FAQ: All About Domain Mapping

As a Typepad subscriber, if you've ever had a question about blogging, chances are you've either perused our handy Knowledge Base, browsed the archives here at Everything Typepad, or opened a Help Ticket in your Dashboard. Our Community and Support team receives many of these every day, and in this special series, we'll be answering some of our best, most Frequently Asked Questions.

What is domain mapping?

By default, your blog will use the Typepad URL you selected during registration. It's in the form example.typepad.com. Domain mapping involves purchasing a custom domain, like www.myawesomeblog.com, from a registrar and then setting that domain as the URL for your blog.

Why should I use domain mapping?

Simply put, domain mapping allows you to own the address for your blog. Visitors won't see the typepad.com URL, they'll see the custom domain that you've selected. The URL will also generally be shorter and easier to remember. If you ever decide to move your site to another platform, you'll be able to use that domain on your new site, preventing the loss of readers.

I've been using my Typepad URL for a long time. Will it still work or does domain mapping get rid of it completely?

Your existing Typepad URL will still work. You won't lose incoming links to that URL. Search engines will phase the old URL out over time in favor of the new URL.

What's the easiest way to do this?

The very easiest way to set up domain mapping is by going to Account > Domain Mapping in Typepad and purchasing your domain through our partner registrar. We have full details in our Knowledge Base.

I already own a domain through another registrar. Can I use that?

Sure! You'll need to be able to set up a CNAME record at your registrar that points to Typepad. We have a full overview here. We also have specific instructions for GoDaddy, Network Solutions, pairNIC, and Yahoo.

My registrar offers domain masking or forwarding. Can I just do that instead?

You can but it's not compatible with domain mapping and will cause issues if you try to set the domain up inside of Typepad. We encourage folks to use proper domain mapping instead. This allows the domain to be used as the real URL for the blog and its internal pages. Domain mapping is also the preferred method for search engines. Masking or forwarding will prevent search engines from indexing the blog properly and can prevent stats tracking from functioning.

I have a few blogs on my account. Can each one have a different domain mapped to it?

Yes, absolutely. You'll just select the specific blog to map when setting up the domain inside Typepad.

Can you set up domain mapping for me?

We're happy to. Just go to the Help link inside your account and open a support ticket. Make sure to include the URL for your registrar and the username and password you use to log in there. If you have multiple domains, please let us know the domain you want to map and which blog will use the URL.

We have tons more information about domain mapping in our Knowledge Base and we're happy to answer any questions you have via the comments for this post or a support ticket.