Easiest custom domain transfer by Google Domains

If you were following my blogging life, I literally had no plans of getting my own custom domain name back then. That is even after my blogspot was approved with Adsense, got my first payout from Google, and earned $73 in one blogging day.

own custom domain name

Now, about the transferring from a free hosted blog to my own custom domain name. I honestly am not that savvy when it comes to the back end and technical side of website connectivity to the internet so I research for ways to have my own custom domain via the simplest way. And I was blessed enough to have started on the blogger/blogspot platform. They now also offer custom domains via Google Domains. All you need to do is to click a few times, wait for literally minutes of auto integration, and then you are done. No hidden steps and manual customization are required. Hosting is free, of course, and it even comes with the SSL feature with just one click! Man, if you just know the less of the hassle this brings, I was so happy finding this out.

The procedure: 

- on your blogger dashboard -

1. Go to settings

Blogger dashboard settings

2. Click custom domain > Buy a domain

Blogger dashboard custom domain

3. Search for your preferred custom domain name

buy a custom domain name

4. Then pay for it. (It was P600 or $12 via credit card when I tried it which good for a year already)

You'll be redirected and see all the details on your Google Domains account using your Gmail account after that..

5. Go back to your blogger dashboard settings

6. Put your custom domain name on the redirect domain

redirect domain

7. And then you're done! Congrats!

After a few minutes, still under your blogger dashboard,

8. Enable the HTTPS (SSL) feature by toggling the given button.

(will take a few minutes to work, my site was down simultaneously with this)

https ssl on

But again, after a few minutes.. Refresh or revisit your site, and now you have your own working custom domain ready and up. I really appreciate how simple this is because all the other integrations are intricate and crucial especially for us, non-savvy people manually connecting online platforms. One mistake can mean your site to not working properly and for us bloggers that is everything (lol).

NOTE: All your previous links will be automatically redirected to your new one. But for optimal reasons, I still changed all of them putting away the ".blogspot" because I don't want my viewers to still click that redirection page (yes, there is) before landing on to my new custom domain site.

UPDATE: The redirection page will be skipped when your new site is already indexed giving your visitors a smooth transition even if you did not update the old .blogspot links, maybe it just need time as it has been 3 mos. since I transitioned. I noticed that some of my internal links are still carrying the .blogspot and upon clicking them, I was brought to the updated page smoothly without the redirection.

And now with my own custom domain up and working, I can now apply to more ad platforms other than Google Adsense. Make sure you check their requirements as you may need to apply again for checking (maturity means months in blogging life) since this will be considered a new domain if you needed reminding. Hehe.

I hope you find this post helpful and inspirational in some way. Feel free to share your thoughts below that might help others too upon reading this post.