On October 1st, 2019, I purchased this hastagtechgeek.com domain from Google Domains. Initially I had tried another registrar, however, they seemed the least helpful when it came to setting up my domain with Blogger. (Yes, #TechGeek is hosted on good old Blogger!) So I cancelled the purchase and tried Google Domains, and boy was it easy!
You can simply go to your Blogger blog, click Settings, click on the Basic tab if you are not already on it. Here on the Basic tab, under the Publishing section, you would see a link +Set up a Google Domains URL for your blog - Point your Google Domains URL to your blog. Once you click on it, it will take you through the process of finding a domain of your choice, purchasing it, and then setting it up with Blogger. Well, there isn't much to setup since Google Domains automatically retrieves all the settings required to point to your blog!
The only 2 thing you need to change is:
1. Ensure that the naked/root points to the sub-domain using a permanent 301 redirect, or the other way round, whichever you prefer. Sounds like gobbledygook to you? Simply put, if anyone types https://hashtagtechgeek.com, they would be taken to https://www.hashtagtechgeek.com. Here, www is the subdomain, and the domain name without any subdomain is called the naked/root domain. Some people even try https://blog.hashtagtechgeek.com, where blog is the subdomain.
Is this necessary?
Absolutely! Otherwise, some of your viewership will be assigned to the naked domain, rest would be pointed towards the subdomain, and both would act as if they were different blogs even when they are the same blog. You don't want that.
Which one should you do, naked to subdomain or the other way round?
Depends. There has been much speculation over this, and people are of varied opinion. If you ask me, I would say look at what I did with #TechGeek. I chose to point the root domain to the www subdomain. I personally think it matters when it comes to SEO, because if you look at Google, even they prefer this. Which means even if there is no documented evidence that this makes a difference, it has to be some form of best practice.
How to forward your Google Domain?
You will find an article from Google which would give you the detailed instruction on how to point the naked domain to the subdomain. Oh, and make sure you use a permanent (301) forwarding, and not a temporary (302) forwarding.
Enough about change #1, what about change #2?
2. Create an email forward using your Google Domains account. Setup an email address which shows your domain name. This is good for business. It's another way to promote your blog. Will come to that in a while. But first, how do you setup an email forward with Google Domains? Google has another excellent and helpful article for exactly how to do this. Now you have an email address which flaunts your domain name instead of a generic gmail.com address.
And about how a custom email address will help you promote your blog, well, you can send Newsletters to the readers of your blog using your custom email address. Newsletters are the best way to increase the reach of your blog, coupled with your custom email address which gives it a brand identity. And if you are planning to build a career in blogging, however much I talk about building a brand around your blog it would never be enough.
Now, you must be wondering, an email forward only forwards email to your existing email account, but how will you send email out from that address. Simple, or atleast Alex Lenail made it seem like. From his blog, I found out how to send emails from your google domains email through gmail. For that you need to enable 2-step verification in your Google account (temporarily though, unless you want it permanently), create an app password, and then setup your Gmail account with that password so that you can send emails from your Gmail account with your Google Domain email address as an alias.
But no matter how confusing all these sound, Alex has given a very lucid description of the whole process in his article. Go on, jump on to his blog and give him a shoutout, but don't forget to show some Social Media love to #TechGeek, share this article on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or whichever Social Media you are on.
