How to Start a Blog on Blogger With Your Own Custom Domain
Blogger is free, but yourname.blogspot.com doesn’t look like a real business. The good news: you can put your own domain on a Blogger blog for the cost of the domain alone, and it takes about 20 minutes of clicking plus some waiting for DNS. This lesson walks you through starting the blog, connecting a custom domain with the exact CNAME and A records Google asks for, switching on HTTPS, and the Blogger SEO settings worth changing on day one.
Create your blog at blogger.com, then go to Settings › Publishing › Custom domain and enter your domain with www in front. Blogger shows two CNAME records: www pointing to ghs.google.com, plus a security record unique to your blog. Add both in your registrar’s DNS, add four A records for the root domain (216.239.32.21, 216.239.34.21, 216.239.36.21 and 216.239.38.21), save the domain again in Blogger, then turn on Redirect domain and HTTPS.
- Blogger hosting is free. A custom domain is the only thing you pay for, usually once a year.
- Google’s Blogger help page lists ghs.google.com as the destination for the www CNAME. The second, security CNAME is unique to your blog, so copy it from Blogger.
- The four Blogger A records are 216.239.32.21, 216.239.34.21, 216.239.36.21 and 216.239.38.21. They make yourdomain.com work as well as www.yourdomain.com.
- Google says to wait at least an hour after adding the records, and the blogspot address can take up to 24 hours to redirect.
- Turn on HTTPS availability and HTTPS redirect in Settings once the domain is live. If your domain uses CAA records, add one for letsencrypt.org or Blogger can’t issue the certificate.
- “Blogger custom domain” gets about 70 US searches a month at a keyword difficulty of 12 in Ahrefs (November 2026), so plenty of beginners get stuck on exactly this step.
Why use a custom domain on Blogger
A custom domain makes a free Blogger blog look like a real website, and it means you own the address your readers, links and Google rankings point to. If you ever move to WordPress, every link and bookmark still works because the domain moves with you. A blogspot.com address belongs to Google; yourdomain.com belongs to you.
- Trust. Readers, affiliate programs and guest post partners take a .com more seriously than a subdomain of blogspot.com.
- Portability. Your backlinks build authority for your domain, not for Blogger. If you switch platforms later, you keep it.
- Branding. Your email, social handles and domain can all match. If you haven’t picked a name yet, go back to lesson 5 on choosing a domain name.
If you’re not sure Blogger is the right platform, the comparison in WordPress vs Shopify vs Blogger covers who each one suits. Blogger is a great free start for a hobby blog or a test niche; WordPress gives you more SEO control for an affiliate site.
Step 1: Create your Blogger blog
To start a blog on Blogger, sign in at blogger.com with a Google account, click Create blog, and choose a name, a blogspot address and a display name. It’s free and takes about two minutes.
- Go to blogger.com and sign in with the Google account you want to own the blog. Use one you’ll keep for years, not a work account.
- Click “Create blog” and type your blog’s title. Use your brand name, the same as your domain.
- Pick a blogspot address, e.g. yourbrand.blogspot.com. This is temporary; your custom domain replaces it in Step 3.
- Confirm your display name, which shows as the author on posts.
- Add a description under Settings › Basic. One sentence that says who the blog is for and what it covers.
Don’t publish posts yet. Connect the domain first, so Google discovers your content on the address you’ll keep.
Step 2: Buy your domain
You need a domain from a registrar before Blogger can use it. Blogger doesn’t need hosting, so buy the domain on its own: a .com from Hostinger is what I’d use, and if your blog is for a South African audience, a .co.za from 1-Grid is R109 a year including VAT for registration and renewal (1-Grid’s published price from 1 October 2026). That’s where I register my own .co.za domains.
The full walkthrough, with first-year and renewal prices compared, is in lesson 6: how to buy a domain name. Turn on auto-renew so the blog never goes offline because a card expired.
Buy the domain where you’re comfortable editing DNS records. You’ll add six records in the next steps, and every registrar has a DNS or “DNS zone” page for this. The steps below use Hostinger’s hPanel as the example, but the record values are the same everywhere.
Step 3: Add the custom domain in Blogger
In Blogger, open Settings, scroll to Publishing, click Custom domain, and type your domain with www in front (www.yourdomain.com), then Save. Blogger will show an error message with two CNAME records. That’s expected: the error is Blogger telling you what to add at your registrar.
- Open Blogger › Settings and find the Publishing section.
- Click “Custom domain” and enter www.yourdomain.com (example). Use the www version: Blogger serves the blog on a subdomain, and the root domain redirects to it.
- Click Save. Blogger shows a message that it can’t verify the domain, with two CNAMEs underneath.
- Copy both CNAMEs into a note. Leave this tab open.
Step 4: Add the two CNAME records at your registrar
Add two CNAME records in your domain’s DNS: one with the name www pointing to ghs.google.com, and a second, security record whose name and destination Blogger shows you. The security record proves to Google that you own the domain, and it’s different for every blog, so copy it exactly.
How to add the CNAMEs in Hostinger
- Log in to hPanel, open Domains, pick your domain and go to DNS / Nameservers (the DNS zone editor).
- Delete any existing CNAME for www, if there is one. Two records with the same name will clash.
- Add CNAME 1: type CNAME, name www, points to ghs.google.com. Leave the TTL at its default.
- Add CNAME 2: type CNAME, name and target exactly as Blogger showed them (the name is a short random string; the target usually ends in dv.googlehosted.com).
Google’s Blogger help page (checked November 2026) lists ghs.google.com as the destination, and that’s what Blogger displays. Some older guides use ghs.googlehosted.com. Always use whatever your Blogger screen shows.
Step 5: Add the four A records for the root domain
Add four A records with the name @ (the root domain) pointing to Google’s IP addresses, so people who type yourdomain.com without www still reach your blog. First delete any A records for @ that your registrar added by default, such as a parking page.
| Type | Name / Host | Points to |
|---|---|---|
| A | @ | 216.239.32.21 |
| A | @ | 216.239.34.21 |
| A | @ | 216.239.36.21 |
| A | @ | 216.239.38.21 |
Then go back to the Blogger tab and click Save on the custom domain again. Google says to wait at least an hour for DNS to take effect. If Blogger still shows the error, wait and try again later rather than changing records. Your blogspot address can take up to 24 hours to start redirecting.
Step 6: Turn on Redirect domain and HTTPS
Once Blogger accepts the domain, switch on three settings so every visitor lands on one secure address: Redirect domain, HTTPS availability and HTTPS redirect.
- Settings › Publishing › Redirect domain: on. This sends yourdomain.com to www.yourdomain.com.
- Settings › HTTPS › HTTPS availability: on. Blogger issues a free SSL certificate for your domain. It can take a while to appear after the domain connects.
- Settings › HTTPS › HTTPS redirect: on. Every http:// visit now goes to https://.
- Test it. Open yourdomain.com, www.yourdomain.com and yourbrand.blogspot.com in a private window. All three should end at https://www.yourdomain.com.
If your domain has CAA records (most new domains don’t), Google says you must add one for letsencrypt.org, or Blogger can’t create or renew your SSL certificate.
All the Blogger DNS records in one table
A Blogger custom domain needs six DNS records in total: two CNAMEs and four A records.
| Type | Name / Host | Value / Points to | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNAME | www | ghs.google.com | Serves the blog on www.yourdomain.com |
| CNAME | Unique code from Blogger | Unique target from Blogger | Proves you own the domain |
| A | @ | 216.239.32.21 | Points yourdomain.com (no www) at Google so it can redirect to www |
| A | @ | 216.239.34.21 | |
| A | @ | 216.239.36.21 | |
| A | @ | 216.239.38.21 |
Values from Google’s Blogger help centre, checked 9 November 2026
If your Blogger custom domain isn’t working
Most Blogger custom domain problems come from DNS that hasn’t updated yet, a typo in the CNAME name, or an old record that clashes with the new ones.
- “We have not been able to verify your authority to this domain.” The security CNAME is missing or mistyped. Some registrars add your domain to the end of the name automatically, so enter only the code, not code.yourdomain.com.
- The root domain shows a parking page. An old A record for @ is still there. Delete it and keep only the four Google IPs.
- HTTPS stays greyed out. The certificate isn’t issued yet. Give it time after the domain connects, and check for CAA records.
- It worked, then stopped. Check the domain hasn’t expired, and that nobody changed the nameservers (for example, by connecting the domain to a website builder).
Changing nameservers away from your registrar moves DNS somewhere else, so if you’ve ever pointed the domain at another host, add the records there instead.
Blogger SEO settings that matter
Blogger SEO comes down to a handful of settings: turn on search descriptions, keep the blog visible to search engines, connect Google Search Console and submit your sitemap, and write a custom permalink and description for every post. “Blogger seo” gets around 500 US searches a month (Ahrefs, November 2026), and these are the settings that make the difference.
| Setting | Where | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Visible to search engines | Settings › Privacy | On. If it’s off, Google won’t index the blog. |
| Enable search description | Settings › Meta tags | On, then write a description of under 155 characters. Each post then gets its own search description box. |
| Google Search Console | Settings › Crawlers and indexing | Verify your custom domain in Search Console and submit yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. |
| Custom robots.txt and robots header tags | Settings › Crawlers and indexing | Leave off unless you know exactly why you need them. A bad robots.txt can block your whole blog. |
| Custom 404 and redirects | Settings › Errors and redirects | Add a redirect whenever you change a post’s URL. |
| Permalink | Post editor › Post settings | Choose custom permalink and use a short keyword slug, e.g. /blogger-seo-tips. |
Then the basics that apply on every platform: one clear H1 per post, descriptive alt text on images, internal links between related posts, and posts aimed at keywords a new site can rank for. The content lessons in Module 4 cover keyword choice and writing in depth.
What Blogger can’t do
Blogger can’t install plugins, gives you limited control over schema markup and page speed, and you don’t own the platform: Google sets the rules and can change or close the product. For a test blog or a hobby site that’s a fair trade for free hosting. For a serious affiliate site, it’s why I build on WordPress.
Blogger is fine for
Testing a niche for free, personal or hobby blogs, writing practice, and getting your first 10 to 20 posts live while you learn.
Move to WordPress when
You want plugins, full schema and SEO control, faster themes or an email and affiliate setup that grows with you. Start with how to set up WordPress on Hostinger.
Because you used your own domain, moving later is much easier: you export your posts, import them into WordPress and point the domain at your new host. Your links keep working.
- Create your Blogger blog and add a one-sentence description under Settings › Basic.
- Buy your domain (Hostinger for a .com, 1-Grid for a .co.za) and turn on auto-renew.
- Add the two CNAMEs and four A records, save the domain in Blogger, then switch on Redirect domain, HTTPS availability and HTTPS redirect.
- Turn on search descriptions and submit yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml in Google Search Console.
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Previous← Choose your platformSummary: how to set up a Blogger custom domain
To start a blog on Blogger with your own custom domain, create the blog at blogger.com, buy a domain, then enter www.yourdomain.com under Settings › Publishing › Custom domain. Add the two CNAME records Blogger shows you (www to ghs.google.com, plus the unique security record) and four A records for the root domain (216.239.32.21, 216.239.34.21, 216.239.36.21 and 216.239.38.21) at your registrar. Save the domain again once DNS updates, then turn on Redirect domain, HTTPS availability and HTTPS redirect. Finish with the Blogger SEO basics: search descriptions on, Search Console connected and your sitemap submitted.
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Frequently asked questions
Is a custom domain on Blogger free?
Connecting a custom domain to Blogger is free, and so is Blogger’s hosting and SSL certificate. You only pay for the domain itself, which you buy from a registrar such as Hostinger, or 1-Grid for a .co.za domain, and renew once a year.
What DNS records does Blogger need for a custom domain?
Blogger needs six DNS records: a CNAME with the name www pointing to ghs.google.com, a second security CNAME that is unique to your blog, and four A records for the root domain pointing to 216.239.32.21, 216.239.34.21, 216.239.36.21 and 216.239.38.21.
How long does a Blogger custom domain take to work?
Google recommends waiting at least one hour after adding the DNS records before saving the domain again in Blogger. Your blogspot.com address can take up to 24 hours to start redirecting, and the HTTPS certificate can take a while longer to appear.
Should I use www or the root domain on Blogger?
Use the www version, such as www.yourdomain.com. Blogger serves blogs on a subdomain, so you connect www with a CNAME and add the four A records with Redirect domain turned on so that yourdomain.com without www forwards to it.
Why does Blogger say it can’t verify my domain?
Blogger shows that message until it can see both CNAME records. Check that the security CNAME name and target match exactly what Blogger displays, that your registrar hasn’t added your domain to the end of the name twice, and wait at least an hour before trying again.
Is Blogger good for SEO?
Blogger can rank on Google if you write useful posts aimed at the right keywords, turn on search descriptions, connect Google Search Console and submit your sitemap. It lacks plugins and full schema control, so WordPress is the stronger choice for a serious affiliate site.
Can I move my Blogger blog to WordPress later?
Yes. With your own domain, you can export your posts from Blogger, import them into WordPress and point the domain at your new host, so your links and rankings carry over. That is the main reason to use a custom domain from day one.
About Eugene Madondo
Eugene is a Cape Town-based SEO specialist and digital entrepreneur who has been earning online since 2012. He has worked in SEO at a tech startup, an agency and in-house tech roles, ran a consulting business, and has generated over $1.4 million from his own affiliate websites since 2020. He teaches website operators through Rank to Earn.
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