Custom Redirects, And The Mobile Template Redirect, Are Not Compatible

We've recently seen a few reports about problems with custom redirects, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I want to redirect my blog URL to a static home page. With a redirect in place, mobile computer users can't access my blog. Mobile browsers display an error, mentioning too many redirects.

This problem is being reported by owners of blogs both published to BlogSpot, and to non BlogSpot domains. When published to a non BlogSpot domain, the problem is present even for domains properly setup.

Some advice, given in the forum, suggests use of forwarding, instead of referral, as a solution. This advice is a problem, for 2 reasons.

• Forwarding cannot be used with blogs published to BlogSpot.
• Forwarding is not a good solution for custom domain publishing.

Right now, there is no solution for this problem - though there is a workaround. Blogger Support is aware of the problem - but it's not certain that a solution will be immediate.

For blogs published to BlogSpot, there are just two choices.

1. Disable the redirected home page, and do without the custom home page.
2. Enable the custom redirected main page, and do without mobile access to the blog.

For blogs published to a custom domain, there are, supposedly, three choices.

1. Disable the redirected home page, and do without the custom home page.
2. Enable the custom redirected main page, and do without mobile access to the blog.
3. Use forwarding, instead of referral, to redirect the domain to the blog.

Forwarding comes in two versions, with differing effects from the two versions. Neither version of forwarding is beneficial, to Blogger blogs.

• DNS forwarding results in the blog being indexed under the BlogSpot URL, by the search engines. The blog's readers will be able to use the (forwarded) domain URL, to access the blog - but all search engine references will mention the BlogSpot URL.
  
  With some access to the blog through the BlogSpot URL, and other access through the domain URL, blog reputation will drop, similar to blogs newly published to a new URL. Both reputation and traffic will do the same.
• Frame forwarding results in the blog being visible within an IFrame. No indexing of the blog, by the search engines, will take place, with blog contents visible inside an iframe. Search engine reputation will drop even worse with DNS forwarding.

Not all registrars offer both versions of forwarding, so you may have to take what they offer - and accept the resulting loss to the blog.

As a workaround, until the problem is fixed, you can return to the previous technique for making a static home page.

Basically, blog owners may have to choose between having a custom home page (for desktop access), and having the blog accessible through mobile browsers (for mobile access) - or using the workaround. And everybody has to wait, patiently, until Blogger Engineering can come up with a better solution - to make custom redirects, and the mobile browser redirect, work together.

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The Task Of Forwarding A Domain Requires Experience, Persistence, And Research

I constantly advise Blogger blog owners to avoid forwarding, when setting up custom domain publishing.

In the rare cases where forwarding is actually required, not every blog owner reports success.

My blog now displays a non Google search page!

or worse

My blog now displays

404 Not Found

What did I do wrong??

Depending upon what setup work was done by the blog / domain owner, and what effort is required by the registrar, one may expect to see, quite predictably, either of the above errors.

When you just publish your blog to the primary domain, you're using the Blogger Publishing wizard.

When you forward a secondary domain to the primary domain, you're using the DNS Manager wizard provided by the registrar, for that secondary domain. Frequently, this is a 2 step process.

1. You use the DNS Manager for the secondary domain, and designate the primary domain as the forwarding target for this domain.
2. You setup a DNS address for the secondary domain URL, and target the redirection server - as provided by the DNS host.

Some wizards will handle both steps for you automatically, while others will require that you do both steps separately. I have had both experiences, when forwarding different domains using the GoDaddy DNS manager. You may need to experiment, here - or ask an experienced technician at the registrar, for advice.

If your registrar requires that you perform both steps separately, and you only do the first, your domain gets redirected to the redirection server. If you don't define a redirection target, you have a parked domain, similar to an expired domain - and your domain will serve the ads display page provided by the registrar.

If your registrar requires that you perform both steps separately, and you only do the second, your domain will be properly redirected from the redirection server - but the redirection server will not be defined, for your domain. If the redirection server isn't defined, the domain will be "404".

If your registrar does not provide explicit instructions - or if you use the domain manager wizard and get either of the above results, it may be time to contact a customer service representative. Using a third party registrar, or a third party DNS hosting service, you may have to improvise.

Forwarding a domain - when you must serve two domains (or more) from one blog - is simply not a task for the inexperienced.

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Custom Redirects Let You Modify Pages Or Posts, And Publish Different URLs

We've been asking for the ability to have post URLs that differ from the post titles, for some time. Now, we have the Custom Permalinks feature, available in the New Blogger GUI Posts Editor, for new posts.

Some people would like to use custom permalinks for existing posts - and for pages. We can do that, too - but not by using Custom Permalinks. Custom Permalinks only works for new posts - and not for pages.

To change the permalink for existing pages and posts, we use the Custom Redirects option, in the "Settings" menu under "Search preferences".

This post was published as

blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/07/custom-redirects-let-you-modify.html

If I had used the "Permalink" option before publishing, I could have entered

new-blogger-gui-gives-us-custom

and published

blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/07/new-blogger-gui-gives-us-custom.html

If I want to change the URL of an existing page or post, I would use "Custom Redirects".

To address this post as

blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/07/new-blogger-gui-gives-us-custom.html

instead of

blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/07/custom-redirects-let-you-modify.html

I would use "Custom Redirects", and

1. Enter "From:" as "/2012/07/custom-redirects-let-you-modify.html".
2. Enter "To:" as "/2012/07/new-blogger-gui-gives-us-custom.html".
3. Select "Permanent".
4. Click the "Save" link.
5. Hit the "Save changes" button.

Note that Custom Redirects, unlike Custom Permalinks, lets you change the published month and year ("/2012/07/"), and the extension (".html"). If you use Custom Redirects, do this carefully.

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