Questions about Google's Blogger custom domains and domain forwarding

[discrat]

Kind of desperate here and need some help if possible. Got a custom domain from Yahoo over a week ago. Its supposed to point to my Blog at Blogger. mydomain.com will not go to it. It goes to Yahoo construction Site. But it will go if I type in the www's before the mydomain.com. Of course this is unacceptable.

After countless times of them changing cname files and a records ,Yahoo told me today that I would have to use a domain forward to my actual Blogspot address. So my new custom domain will be forwarded there and people will be able to get there with or without typing in www in my custom domain.

Will this adversely affect my Search Engine Rankings with Google ?? And are there any other potential problems or implications with this type of forwarding ??

Also should I use a standard or mask forward ??

Thanks so much, I cannot get any of the SEO Forums to help me with this matter.

Id be grateful if anyone could !! :)

Sincerely,
Discrat

[Jazajay]

Hi discrat welcome to SEW.

So my new custom domain will be forwarded there and people will be able to get there with or without typing in www in my custom domain.

Will this adversely affect my Search Engine Rankings with Google

Aslong as the redirect/domain forward is a 301 and not a 302 you shouldn't have any issues. That said -
Do you have any/all your links going to -
bloger.mydomain
or to
www dot bloger.mydomain?

I take it they are forwarding it to the non www. version?

If the domain is currently accessable via the www. and the non www. versions this will help you in the SE's by fixing the conicalization issue with your domain so it is a good thing.

Also should I use a standard or mask forward ??

Right lets just clafiy what both are just incase you are unsure -

Standard domain forward
This is where you type in yourOldSiteName dot com in the address bar and it re-directs it to yourNewSiteName dot com. The address in the address bar changes.
This is the same with following links to that page with the href as the old domain.

Masked domain forwarding
In masked domain forwarding it doesn't change it would still say yourOldSiteName dot com in the address bar.

I personally class masked forwarding as url re-writing with a redirection.

Lets give an example of it's use.

Your url looks like this
example/blogPost.php?name=my-amazing-blog

You then set up a url-rewrite/masked domain forward to -
example/blog/my-amazing-blog

I then type into the address bar -
example/blog/my-amazing-blog

I then get the contents from -
example/blogPost.php?name=my-amazing-blog

but the url in the address bar still says -
example/blog/my-amazing-blog

If I then type in -
example/blogPost.php?name=my-amazing-blog
I should then be re-directed to
example/blog/my-amazing-blog
But I will be shown the page content from -
example/blogPost.php?name=my-amazing-blog.

Does that make sense? If not let me know where I have lost you and I'll explain it in a differnt way.

I personally would say Standard forwarding is the way to go in your situation, due to the fact -
1. I use it on a regular basis for URL's like that be it via .htaccess and a 301 redirect though and I don't have major problems.
2. I haven't used masked forwarding like that, so I am un-aware of how it is set up.
3. You just want the www. to be removed and resolved to the non www. version. Thats does not need a re-write but a simple redirect.

Be it with a standard domain forward, 301 redirection via .htaccess or on page via server side HTTP headers.

Hope that make sense to why I think standard is the best solution. If not just ask.

Jaza

[discrat]

Thanks so much jaza.
Yeah I idnt reply sooner because I got it resolved. I did a forward with Yahoo. A Standard Forward that is. www.example.com (http://www.example.com)
and mydomain.com were forwarded to www.example.blogspot.com (http://www.example.blogspot.com).
Here is what Iam tickeld about. Ok I typed in mydomain.com (before it went to Yahoo construction page). With the new Standard Forward the mydomian.com evidently bypassed the mydomain.blogspot.com in browser and went straight to www.example.com (http://www.example.com) in browser with the correct home page.

It makes sense because blogger redirects home page to custom domain that I purchased. So everything seems cool now.

Thanks again jaza !! Peace

[Jazajay]

Peace Discrat :)
Glad I could help, sort of.
Take care

Jaza

[Monte1]

Thanks Jazajay, very helpful information.

[Jazajay]

Well at least it helped 1 person :D
No worries.

Jaza

[Marcia]

Aslong as the redirect/domain forward is a 301 and not a 302 you shouldn't have any issues. Just so we have thorough and accurate information in this thread, unless Google is the registrar of a domain, using their custom domains (not the same as redirection or the same as using FTP for a domain name) isn't done from other registrars using any kind of redirect. There's no 301 or 302 involved, it's a DNS setting involving a C-name that's modified. Custom domain for Blogger isn't the same as domain forwarding or redirection.

As one example: with GoDaddy, for what they call "total control" of DNS, you have to opt into their system - which parks the domain with their ads. You then have the option of creating a new Cname, and when you do that, your domain will show the www.example.com with your blog, and without the www - it shows the parked Godaddy page with the ads running. That's normal.

No redirection, no 301 or 302 (which can't be done): it's setting the DNS which is entirely different.

I did a forward with Yahoo. A Standard Forward that is. www.example.com
and mydomain.com were forwarded to www.example.blogspot.com.
Here is what Iam tickeld about. Ok I typed in mydomain.com (before it went to Yahoo construction page). With the new Standard Forward the mydomian.com evidently bypassed the mydomain.blogspot.com in browser and went straight to www.example.com in browser with the correct home page.That's always been how forwarding of a domain works. A few questions:

1) What's the HTTP header code being returned for www.example.com (and without the www), and also by checking the blogger.com subdomain? You need to check it for both. Which one shows a 200 (page found)? And does only one return a 200, or do both or all?

2) Is the domain resolving with a 200 both with and without the www?

3) What's the domain name showing up for interior pages of the site? Is it www.example.com or is it blogspot.com URLs? (There would be a difference between forwarding and masking)

4) Can the main page be accessed using both yourusername.blogspot.com and www.example.com?

[Jazajay]

Thank you for the update Marcia.
I always redirect on page so assumed that was the case.
I humbably step down to the master.

Thanks.
Jaz

[Marcia]

I just went through this with a Blogger Custom Domain (which is a special setup) for a domain registered at Godaddy, and it took adding a CName, making a change to both the A Record and the IP number, and using 301 forwarding at Godaddy and 301 Redirect in the Blogger Dashboard both (it can't be done at the page or domain level, Google controls those). The first step is opting in to using Custom Domain at Blogger and setting it up there; it's a different procedure for setting up than the usual domain/hosting/DNS.

All that, and there's no really clear documentation for it. And absolutely make sure to run it through an HTTP header checker to make 100% sure it's all 301 except for www.example.com