If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know I’m all about squeezing every ounce of performance, security, and branding polish out of my setup, especially when it comes to free tools that punch above their weight. Recently, I decided to integrate Cloudflare into my Blogger-powered site, and I want to walk you through exactly how I did it, including how I swapped out Hostinger’s default name servers for Cloudflare’s. This isn’t just a tutorial, it’s a behind-the-scenes look at how I troubleshoot, test, and refine every step until it meets my standards.
🧠 Why Cloudflare?
Before I dive into the setup, here’s why I chose Cloudflare:
- Free CDN and SSL: Speed and security without paying a dime? Yes, please.
- DNS Management: Cloudflare’s dashboard is intuitive and powerful.
- DDoS Protection: Even small blogs deserve enterprise-grade protection.
- Performance Boost: Their caching and optimization tools help my site load faster, especially on low-spec devices.
I’m hosting my domain on Hostinger, and while their DNS tools are decent, Cloudflare gives me more control and flexibility, plus it fits perfectly into my DIY ethos.
🔧 Step 1: Creating a Cloudflare Account
This part was straightforward:
- I went to Cloudflare.com and signed up with my email.
- Once inside the dashboard, I clicked “Add a Site” and typed in my domain name (e.g. myblog.com).
- And choose auto scan. Cloudflare scanned my current DNS records. It took about 30 seconds.
At this point, I paused to double-check the DNS records Cloudflare pulled from Hostinger. I always verify that my A records, CNAMEs, and MX entries match what I had set up previously. I don’t trust auto-imports blindly, especially when email routing is involved.
🧾 Step 2: Reviewing and Confirming DNS Records
Cloudflare showed me a list of DNS records it found. For my Blogger setup, the key ones were:
- CNAME for www pointing to ghs.google.com
- A records (if any) for custom redirects
- MX records for email (I use Zoho Mail, so I made sure those were intact)
I manually added any missing records and deleted outdated ones. This is where I appreciate Cloudflare’s clean interface, it’s easy to edit, and changes propagate quickly.
🔁 Step 3: Choosing the Free Plan
Cloudflare offers multiple plans, but I went with the Free tier. It’s more than enough for most personal blogs and small business sites. I hit “Continue”, and Cloudflare gave me two name servers to use:
- abby.ns.cloudflare.com
- dave.ns.cloudflare.com
These would replace the default Hostinger name servers.
🛠️ Step 4: Changing Name Servers on Hostinger
This part required precision. I logged into my Hostinger dashboard and navigated to:
Domains → My Domain → DNS / Name Server Settings
- Selected “Use custom name servers”
- Deleted Hostinger’s default entries (usually something like ns1.dns-parking.com)
- Pasted in the Cloudflare name servers exactly as provided
- Saved the changes
Hostinger confirmed the update, but I knew DNS propagation could take up to 24 hours. I kept checking Cloudflare’s dashboard, which shows a status indicator. After about 30 minutes, it flipped to “Active” a good sign that the switch was successful.
🔒 Step 5: Enabling SSL and HTTPS
This ensures that traffic between Cloudflare and my origin server (Blogger, in this case) is encrypted. Then I enabled:
- Always Use HTTPS
- Automatic HTTPS Rewrites
These settings force all visitors to use secure connections, even if they type http// manually. It’s a small detail, but it builds trust and helps with SEO.
🚀 Step 6: Performance Tweaks
Cloudflare isn’t just about DNS, it’s a performance booster. I enabled:
- Auto Minify for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Brotli Compression
- Caching Level: Standard
I skipped Rocket Loader for now because it can sometimes interfere with Blogger’s scripts. I’ll test it later in a staging environment.
🧪 Step 7: Testing Everything
I don’t just set and forget, I test. Here’s my checklist:
- ✅ Site loads over HTTPS
- ✅ DNS records match original setup
- ✅ Email routing still works
- ✅ No broken links or mixed content
- ✅ PageSpeed Insights shows improvement
I also ran a few benchmarks on my HP Folio laptop to see how the site performed under low-spec conditions. Load times dropped by about 0.8 seconds on average, which is a win in my book.
🧩 Bonus: Custom Page Rules
Cloudflare lets you set up Page Rules to fine-tune behavior. I added one to:
- Redirect myblog.com to www.myblog.com
This keeps branding consistent and avoids duplicate content issues. I might add more rules later for caching specific pages or disabling apps on certain URLs.
🧼 Final Touches
Once everything was stable, I updated my blog footer to reflect the new secure setup. I also added a branded padlock icon next to the URL in my screenshots for future guides, just a small visual cue that reinforces trust.
💬 What I Learned
Setting up Cloudflare isn’t hard, but doing it right takes attention to detail. Here are my takeaways:
- Don’t rush DNS changes, verify every record.
- SSL settings matter. “Flexible” mode is tempting but insecure.
- Test on multiple devices, especially low-spec ones.
- Branding and performance go hand-in-hand.
I also realized how much control I now have over my site’s infrastructure. Even though Blogger doesn’t give you server access, pairing it with Cloudflare gives you a surprising amount of backend power.
🎯 What’s Next?
Now that Cloudflare is live, I’m planning to:
- Experiment with Firewall Rules to block spam bots
- Use Analytics to track traffic spikes and threats
- Explore Workers for custom scripts (maybe a branded loading animation?)
I’ll document those steps in future posts, so stay tuned. If you’re running a blog and haven’t tried Cloudflare yet, I highly recommend it. It’s free, powerful, and fits perfectly into a lean, optimized setup, especially if you’re working with limited hardware or hosting options.