How To Setup Custom Domain On Blogger or Blogspot

In the previous post, I talked about what is XYZ domain and why you should go for XYZ domain. In this blog post, I will talk about how to setup custom domain on Blogger. 

Most of the tutorials available on the internet are years old. Google Blogger has been updated and this guide is based on the latest Blogger version.

Whenever you start a blog on blogspot.com you mostly get the domain's name as (sample.blogspot.com), which is called a sub-domain name (blogspot.com) that is free of cost. These types of domains are also known as 2.0 domains.

On the contrary, if we talk about a custom domain name, it is something like this: sample.com.  https://www.probloggertips.xyz  is a good example of a custom domain name. I would strongly suggest everyone, go for a custom domain name rather than going for a free domain name.

Now you might ask me that why should we use a custom domain name and not a free one! here's why.

Endless benefits of using a custom domain name on Blogger

1. The first one would definitely be that you will be easily discovered because if you have a custom domain name you can easily be found online. if you can easily be found, it's obvious that your domain name is also search engine friendly which also means that the chances of your website ranking also increases.

2.  There is a high probability that your Adsense account gets approved on a custom domain.

3. One of the major benefits of using a custom domain is that you can get your own professional custom email address. For eg. Your website is  (example.xyz) you can create a custom email address (contact@example.com or info@example.com). Using a custom email address makes your website or blog look more professional.

4. People trust a website or blog with a custom domain rather than trusting a web 2.0 domain.

5. If you have a custom domain name, the website name is also pretty easy to remember. You will be able to create a brand name from day one of your blog or website.

I too had first choosen to create a blog with a free domain but then I realized that if I want my blog to look professional and if I want to market my blog, I will have to go for a custom domain. That's the reason why I choose my custom domain XYZ.

Guide to a custom domain name

Now before we start, the first step is that you would have to buy a domain name.  if you are a beginner, you might find the domain charges a little too expensive, but trust me it is completely worth it.

Pro Tip: .xyz domain is cheaper and trending, it's available to purchase for just $.0.99 cents. Go and Buy Now!

If you have already bought the domain name, you can go on to the final step or read about how to choose a custom domain below.

How To Choose A Custom Domain For Blogger?

If you are confused or don't know how to choose a custom domain, then follow the below tips to select your custom domain.

Use the KISS formula i.e Keep It Short and Simple,  choose a shorter name rather than a longer name for your domain, and make sure it's easy to spell.

If you are upgrading from a free domain to a custom domain then make sure you keep the brand name same. 

For eg. My old blog was probloggertips.blogspot.com which I upgraded to probloggertips.xyz.

I hope you are now clear with all your doubts about custom domains. Now let's proceed to the final step of setting up a custom domain on Blogger/ Blogspot.

How to setup custom domain on Blogger?

The process is little technical but trust me it's very easy, just follow the below steps carefully and you will be able to connect a custom domain to Blogger.

Step 1. Log into your Blogger dashboard.

Step 2. Go to settings and scroll down to the Publishing section and click on Custom Domain and enter your custom domain address.

Blogger settings to add custom dimain

Step 3.  After you are done adding the domain name, you will say an error which would tell you that, "they weren't able to verify your authority to that domain". You will get the below error message.

You will get this error message in Blogger

Step 4. To Fix this, you will have to login into your domain registrar's website from where you have purchased the domain. For eg. I have purchased my domain from Hostinger, so I will log into my Hostinger account. If you have connected your domain with Cloudflare than you will be able to change DNS from the Cloudflare dashboard, so log into Cloudflare and edit the DNS.

Step 5. Once you login into your domain registrar's website, search and go to DNS settings and enter:

Step 6. Once you have added the CNAME records, the last step is where you are required to add 4 I.P. addresses into your DNS records. The process is pretty simple, it's exactly the same as above. the only difference is that here you need to add an A record and not a CNAME record.

After setting up the CNAME and A record in your DNS, the changes might take 5 minutes to 4 hours to reflect globally. 

Step 7. Now go back to your Blogger or BlogSpot dashboard, and click on save changes, you will now see that your custom domain has started working. 

After that's done, Google will look after the part of the redirection and then if anyone would go on your old address then they would automatically be directed to your new address.

The last, yet not least thing I would like to add here is, you need to make sure that redirect domain to www version is enabled.

redirect blogger domain settings

Conclusion

I know the whole process might look a bit technical, but if you follow all the steps I mentioned above, it is actually going to be very simple for you to set up a custom domain name for your website.

Comment below in case of any queries, I would be more than happy to help you. There's also an official page from the team of Blogspot which will help you to set up a custom domain name on Blogger. You can check that page as well.