How to set up a custom domain on Blogger using 1&1

I’ve had a couple of emails lately about how to set up a custom domain on Blogger using a domain name from 1&1. I don’t have much experience with 1&1 having never used them myself but the experience I do have is enough for me not to recommend them to clients. If you do a quick Google you’ll see plenty of reviews about them and you can decide what’s best for you but I’ve found them to be rather slow and difficult. I always recommend not going for cheap domain or hosting as, amoung other reasons, there tends to be a lack of support.

In saying that I know some of you have already purchased your domain or want to buy something cheap just to test it out, so here is a tutorial for setting up a domain using 1&1. At the time of posting, this is the steps. However domain providers tend to change the process and dashboard a lot so apologies if that happens.

How to set up a custom domain on Blogger using 1&1

If you have purchased a domain from somewhere other than 1&1, I have a general tutorial here on setting up a custom domain on Blogger, why you should and answers to some FAQ and issues.

If you don’t want to mess around with this yourself, you can hire me to do it for you!

Retrieve your details on Blogger

1. Login to Blogger, go to Settings > Publishing > Blog Address. Click on Add a Custom Domain Name.

2. Add Custom Domain Name, add in your new domain name www.domain-name.com and click save.

3. You should now see an error. This gives you the details you need to properly set up your new domain so keep this page open for the next step. The first CNAME is the same for everyone. The second is a specific CNAME for your blog.

4. Open the Settings Instructions in a new tab to refer back to later. Here you can see the settings for a top-level or sub domain. For this tutorial, I’ll be using top-level domain – www.domain-name.com.

If your details aren’t coming up, visit this page on Google Webmaster and click Verification Details beside your domain. At the top, click the drop-down Details and you will see your Host and Points To information there.

Enter your details on 1&1

1. Login to the control panel, scroll down until you see the heading “Domains” and click Domain Centre.

2. Click the checkbox beside your domain and select Domain Settings > Edit DNS Settings.

3. Under Basic DNS Settings choose 1&1 name servers, under Advanced DNS Settings choose Other IP address and in the space for IPv4 Address enter 216.239.32.21 and save.

4. Go back to Domain Overview Dashboard, click Add Domain > Create Subdomain. Enter the first Name/Host/Label field from Blogger, which is www

5. Click on the subdomain and click DNS Settings. Under Advanced DNS Settings choose CNAME and enter the first Destination/Target/Points To from Blogger, which is ghs.google.com

6. Go back to Domain Overview Dashboard, click Add Domain > Create Subdomain. Enter the second Name/Host/Label field from Blogger, which is unique to you and will look like 00aa0aaaaaa

7. Click on the subdomain and click DNS Settings. Under Advanced DNS Settings choose CNAME and enter the second Destination/Target/Points To from Blogger, which is unique to you and will look like gv-a0aaaa0aaaaaa.dv.googlehosted.com

8. On your domain settings for your custom domain you should now see the URL you bought and two subdomains. We now have to wait for the settings to update. This could take a couple of hours.

Final Steps on Blogger

Go back onto Blogger > Settings > Publishing > Blog Address and enter your domain name and hit save. This time there shouldn’t be an error. Make sure to tick the option of redirecting from domain-name.com to www.domain-name.com.

Readers who click on your old-domain-name.blogspot.com URL should be redirected to your new custom domain domain-name.com automatically. These changes and settings can take up to 48 hours so don’t panic if it’s not working straight away. If it still isn’t working after 48hours, go back through the steps and make sure that everything is correct.