Domain forwarding from WordPress to Blogger

Recently I moved my blog from WordPress to Blogger and I needed to forward my domain to point to the blogger blog. I spent around 2-3 days trying to figure out how to go about the procedure and how to have a 301 redirect in place. The procedure is fairly simple but it takes a little time to understand how it works. Here’s how it should be done if you want the domain name forwarding and 301 redirect to happen at the sam e time.

The scenario
I bought a domain which was bought from WordPress.com. It was linked to a blog hosted on WordPress.com. Now I wanted to forward the domain name to my blogger blog and at the same time move the blog search links from wordpress to blogger

Procedure

Login to the domain manager at WordPress.com.
Select your domain name by ticking the check box.
Click on Nameservers and from the dropdown list select “I have specific nameserver for my domain“
Delete the existing nameservers and add the following nameservers

NS75.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS76.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

Click OK to save the changes.

Wait for an hour to get the nameserver updated. Once the nameserver is updated, go to Tools -> DNS Manager
 There you will find your domain name listed. Click on Edit Zone under your domain name.
This will open up the DNS zone file.

WARNING: BE VERY CAREFUL when adding domain names. Please DO NOT PROCEED if you DO NOT UNDERSTAND what your are doing.
Also, It is advisable to download the original copy for the zone fine before you make any changes to it.

Under the A(host) list remove the existing ips and add the following ips for the blogger blog in the following fashion

Host	Points to	TTL
@	216.239.32.21	1 hour
@	216.239.34.21	1 hour
@	216.239.36.21	1 hour
@	216.239.38.21	1 hour

And add the CNAME in the following fashion

Host	Points to	TTL
www	ghs.google.com	1 hour

Save the zone file and wait for an hour for the DNS to update.

Image courtesy : google.com

Now, go to blogger blog’s Dashboard and go to Settings-> Publishing

Image courtesy: google.com

Click on Custom Domain to add your domain name.

Image courtesy: google.com

Now click on Advanced settings and enter your domain name. Save the settings.

Now, check the Redirect Check box for www below your domain name.

That’s it! Your blogger blog will have the new domain name. And morevoer, all links from your old blog will be redirected to your new blog.

However, there is one catch. The google search links will throw a 404 error as the directory stucture for wordpress and blogger blogs are different.  But your blog will show up in the google search results.