Changing blogspot url

[Lia_joy]

I started a blog a few years ago and hadn't settled on a name til recently. Now that I have a name and am getting more traffic, I'd like the blog to be easily found by using the name in the address (selfdirectedwoman.blogspot.com rather than liajoy83.blogspot.com)

So I went to change it, which is easy, but then i realized that I have query letters out with the old url, and I get lots of traffic from facebook shares etc and all of those links will cease to lead to my blog if I change the address. it seems like there's probably a simple solution to shift over so the old links still work but I haven't figured it out. Have you?

[RedRam]

Blogger isn't really in my background but I did some research, so here we go.

The short answer is - you can't do this easily, if at all.

Long answer (after writing this, I realized that it's very long, feel free to skip to TL;DR) -

Quick background on how things work so you know what needs to change. The usual diagram for visiting a website looks like this.

1. Reader types address into bar >
2. Dynamic Name Server (DNS) Server looks up name, translates to numerical address >
3. Address is accessed by internet provider >
4. Reader gets to your page

Simples. To change an address, you normally put a special note that gets read by the DNS. It's not an HTML note, it does in the place where your address is registered. Step 2, above, really looks like this.

2a. You buy an address.com >
2b. New numerical address is assigned by the seller of address.com >
2c. Seller tells everyone else (DNSs) that address.com = numerical address >
2d. When DNS looks up name, it returns address it's been told.

The note that goes in the seller's register that says address.com is now the same as addressprime.com. That note is filed with tag number 301. So that kind of change is called a "301 redirect" and it means that from here on out, these two addresses are the same. Wordpress.com will let you add one of these notes for a small fee. Blogger will not.

TL;DR

So you can't move the name in the normal way - no problem. What you can do is rename the blog, then immediately reregister for the old name. On that blog (with the old name) just have a link saying "I've moved!" and link it to your new blog.

It's spelled out here: http://support.google.com/blogger/bi...n&answer=42211

Good luck!

[Medievalist]

Originally Posted by Lia_joy

I started a blog a few years ago and hadn't settled on a name til recently. Now that I have a name and am getting more traffic, I'd like the blog to be easily found by using the name in the address (selfdirectedwoman.blogspot.com rather than liajoy83.blogspot.com)

So I went to change it, which is easy, but then i realized that I have query letters out with the old url, and I get lots of traffic from facebook shares etc and all of those links will cease to lead to my blog if I change the address. it seems like there's probably a simple solution to shift over so the old links still work but I haven't figured it out. Have you?

I think the easiest way is to take Blogger up on their offer to host a domain.

I'd suggest a domain based on the name you expect to have on your book covers; yourname.com for instance.

You want a .com or .net. You don't want a Chinese or other domain name if you're American (they can be difficult to host in the U.S.)

Blogger will walk you through placing a redirect from the old blogspot URL to your new domain.

[Trevor Z]

I'd do what Medievalist is suggesting.

It's really easy, and when I did it, the process took about 30 seconds.

I'm also fairly certain that anyone going to the old blogger url will be redirected to your new site.

[veinglory]

I would agree with that. When you use a domain (.com etc) the old address redirects. When you just change the name (somethingelse.blogspot.com) I don't know if it redirects, I suspect only for a short time.

[RedRam]

These people obviously have a much better idea of how to deal with Blogger than I do. Listen to them, not me.

[Lia_joy]

Thanks! I figured there was an easy way to do this that wouldn't involve pulling my techie husband away from his DDO to do it for me!!