How to add custom domain in URL shortener
Custom domains are trusted more than regular short links because they stand out. Follow these steps if you want to add your custom domain to shorten links in Blanq(Link management platform).
There are two kinds of domains – a primary domain and a sub-domain. Let’s take the domain shop.com(primary domain) as an example to demonstrate how you can proceed with shortening.
Shop is an e-commerce website that is already hosted on shop.com. Let’s assume, the owner of this company wants to create short links for every order that is created on the platform.
To do that, there are two options:
Buy a new domain
He can purchase a new domain which is similar sounding, for example, shp.com or shopp.com and use it to shorten links. All he has to do is head to Blanq platform and add this new domain.
The short links will appear like this – https://shp.com/s3dneR
Create a subdomain
The alternative to the above is to create a subdomain, for example, order.shop.com and use it to shorten links. This sub-domain needs to be added in Blanq platform before usage.
The short links will appear like this – https://order.shop.com/s3dneR
In both the above cases, the domain or the sub-domain has to point to the IP address 167.99.26.76 (Our server) in DNS settings.
These two are the only possible ways to use custom domains if your primary domain is already being used for your business.
Things to watch out for
- Ensure there is only A record for your domain. You can use dnschecker.org to verify the DNS records.
- Domain verification needs at max 3 hours so, if it the status is still “Pending verification” then, please check your settings again or contact our support.
- You can also use CNAME as an alternative to A record. Please read this post for details.
Please email us on support[at]blanq.io if you have any questions or need more details.
Also, do read our previous post 3 Big reasons why you should use a custom URL shortener if you need to know the benefits of custom domains.