How to Set Up a Custom Domain for Branded Short Links
Set up branded short URLs like go.yourbrand.com in 5 minutes with one CNAME. Step-by-step DNS guide for Cloudflare, Route 53, GoDaddy, and Namecheap.
When someone sees bit.ly/3xK9aB1 in their inbox, they pause for a second to wonder where it leads. Generic short links create that hesitation right at the moment of the click — and that quiet doubt costs you conversions you never see in the dashboard.
By the end of this guide, you’ll have a branded short URL like go.yourbrand.com/sale running on your own domain. The setup is one CNAME record. That’s it — no TXT verification, no separate ownership check. We’ll cover the four-step setup, the apex vs. subdomain decision, the four most common DNS providers, and the five gotchas that trip people up.
Pick Your Format First: Apex vs. Subdomain
Before touching DNS, decide which form your branded short URL will take.
Subdomain (recommended) — go.yourbrand.com/sale, link.yourbrand.com/sale
The subdomain pattern keeps your main site untouched and works on every DNS provider out of the box. Common prefixes are go., link., short., l., s., and on. — short enough that the path takes the visual lead.
Apex (root) — yourbrand.com/sale
Use the apex when you don’t have a separate marketing site or when the domain itself is the brand. The catch: your DNS provider must support CNAME flattening (also called ALIAS or ANAME). Cloudflare flattens automatically, AWS Route 53 calls it ALIAS, and Namecheap supports it — but GoDaddy’s default DNS does not. If you’re stuck on a provider without flattening, the cleanest workaround is delegating the domain’s nameservers to Cloudflare.
The 5-Minute Setup — One CNAME and You’re Done
The full flow is four steps. Open your DNS provider in another tab and you’ll be done before your coffee cools.
Step 1 — Register the domain in Bublink
In your Bublink dashboard, go to Settings → Domains and enter the address you want to use (go.yourbrand.com or yourbrand.com). Bublink immediately shows you the CNAME record to add: a Type, a Name, and a Value.
Step 2 — Add the CNAME at your DNS provider
Open your registrar’s DNS panel and create a new CNAME record. For a subdomain, the Name is just the prefix (e.g. go). For an apex, the Name is @. Copy the Value from Bublink’s dashboard and paste it as-is — a single character difference will fail verification.
Step 3 — Click “I’ve added the CNAME”
Bublink polls every 10 seconds for up to 5 minutes. You’ll see two phases scroll past in the UI: “Waiting for CNAME to propagate…” and then “DNS detected. Issuing SSL certificate…”.
Step 4 — Done
Once the CNAME resolves, Bublink issues a free SSL certificate automatically (usually 1–2 minutes). When the screen shows “Connected”, your branded short URL is live at https://go.yourbrand.com/....
Other shorteners ask you to add a separate TXT record to prove domain ownership. Bublink uses the SSL issuance challenge itself for verification, so there is no TXT step. The only record you’ll add is one CNAME.
Where to Add the CNAME, by Provider
Menu names change, so use these as a starting point.
Cloudflare
Dashboard → your domain → DNS → Records → Add record. Select CNAME, fill in Name and Target, and — critically — set the Proxy status to DNS only (the gray cloud icon). The orange-cloud proxy will intercept traffic before it reaches Bublink and break SSL issuance.
AWS Route 53
Hosted zones → your domain → Create record. For an apex, toggle Alias on and pick the target. For a subdomain, leave Alias off and use a regular CNAME. Route 53 handles the trailing dot in the value automatically.
GoDaddy
My Products → DNS → Add new record. CNAME records work for subdomains. If you need an apex, GoDaddy’s default DNS doesn’t flatten — the fastest workaround is migrating nameservers to Cloudflare and managing DNS there.
Namecheap
Domain List → Manage → Advanced DNS → Add new record. Choose CNAME for a subdomain or ALIAS for an apex — Namecheap supports both natively.
Five Gotchas, Solved
These are the most common reasons setup stalls.
1. Clicking Verify before DNS propagates
DNS doesn’t reach every resolver instantly. Wait 5–10 minutes after saving, then check propagation from your terminal:
dig @8.8.8.8 go.yourbrand.com CNAME +shortYou should see Bublink’s target. Once that resolves, the verify step passes on the first try.
2. The apex domain doesn’t support CNAME flattening
RFC 1034 forbids a plain CNAME on the root of a zone. Most modern DNS providers work around this with CNAME flattening (ALIAS or ANAME). If your provider doesn’t — GoDaddy’s default DNS, certain shared-hosting panels — point your nameservers at Cloudflare and let it flatten for you.
3. A leftover record at the same name
A forgotten A record on go will conflict with your new CNAME. Delete every existing record at that name before adding the CNAME. On Cloudflare in particular, the conflict can be silent — the new record won’t behave the way you expect.
4. CAA records blocking certificate issuance
If your domain has a CAA record that doesn’t authorize the CA Bublink uses (we issue certs via Cloudflare for SaaS), SSL issuance will fail. Check with:
dig yourbrand.com CAA +shortIf the response is empty, you have nothing to worry about. If you do have CAA records, add pki.goog and letsencrypt.org to the allow list.
5. TTL set too high
If a previous record had TTL 86400 (24 hours), changes propagate that slowly. Drop TTL to 300 (5 minutes) before you start, and future updates will reflect almost immediately.
Scaling Up: Multiple Domains for Multiple Campaigns
Once short links become part of your daily operation, one domain stops being enough. Splitting traffic across purpose-built domains keeps your analytics clean.
- General campaigns —
go.yourbrand.com - Seasonal sales —
sale.yourbrand.com - Country splits —
kr.yourbrand.com,jp.yourbrand.com - Co-branded with partners —
co.yourbrand.com
Bublink’s Free plan supports one custom domain; the Pro plan ($7/month) supports up to five. The split shows up cleanly in analytics — every chart can be filtered by domain, which makes campaign attribution and partner reporting much faster.
The TL;DR
- One CNAME record is the entire setup
- For apex domains, use ALIAS / ANAME at a provider that supports flattening
- After clicking verify, expect 3–5 minutes for DNS + SSL
The point of a branded short link isn’t aesthetics. It’s that the moment of the click stops being a question and starts being a yes — your brand on both sides of the redirect, no five-second ad pages between. Click a Bublink, land instantly — your domain, no detours.
Try Bublink
Branded short links, real analytics, no tier-gating.
Spin up a workspace and shorten your first production link in under a minute. Free to start.
Try Bublink →Continue reading
Bulk URL Shortener: 100 Links from One Excel Sheet
Turn an Excel file into 100 tracked short URLs in under a minute — bulk import schema, per-row UTM pattern, and the analytics view that follows.
QR Codes That Bridge Offline and Online: 5 Real Placements
Five real QR placements — store menu, expo booth, business card, poster, table — each with its UTM template, short-link tactic, and print checklist.
Newsletter Click Tracking — A UTM Variant System for Email
A practical UTM variant system for email newsletters — header, body, footer placements, send-time analysis, and the heatmap that decides next week's send.