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How to change your Blogger domain URL - Pimp your blog Part II

This is going to be about how I changed my blog name and URL from mckayhead.blogspot.com to tutorialgeek.blogspot.com and kept all my stats and links in tact.
Step 1- Choose a name:
Choose a blog name that describes your blog.  To check to see if it is already in use, just type in your URL bar whateveryouwantyournametobe.blogspot.com
If it is use, bummer for you. If not, a page will come up indicating that is not a blogger blog. You are free to use that name.

Step 2 - Determine if you care to keep stats or not:
Decide if you want your blog stats to be on your new or existing blog. This determines what you will do in the next step.

Step 3a - Move the blog:
If you don't care where your stats go, then go ahead and just sign up for a new blogger account.  On your existing blogger account go to Settings>Blog Tools>Export Blog.   On your new blog that you just signed up for, go to Settings>Blog Tools>Import Blog and import the xml file you just exported. (Note: as mentioned in the comments, Blogger gives you the option to change the Blog name. Go to Settings>Basic>Blog Address)

Step 3b - Move the blog:
If you want to keep your existing stats, you will need to change the name of your existing blog.  To do this this, go to Settings>Publishing>Change Blog*Spot Address.  Now that you have changed the name, you will need to sign up for a new account with the same name as your previous blog. This will enable you to keep the links.  Export the blog with all your posts on in (see step 3a) and import it to the new blog you just created (the one with your old blogger name).

Step 4 - Do a URL redirect so that links to your old blog redirect you to your new blog:
There are a couple of different ways to do this. 
The easy way first. In the settings for your old blog that you no longer want people to go to, go to Design>Edit HTML
Just under the head tag ( ) write the following:
<meta content='0;url=http://NEWBLOG.blogspot.com' http-equiv='refresh'/>
The code you paste should be in between the opening head tag and the closing head tag:        It does not matter where you place it as long as it is inbetween the opening and closing head tags. You will probably see other meta content tags to assure you it is the right place.
Replace the text "NEWBLOG" with the new name you want to redirect people to.  This will redirect people to your main page of your new blog any time they try to access a page from your old blog.

This is pretty good, but what if you want people to go to the exact page they intended, but on your new blog?  It took me forever to figure this out, but here is the code for how to do it (enter in the same place as the code above):
<script>
var oldURL = "OLDBLOG.blogspot.com";
var newURL = "NEWBLOG.blogspot.com";
var url = location.href;
var newURL = url.replace(document.domain,newURL);
window.location = newURL
</script>

There it is! People are now directed to your new blog!  No broken links or redirects to other pages.

About McKay

56 comments:

  1. Ok so i've been reading this over and over again, trying to figure this out...if it really works...If you change the name of the old blog to the new blog name, then how can you export your posts to your new blog if it is now the new blog? Doesn't it automatically change the name so the old blog name is gone? So how can you export then import your posts?

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  2. Wow! That's cool. Thanks a million, worked like a charm :)
    This redirect my post on one domain to another.. for example let this is my post http://abc.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-am-happy.html
    and
    Now post to redirect to
    http://abc-abc.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-am-happy.html

    Thanks again Great worked ;)

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  3. Great to hear! Glad you found it useful!

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  4. That's cool indeed, but i'm little bit confused about seo. Still, thanks man for such a useful post!

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  5. I find the solution is very good and it's redirecting instantly, but is it 301? btw, thanks!

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  6. I have the exact same question as AzfaR..aren't you ultimately exporting everything back to a new blog with the OLD name!?

    -Gabrielle

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  7. When I created this blog (TutorialGeek) I didn't want to lose the stats I had. It was originally mckayhead.blogspot.com. Since I wanted to change the name, I simply did just that. The problem was that links from different websites still linked to mckayhead... these links became broken. So then I created a new site with the name mckayhead. This new site was exactly the same as my old site but it lacked the stats. Obviously, I didn't want that name any more, so I created the redirect on my NEW site with the OLD name. The redirect pointed to my OLD site (with stats) with my NEW name.

    In order to do that, yes, I did have to export everything to a new blog with the old name (step 3b)

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  8. Thank you SO MUCH for posting this! I am super tech un-savvy and this was a huge help to me. After a little consternation over the html stuff, I figured it out and my new blog, links, etc are totally intact. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! :)

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  9. What about if you don't have a blogspot.com url but a custom one (i.e. www.name.com)? Can you still do all of the above?

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  10. Thats a Gr88888 tutorial and a solution to the problem which i've been having for more than a month...
    Thanx McCay...

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  11. I really like the way. This helped me in converting my old blog into new one. You are genius man. I am really feeling relief.

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  12. This just saved me a ton of time, works perfectly, and was easy to follow! THANK YOU!

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  13. You are very welcome! Glad it worked for you.

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  14. Im not entirely sure where I should be putting the HTML code? each time I put it in I either get an error code or it doesnt work. Where is the best place to put it if I already have html coding (from awhile ago)... Thanks!!

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  15. Sorry La Petite Fembot, I did not make that at all clear, you should add it anywhere in the head.

    as in...

    < head >
    add the code somewhere here.
    < / head >

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  16. hi, and when remove duplicate content? when I remove the old blog?

    thanks

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  17. Andreas... are you asking when you can remove your old blog? You never need to. Once you do, it will stop redirecting. I am not sure if that was your question though...

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  18. Yes McKay it was my question...

    But, if I have two blogs with the same content, google can penalize mi new blog for duplicate content.

    I read in another blog that I must insert this code meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW" in the old blog... It is ok?

    Thanks again

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  19. Yes. The code (meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW") is good to add in your old blog. This will make it so Google no longer indexes that site.

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  20. Just did this and worked perfect except on mobile devices. Do you know how to make it work when people visit my old site on an iPhone. Thanks

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    Replies
    1. Sorry... I have never had an iPhone and I really don't know why it would not work on a mobile device.

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    2. Hi, do you know if anyone has a solution why this doesn't work on iPhones. Seems perfect apart from that. Cheers.

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  21. OMG THANK YOU SO SO MUCH. You just made my whole year perfect. Not even exaggerating. Legend you are.

    The Fashann Monster

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    Replies
    1. Wow... Made your whole year perfect now eh? :) Glad I could help!

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  22. Hi,
    Thanks for this tips and I'm sharing it with others in my language.
    I need clarification though. when you say "keep my stats", which stats are u referring?

    from my understanding, with this step, it will retain the followers, helps redirect post from old blogname to the new blogname. but it will not help in PR right?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Atika. When I said "keep my stats," what I meant is that it kept my Blogger stats (page views and statistics etc) and yes, it will retain your followers. I honestly do not know what it does to your Page Rank though. When I did this, I don't think I had much of a Page Rank (and this is something I don't really keep track of anyhow).

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    2. tq so much for the swift reply! to answer that, so far the PR does not seem transferred.
      Btw, I did a bit differently. Instead of opening new account, I simply create a new blog under the same account. It should not be a problem right? I was afraid of getting penalize for duplicate contents.

      Also, i'm using 3b but confused with step 3a. if one didnt care about the stats, why shouldnt they just simply change the blogname? Why should go to the trouble to export & import to new account?

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    3. "but confused with step 3a. if one didnt care about the stats, why shouldnt they just simply change the blogname?" You are absolutely right Atika. I am quite sure that at the time this post was written, this was not an option (or perhaps I somehow just missed it!). Thanks for the comment. I will update my blog post to include what you noticed.

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    4. thanks! i've shared it with my modification and credited to this post:
      http://atikaramlan.blogspot.com/2013/11/tutorial-cara-tukar-nama-blog-dan.html

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    5. Great! I am glad you could translate it to Malay! Hope it helps more people.

      Delete
  23. Solution Changing or replacing the old URL to the new URL without having to reduce the Page Rank on google search and still indexed in google .. click http://spesifikasidanparameter.blogspot.com/
    you also not have to worry about long URLs that are already in links to Facebook, Twett, LINKEND, and other blogs continued to be read or indexed in google with the new URL.

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  24. Nice Article Thank You

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  25. I've just change my blogspot address from oldname.blogspot.com to newname.blogspot.com!
    Can you help how can I redirect my old URL to new one. I don't want to lose traffic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am not quite sure I understand what you want me to help you with. You write "Can you help how can I redirect my old URL to new one." That is what this entire blog post is about. Is there a certain step that you would like help with?

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  26. I'm halfway there, but having trouble with step 4. What do you mean by "Just under the tag..."? What is the tag? I've opened the Edit HTML page and looking at all this code, and not sure where to insert the piece of code you have in the directions.

    Also, I've imported the blog to the "old" name in a new account but it doesn't look the same. Please help. And thanks in advance!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the clarification. What I wrote indeed is confusing. I meant to write "head tag." Sorry for the typo. I have updated the post with a screenshot. Hopefully it will make more sense now. As for why your imported blog does not look the same, I really don't know why that is. Perhaps a problem with exporting? What exactly is different from the new and the original? Perhaps you can post links.

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    2. It worked! Thank you SO MUCH! Now the old blog URL just automatically redirects to the new name and the second issue I had seems to have resolved itself because all the links work again. You're amazing!

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    3. Great news! Glad it worked out for you. Thanks again for posting your previous comment. Had no idea that I had that typo! Hopefully it will make things more clear to others in the future.

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  27. You provide two codes, the first one you sai if you want to redirect to a new blog and the other you said "if you want people to go to the exact page they intended". Should i put all of them on head tag or i should choose to put only one of the two?

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    Replies
    1. Only put one section of code. My recommendation would be to put the longer code (second section). The first code only redirects to the home page of the blog whereas the second code redirects to the specific page the user is looking for.

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  28. Thank you a lot for your yesterday reply, i have put the long code as you told me but it doesnt work, i thought may be i make mistakes on replacing the NEW BLOG and OLD BLOG. Is it that you put with these marks " " And other places written like Var "old url" and Var "new url", should i put the name of my url too on those "url" or i leave them as they are?. Or i thought may be it does not work instantly, should i wait it for some time after i redirect?. And lastly in 3b, when i was creating a new account with the old url, i used another google account rather than the one i used with the old blog but as i type the old name, it reply me that the name was no available means that it was already used. I finally used the same google account as the one i used in the old blog and it was ok, so i had two blog on the same account, is it may be why it did not work?, please help me because i think i miss a very small trick to succeed changing my blog as you have explained in your tutorial.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, you need to include the quotation marks (" ") exactly how I have it listed. And OLDURL and NEWURL you will replace with your old and new blog names.

      Example: If your old blog name is ihaveacoolblog
      Replace: var oldURL = "OLDBLOG.blogspot.com";
      With: var oldURL = "ihaveacoolblog.blogspot.com";

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  29. why when i try to sign up a new account with old name using another email adress it replies me that the name is not available, but when i create a new blog under the same account the old name become available. Is it right to use the same account and will it work as well?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, you can use the same account to sign up for the new blog.

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  30. Thanks for this awesome article, but i've a question:

    My blog url was xxx.blogspot.com at first. After that, i bought a domain xxx.com and connected it successfully to my blog.

    Now, iam going to change xxx.com with zzz.com. Is it available to use your steps with TLDs ?

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    Replies
    1. As long as your new domain is hosted on blogger, it should still work just the same.

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  31. works!!! thank you

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  32. Thank you, this is so helpful - I've been looking for a to the point answer to this problem!

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  33. This was surprisingly easy. Thank you.

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    Replies
    1. You are very welcome! I hope the post was helpful.

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  34. Recommendation is still going strong! Thanks so much!!

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