Correcting The GoDaddy Custom Domain Setup Advice

In Custom Domain Setup Advice From GoDaddy Is Wrong, I described the recently updated instructions provided by GoDaddy, to their customers, in Mapping Your Domain Name to Work with Blogger - and I described the observed results.

When investigated, an excerpted Dig log shows a common symptom.

mydomain.com. 3600 IN    A    64.202.189.170
www.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME    mydomain.com.

What we see there is a forwarded domain - and as I have explained a few times, domain forwarding does not produce an effective and reliable custom domain.

The irony here is that using GoDaddy instructions is actually more work - and their instructions are more complex.

If I duplicate and correct their instructions, and write in their style, setting up a domain is actually simpler, to make the domain use referral instead of forwarding.

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(Update 2011/07): Blogger / GoDaddy may offer an automatic DNS setup wizard, which will take care of the setup process for you.

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My Instructions, Simplified

To point your Blogger blog to your domain name, you set up domain name mapping, which configures your blog settings and domain name. You update your settings in your Blogger account and their Domain Manager:

1. Edit the 4 domain root A records, and the www CNAME record, for the domain name you want to use with your Blogger account. This update tells the Web browser to open your Blogger blog when visitors enter your domain name's URL in the browser address bar.
2. Configure your Blogger account to use your domain name.

To Edit Your A and CNAME Records

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
3. From the Tools menu, select DNS Manager. The DNS Dashboard displays.
4. For the domain name you want to use with your Blogger account, click Edit Zone. The Zone File Editor displays.
5. In the A (Host) section, click the @ record.
6. In the Points To field, type "216.239.32.21".
7. Repeat steps #5 and #6, 3 times, for "216.239.34.21", "216.239.36.21", and "216.239.38.21". If you do not already have 3 more "@" records, add them using "Quick Add" 3 times.
8. In the CNAME (Alias) section, click the www record.
9. In the Points To field, type ghs.google.com.
10. Click Save Zone File, and then click OK.

Having executed the above instructions, you should have a properly referred domain.

mydomain.com.  3600 IN A 216.239.32.21
mydomain.com.  3600 IN A 216.239.34.21
mydomain.com.  3600 IN A 216.239.36.21
mydomain.com.  3600 IN A 216.239.38.21
www.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

Please check out the results, using a Who.Is DNS log, which should show the proper results, immediately. If this is a newly defined domain, wait a full 72 hours, before proceeding with the second step.

To Configure Your Blogger Account

1. Log in to your Blogger account.
2. From the Settings tab, select Publishing.
3. Click Custom Domain.
4. In the Buy a domain for your blog section, click Switch to advanced settings.
5. In the Your Domain field, enter your domain name. In this example, you enter "www.mydomain.com".
6. To specify another location in which to look for files, in the "Use a missing files host?" section, select Yes and enter the path. If not, select No.
7. In the Word Verification field, enter the characters as they display in the image above the field.
8. Click Save Settings.

Avoiding a "404 Not Found" or similarly an "Another blog is already hosted at this address" error is a good idea.

For background here, you may see my original GoDaddy domain setup instructions.