How to Configure Tumblr Custom Domain for Your Blog

Learn how to configure Tumblr custom domain and find helpful tips to consider when choosing a domain name for your Tumblr blog.

When you first create a blog on Tumblr, you get a free sub-domain from Tumblr. But, when it comes to professional blogging after you’ve got some experience, you should change some significant parts of your blog, such as the Tumblr theme and free domain Tumblr.

If you’re serious about your blog and want to stand out from the crowd, you should use a custom domain name for your blog. Although Tumblr is a blogging + social networking website, you can make it more special by adding a custom domain to Tumblr.

It will increase the Tumblr SEO, and people will also treat your blog as an authority website, such as TechCrunch. If you’re wondering why you should use a custom domain name for your Tumblr blog, please read this article to learn what a custom domain name Tumblr is and why you should have one.

How to Set up Tumblr Custom Domain – The Step By Step Guide

I think now you have a Tumblr blog with a sub-domain such as yourcoolblog.tumblr.com. I will show you how to convert it from yourcoolblog.tumblr.com to yourcoolblog.com. You need to follow these steps correctly and wait a few hours.

To make a custom domain on Tumblr, you have to follow these three main steps:

1. Choose a Custom Domain and buy your desired domain
2. Configure your domain name to work with Tumblr
3. Change Tumblr address to the custom domain
4. Optional: Add a new sitemap to webmaster tools and change the blog address in Google Analytics

Are you ready to set up your domain name with Tumblr? So, Let’s start adding a new top-level domain to the Tumblr blog.

Step #1 Choose a Good Domain Name for Your Blog

This is the most important step in this tutorial. Choosing the wrong domain for your blog will break down your blog and make you lose credibility and authority.

In a previous post, I shared a few free tools to check domain name availability. You can use them to find a perfect available top-level domain. But I will give you a few tips to find a perfect domain name for your Tumblr blog.

If you want a top-level domain for your branded blog:

• Use an easy-to-spell, enter, and share the domain name with or without keywords. Ex: Pitiya.com, NeilPatel.com, Labnol.org
• Search on social media whether that brand is already registered. Ex: For Facebook, you might search for whether there is a fan page with your brand. Use CheckUsernames.com to find out if a username is already taken or registered.

If you want a top-level domain for your small business blog:

• Use an easy-to-spell, type, and share the domain name with relevant keywords. Ex: ContentStudio.io, socialmediaexaminer.com. If your root domain has some keywords, they will help boost the search engine ranking position for some keywords.
• Analyze the main competitors in your industry. If there’s a competition and more opportunities, great. Stick with your niche. You need to find a way to stand out from your competitors. You can competitor research using Semrush. Learn more about Semrush by reading this Semrush review post and get a free Pro account over here. Find how to use Semrush to grow your blog in this article.
• Try to find an available top-level domain for your blog rather than a country-specific domain. (If your target audience is not limited to a country/continent)

If you want a top-level domain for your niche-specific blog:

• Use a keyword-rich domain name for your blog. It doesn’t matter if you add numbers to your domain. Ex: christmasgiftsforkids2022.com You can find long-tail keywords with domain name opportunities with Long Tail Pro. Read my review on LongTailPro and the comparison between LTP and Semrush to learn more. Use Semrush to find keyword difficulties, competition, keyword trends, search volume across GEO locations, etc.

Use these free tools to find an available domain name for your blog.

Step #2: Configure your domain name to work with Tumblr

Now you have a good domain name for your blog. It’s time to configure it to work with Tumblr.

Connect custom domain to Tumblr

There are dozens of domain registrars. Godaddy, NameCheap, Porkbun, and Domain are some of those. But, we use and recommend Cloudflare service for many reasons. Some of them include wholesale domain renewal price, security, fast DNS service, and additional services.

#1. Log into your Cloudflare account using your username and password and select the domain you want to connect to your Tumblr.

#2. Click on the “DNS” item on the left menu bar and follow the steps below.

1. Click on the “Add record” button
2. Choose the “A (host)” option from the list
3. Enter “@” at the Name field
4. Enter “66.6.44.4” to the field of IPv4 address.
5. Leave other options and click on the “Save” button.

Host: @
Point to: 66.6.44.4
TTL: 1 Hour

Now you are almost done. But if you want to add a subdomain such as www or blog in front of your domain, you should add another value to your Domain DNS zone.

Follow these steps to add www to your blog domain name. Ex: yourblogname.com to www.yourblogbname.com

#6. Click on the “Add Record” and a CNAME record.

• Enter the sub-domain name under the “Name” field. (ex: add www for www.yourdomain.com)
• Enter “domains.tumblr.com” under the “Target” field.

Host: www
Point to: domains.tumblr.com

Click on “Save” changes once done.

Step #3: Change Tumblr Address for New Custom Domain

Everything is done with your Godaddy account. You have to wait a few minutes till all changes are saved and worked. After a few minutes, follow these instructions to add the new Custom domain to the Tumblr blog.

#1. Log in to your Tumblr account using your username and password.

#2. Go to the settings page of your Tumblr blog. https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/YourTumblrBlogNameHere

#3. Click on the Pencil icon under Tumblr URL.

#4. Then activate the “Use a Custom Domain” option.

#5. Enter your new domain name as shown below screenshot. After entering the new custom domain to Tumblr, click on the Test domain link to check everything is correct so far.

If you followed every step above correctly, as I explained, you’d see a screen similar to the one below.

If you are getting error messages, I recommend waiting a few hours as it takes some time to propagate changes in nameservers.

#6. If you got a successful message like the above, click on the “Save” button.

You’re done. Now you set up the custom domain for your Tumblr blog. As you change the URL structure of your blog, you have to change default settings on webmaster tools and analyzing systems.

Read these articles and follow the tutorial steps to set up analyzing services for your blog.

• Submit your Brand New Blog to Search Engines – Follow only if search engines do not yet crawl your blog.
• Add Your Blog to Google – Follow the instructions in this post to add your website to Google Search Console.
• Add Your Blog to Yahoo and Bing – Find how to add your new blog to the Bing search database.
• Add Your Blog to Baidu – The step-by-step tutorial on managing your website’s appearance on the Baidu Chinese search engine.
• Add Your Blog to Yandex – Add your website to the Yandex search engine and drive traffic to your new domain.

As you set up a custom domain for Tumblr, you might want to learn how to increase the SEO performance of your Tumblr blog. Read this Ultimate Guide to Tumblr SEO to boost your organic traffic and optimize your website for both people and search engines.

Keep reading:

• Changing Tumblr Primary and Secondary blogs
• Getting Tumblr fans for free
• Promoting Your Tumblr blog
• Choosing a good Tumblr Premium theme

Conclusion on Custom Domain Tumblr

Although Tumblr gives you a free subdomain for your blog, you should use a custom domain for Tumblr. It will not only inspire you to blog like a pro but also will stand your blog out from thousands of or millions of blogs out there.

This step-by-step tutorial showed you how to set up the custom domain on Tumblr. There’s no magic or need for special skills to set up the custom domain. But you need to learn how to choose a perfect domain name and how to map your domain name to work with Tumblr.

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