Marketing Tips and Tricks Version 1.0

Marketing Tips and Tricks Version 1.0

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When it comes to mapping your Google Site(s) to your own custom domain name(s), there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Are you using the stand-alone version of Sites, or the Google Apps version? (There is a difference.)
2. Creating a custom URL for the Sites service is different from mapping your domain to your Site.
3. Google does not support mapping your naked domain (http://example.com) to a Google Site - or any other Google service, for that matter - but you can make it happen.
   

What is Domain Mapping?

Essentially, there are two parts to the whole mapping process:

Contents

1. 1 What is Domain Mapping?
2. 2 Stand-alone or Google Apps?
3. 3 Is it the Service or My Site?
4. 4 How do I Map My Site to My Custom Domain?
   1. 4.1 Mapping my Site
      1. 4.1.1 Mapping your Site on Google's Servers
      2. 4.1.2 Creating a CNAME with your DNS Host / Registrar
      3. 4.1.3 What about my Naked Domain?
5. 5 Related Information

1. You need to tell your registrar/DNS host where to send requests for your subdomains ("www", "mail", "sites", etc.) by entering the CNAME pointing to ghs.google.com
2. You also must tell Google what to do with requests to the subdomain specified in #1 through either your Site's "General" page, or your Google Apps control panel.

If either of these elements are missing, the whole thing simply will not work. If your registrar doesn't know where to direct the traffic, the request will fail without ever getting to Google. If the registrar knows where to send the traffic, but Google doesn't know what to do with it once it gets there, the request will fail on Google's servers.

Stand-alone or Google Apps?

Are you using the stand-alone version of Sites, or the Google Apps version? Depending on which version you are using, you will have a slightly different set of directions for mapping your Site to your custom domain. It is essentially the same process, but there are minor differences in what you have to work with. Keep this in mind for later when I go through the actual process for mapping your Site to your domain.

For example, the URL for a site built using the stand-alone version of Sites is different from the Apps version:

• Stand-alone URL: http://sites.google.com/site/example
• Apps URL: http://sites.google.com/a/example.com/example

Is it the Service or My Site?

For Google Apps users, there is often confusion over whether they have mapped the Google Sites service for their domain or a specific Site from their domain to their custom URL. (This is not an issue with stand-alone users.) To clear up this confusion, it may be easiest to recommend that you always map specific Sites from the General tab under More Actions >> Manage Sitewhile editing the given Site. Of course, this is avoiding the issue, so I'll at least point out the different options available to Google Apps domain administrators.

First, on the Sites Settings >> General tab of your Google Apps control panel, you will see a "Web Address" section with a link to "Change URL". Clicking this link brings you to a "Change URL for Sites" page that gives you the option to either use the default Sites service URL for your domain or to create a custom URL. Changing this value - and creating the associated CNAME - changes the URL for the Sites service, not a specific Site.

Also on the Sites Settings screen, you will find a second tab named "Web Address Mapping". This is where you need to go to map a specific Site to your custom domain. (I will cover the process for mapping a Site to your domain later in this post.)

How do I Map My Site to My Custom Domain?

It's fairly simple, really. When you take out all of the technical terms (DNS, CNAME, subdomain, alias, etc...), mapping a Site to your custom domain is not all that complicated. As I mentioned at the top of this post, there are really just two parts to this whole thing:

1. You need to tell your registrar/DNS host where to send requests for your subdomains ("www", "mail", "sites", etc.) by entering the CNAME pointing to ghs.google.com
2. You also must tell Google what to do with requests to the subdomain specified in #1 through either your Site's "General" page, or your Google Apps control panel.

It's kind of like a telephone... If you pick up the phone and dial your best friend's mobile number, it will only work if the telephone network knows which provider (ATT, Verizon, etc) is responsible for the number. After that, the provider needs to know which of its customers has the number you've dialed. If either of these pieces is missing, the call simply will not go through.

For the duration of this post, let's use the following assumptions:

1. Your domain is called "example.com"
2. GoDaddy is your DNS host / registrar
   
3. You are using the Google Apps version of Google Sites
4. You have built a site which you have named "mycoolsite"
5. You want visitors to see "mycoolsite" when they type www.example.com into their browsers
   

Based on these assumptions, you will need the following information available to properly map your Google Site to your domain:

1. Your Google Apps control panel URL: http://www.google.com/a/example.com
2. Your Site URL: http://sites.google.com/a/example.com/mycoolsite
3. Site Location: mycoolsite
4. CNAME / Alias / Subdomain: www

Mapping my Site

Though it doesn't really make a difference, I recommend making changes to your Google Sites website first when creating a web mapping for your Site. You can choose any order you like, but the instructions that follow will go in that order.

Mapping your Site on Google's Servers

1. "The format of the web address is unsupported."
   
   Be sure to enter www.example.comwithout the http:// at the beginning to avoid the error message above.
   
   Navigate to the Site you wish to map (mycoolsite)
2. Sign in
3. Select "Manage Site" from the "More Actions" drop-down menu
4. Select the "General" tab on the left side of the screen
• If using a stand-alone (non-Apps) Google Site, you will click the "Web Address" tab instead of the "General" tab.
  
5. Scroll down to the "Web Address Mapping" section
• If using a stand-alone (non-Apps) Google Site, you will need to select the "Web Address" tab instead of scrolling down.
  
6. Click the "Map This Site" link
• If using a stand-alone (non-Apps) Google Site, skip this step.
  
7. Type the CNAME (Alias) used in step 5 above into the "Web Address" box. For this example, we used "www"
• If using a stand-alone (non-Apps) Google Site, you will need to type in your domain name, including the CNAME. For example: www.example.com
  
8. Click the "Add" button
   
   
   
   
   

* See the Link Generator for help with locating the administrative pages mentioned above.

Creating a CNAME with your DNS Host / Registrar

1. Log into your account with your DNS host / registrar
2. Navigate to the DNS Control Panel for your domain (example.com)
3. Scroll down to the CNAME (Alias) section
4. Click the Add CNAME button / link
5. For the CNAME (Alias), type "www"
6. For the Host, type "ghs.google.com"
7. Leave the TTL value at its default (GoDaddy defaults to 1 hour)
8. Save your changes

That's it. You're done. Navigate on over to www.example.com and you should see your "mycoolsite" Google Site! (Keep in mind that the internet is a big entity, and that it could take 24-48 hours for your changes to take effect. In reality, I rarely see it take more than a few minutes for changes to take hold, but it is possible that you won't see your updates right away.)

See the official Google article outlining how to manage CNAMEs with many popular registrars.

What about my Naked Domain?

As I mentioned at the top of this article, Google Sites does not support mapping your naked domain (http://example.com <<without the preceding CNAME [www.]). So, in order to get the naked domain to point to your website, you'll need to take advantage of your registrar's forwarding feature.

So, to achieve this with GoDaddy (sorry, but I don't have instructions for other registrars readily available.), you'll need to:

1. Log into your account
2. Select the "Domain Manager" option
3. Select the domain you wish to forward
4. Click the "Domain is not forwarded" link (located in the center of the screen, under "Forwarding" and above "Total DNS"
5. Check the "Enable Forwarding" box
6. Enter the URL to forward the domain to. In this example, you would enter http://www.example.com
7. Select the "301 Redirect" option
8. Click OK

If you've purchased your domain through Google with eNom as your registrar, you can configure your naked domain to point to your mapped CNAME (subomain) through the following steps:

1. Log into your Google Apps control panel at http://www.google.com/a/example.com
2. Select Domain Settings >> Domain Names >> Advanced DNS
3. Locate the provided username and password for your eNom DNS control panel and make note of them before clicking on theSign in to DNS Console link
4. Click Edit under the Host Records section
5. Delete any existing A records
6. Add a new Host Record with the following configuration (see sample image below):
• Host Name: @
• Address: http://www.example.com
• Record Type: URL Redirect
7. Save your changes

I would expect this change to be in effect within about 30 minutes, but it could take 24-48 hours to fully propagate.

Related Information

• Adding a Custom Search Engine (CSE)
• Using PayPal with Google Sites
• Link Generator