How To Set Up a Custom Domain in Blogger – The Right Way!

After writing my “Blogger vs. WordPress” post a short while ago, I was surprised to see that some people didn’t know you could set up a custom domain name on your Blogger account to make your blog your own.

By the way, if you’re just getting started with your blog and haven’t read my complete guide to creating a blog, check that out!

You don’t have to be stuck with a “yourblogname.blogspot.com” website address, so for those of you that don’t know how to set this up, I am going to show you how! Step by step!

I realize that this looks daunting, but I promise it really isn’t, and once you set it up you won’t need to worry about it anymore.

How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!

Having your own custom domain name is one of the main things I always recommend a blogger do for various reasons:

  • You own it which means you can move it anywhere with you. If you decide to move off of Blogger or decide that maybe one day you’d like to change your brand/blog to something a little different, you can do that easily.
  • It looks much more professional and shows that you take your blog seriously.
  • It’s easier for others to remember.
  • You can set up your own email addresses using the domain name to stay consistent.

Before you do this, you will need to register a domain name. You can use any registrar you like, but I prefer GoDaddy and in this example I am going to show you how to do this using GoDaddy.

Okay, now that you’ve got your domain registered, it’s time to put it to use. I’ve outlined this the best I can so follow along with me…

Step 1:

How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!
How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!

As I said above, this example uses GoDaddy. If you don’t have your domain registered with GoDaddy, you can view steps for editing your DNS info here

Step 2:

How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!
How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!
How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!
How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!

If you see the CNAME error and details as shown above, perfect, skip to step 3!

NOTE: If you’ve previously tried this and the CNAME information does not appear as above, try this:

  1. Go to this link
  2. Click on “verification details” to the right of your custom URL
  3. At the top of the page click on the DNS CNAME Details to expand the record:
How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!

The portion in yellow above is your “Host” and the portion that begins with “gv-” is your “Points To” for the step below.

Step 3 (in GoDaddy):

How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!
How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!
How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!
How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!

* The generated codes will be unique to you, so don’t type in the ones shown above.  Instead, copy the ones that Blogger generated for you.

 

Step 4:

Now you want to add “A Records” which prevent a 404 error page from appearing if a user leaves out the “www” on your URL.

How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!

In the Host box, enter @ and in the Points To: box enter the first Google IP here:
216.239.32.21

Save it and then do the same thing three more times, adding these IP addresses:
216.239.34.21
216.239.36.21
216.239.38.21

How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!

Step 5:

How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!

Remember: DNS settings can take up to 48 hours to change, which means if it’s not working right away, it’s not supposed to. Wait it out and keep checking back to see if the settings have applied. Your custom domain name should automatically direct traffic from your blogspot.com address to your new domain name.

How to Set up a Custom Domain in Blogger The Right Way!

Step 6:

After your URL is set up and working, click the Edit link beside your domain name on your settings page and make sure you check the above checkbox! This will prevent errors from happening when users leave out the “www” on your url.

Enjoy your new URL!
If this helped you, I’d love it if you shared it with others who might need the same help!

Q: Will this mess up my SEO? How will people find my blog if I change the URL?
A: Blogger automatically redirects your old blogspot.com address to the new URL. They use what is called a 301 redirect, which means that the search engines are made aware that your site has a new URL. Traffic will continue to flow and you won’t lose any rankings.

Q: My new URL only works with/without the “www”
A: Go back into your Settings page, click Edit beside your new domain name, and check the box that asks if you want to redirect the naked domain to www.

Last Updated on

By Dana Fox

Founder of the Wonder Forest blog and brand and bestselling author of the Watercolor With Me book series.

41 comments

  1. Hi Dana, thanks for this post. I didn’t know I could use my own domain until I read this. I have just bought a domain from GoDaddy and am trying to set it up but have already come to a problem on step one. Blogger doesn’t give me the option to add a domain, only to edit the one I have (which still has blogspot.com in it), add a 3rd party URL, or buy straight from Blogger. How do I do it?

  2. I think Go Daddy has changed slightly since this post, though still very helpful!! Would you use the same steps to add the blog to a custom subdomain? Thanks 🙂

  3. You have share a very nice piece of information to set up domain name. This is a great post .It is very helpful for me. Thanks for sharing it with all. Please keep share more post because your post are unique and helpful for me. Moreover thanks again.

  4. You are fantastic. i had associated a custom domain name over a year ago so i was a rather confident when i purchased a new one. however godaddy had made some changes and i got confused. searching the topics on godaddy and blogger articles just made everything more daunting. until i found your site and it took me less than ten minutes to implement the changes.
    Thanks a million for the clear and concise information.

  5. These instructions seem really easy to follow but I already ran into a question. I just bought the domain name on GoDaddy and when I went to the first step above where your example says “Add a Custom Domain”, the following shows on my screen in that spot…
    – Warning: Setting a custom domain will disable HTTPS. + Setup a 3rd party URL for your blog – Point your own registered URL to your blog.
    What does this mean and how do I handle it? Thanks!
    Shelley

    1. Click on “+ Setup a 3rd party URL for your blog”, wich opens up more information and the rest is just like in this tutorial.

  6. Thank you! This helped me a lot. Go Daddy looks a little different now because of upates, but I could still follow it. Thanks again!

  7. Is this free to point to custom domain? If so it must be the only one. Now days even WordPress and Wix is not free to point to custom domain.

  8. I have done this and love it, however, when I share a particular post anywhere, the link comes up at myblog.blogspot.ca/blog/post. Is there a way to eliminate the .blogspot in the URL?

  9. I have my own domain in blogger, but I have been told I need a hosting program like bluehost etc. to really get any monetary benefits. From what I can tell you can only do this through word press blogs but I really prefer blogger. Do you have any advice?

  10. Oh my gosh, Dana. I literally could not have done this without your tutorial. You’re a lifesaver!

    On a side note, why does my browser say “your connection on this site is not secure”? Is that a problem?

  11. Holy smokes! I have been struggling with this for two (count ’em) two days and it finally occurred to me to check your site. I can’t even thank you enough! Success!

  12. Thanks for the detailed steps.
    I have 1 question.
    My site is working perfectly without and with www version for http version but for https version it works fine with www. And without www along with https its not working. Can you please let me know how you have implemented it for https on your site.

  13. hi! Thanks for this post. Can we just purchase the domain with Godaddy and connect it like you did? Do you know if we will need to purchase hosting as well?

    1. Since you haven’t had an answer yet, I’ll jump in. No you don’t need hosting.

      Your blog will remain hosted on blogger, you just setup your domain to direct people to it using the steps above.

  14. Thank you so much! I could not, for the life of me, figure out why my new domain wasn’t connecting with my blog. Followed your steps and bam,…working! I’ve used several of your tutorials. You’re a life saver for people like me who need step-by-step screen shots and instructions. Keep up the great work!..:)

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