Your Blogspot address ends with .in (or any country-specific URL) instead of .com? The Solution.

Blogger has rolled out a new change, in which you will notice that the URL of a blog you’re reading has been redirected to a country-code top level domain, or “ccTLD.” For example, if you are in India and viewing [blogname].blogspot.com, you might be redirected to [blogname].blogspot.com.in.  A ccTLD, when it appears, corresponds with the country of the reader’s current location.

Why is this happening?

The Blogger team said migrating to localized domains will allow them to continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law. By utilizing ccTLDs, content removals can be managed on a per country basis, which will limit their impact to the smallest number of readers. Content removed due to a specific country’s law will only be removed from the relevant ccTLD.

Who is affected by this Change?


Every Blogger user that is not using a custom domain. i.e any Blogger user that is still using the .blogspot address. Right now it seems the change has been rolled out only in India. So when an Indian user visits your blog, he will be redirected to yourblog.blogspot.com.in instead of yourblog.blogspot.com.

Will this affect search engine optimization on my blog?

Hosting duplicate content on different domains can affect search results, but the Blogger Team said they are making every effort to minimize any negative consequences of hosting Blogspot content on multiple domains.

Want to view the “No Country Redirect (NCR)” of a Blogspot Blog?

If you want to temporarily prevent Blogger from doing a country specific redirect while viewing a blogspot blog, then you can use the NCR option.

Example

Let me assume you are in India and want to view http://[blogname].blogspot.com instead of viewing http://[blogname].blogspot.com.in, all you have to do is to  add the NCR option as seen below:

This will give you the .com version without redirecting to your ccTLD

What Should I do Now ?

Get a custom domain for your blog to save yourself all those stress.

How Do I Get a Custom Domain?

If you are using the new blogger dashboard, Login to your blog, go to Settings > Basic > Publishing > Add a custom domain. It will cost you $10.

If you are a Nigerian and you don’t have a credit card to pay for it, I can get it done for you here.

I hope this helps….

Feel free to ask questions and share your views about this..

Source: Google Help