
8 years ago

So you already moved to Custom Domain?

Yogita Amit Joshi
from Ghaziabad NewDelhi Nainital Bikaner
8 years ago

Yup wiith blogger only.. 

Aquif
from Mumbai, Indore, Vadodara
8 years ago

That's great. Congratulations :) By the way consider changing your Blog Name at IndiBlogger :)