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Custom Domain Publishing, And Naked Domains

We see several problems weekly, which relate to custom domain redirects.
My domain root isn't working!
or
How do I get my naked domain to redirect to my blog??
Generally, we'll investigate, discover an apparent Google server problem in the original publishing sequence, and recommend recycling of the domain.

Sometimes, the solution is simpler - but we may not get to the simple solution, immediately.

In some cases, the BlogSpot and "www" aliases are working just fine - the only problem is, as the blog owner implied, with the domain root (aka "naked domain") redirect setting.

Note that successful use of the redirect requires the correct DNS setup, which should not be described as "optional".

If you are familiar with the principle of Occam's Razor, you'll understand the final solution.
Check the redirect option.


Start with the "Blog Address" setting in Settings - Basic.


Click on "Edit".



And, there it is.


Here, "Redirect nitecruzr.net to blogging.nitecruzr.net.".

For many domains, one would expect "Redirect mydomain.net to www.mydomain.net.".



Blogger lets us choose whether or not we want the domain root to redirect. With this domain, I used "Redirect nitecruzr.net to blogging.nitecruzr.net" - but one might generally expect "Redirect mydomain.net to www.mydomain.net".

If we don't choose the redirect, though, we don't get the redirect - and our readers (and the search engines) may suffer.

Perversely, some of our readers, depending upon what browser they are using, may, nevertheless, see the redirect. And right now, you may need to use an alternate option to setup the redirect.

You may also want to consider how the search engines index the domain root and "www" alias.

Comments

Create With Joy said…
Dear Chuck,

Can you PLEASE help me with a Custom Domain issue I am having? I have posted several times in the Blogger Forums but NO ONE is responding to my posts!

I recently purchased a Custom Domain through Blogger. During this process, I lost the data (links to external sites) in 18 Blog Roll Widgets on my sidebar. The loss occurred during the migration - the 72 hour transition period completed days ago - and the data is just gone.

The widgets themselves remain on my template - just the data is gone.

I need to know if there is a way to recover this data or if it is lost forever and I just need to rebuild from scratch.

My latest unanswered letter in the Blogger Forum is at this link:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=4ef469393a5b2fd8&hl=en

Thank you for any assistance you can provide. I LOVE your blog and have used your posts to help me plan out this migration. It is the one blog I recommend to all of my Blogspot friends!

New Site:
http://www.create-with-joy.com

Old Site:
http://create-with-joy.blogspot.com

I'm on IE8 in the US
Natasja said…
Thank you so much for helping me out :)
Thank you! This was very helpful. I'm so grateful that I got my problem fixed with the help os this.
Editor said…
Thanks to you sir. Very grateful user here.
Unknown said…
Thank u so much.. this was thw problem i was facing for 2 days.. i am hosted under 1and1. My previous blog was http://cebunomads.blogspot.com then followed the directions to changes some Cname by creating subdomain www.cebunomads.com. I was excited that i forgotten the check box to redirect cebunomads.com to www.cebunomads.com ... ur simple tip really made my life easy... i was seeing error 404.. now it is resolved.. im ready to roll...
Cheers mate, such a simple way to fix my problems.
You rock!

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