What is a branded short link?

A branded short link is a short URL on a domain you own, such as go.yourbrand.com/launch where a generic shortener would give you bit.ly/3xYz9.

A server answering for your hostname looks up the slug, records the click and sends the visitor on with a 302 redirect.

I would put a branded domain on every link a customer or prospect will see and skip it for links that live an afternoon.

Short.io allows 5 custom domains, Dub 3 and Rebrandly 1 on $0 plans, and setup is 1 DNS record plus a decision about who controls the hostname.

What makes a short link branded

Ownership of the hostname is the whole test.

go.yourbrand.com/launch is branded, and bit.ly/yourbrand is not, because Bitly's domain still sits in front of it: Bitly's pricing page shows the Free plan allowing 3 custom back-halves a month and no custom domain.

A vanity URL is any memorable address, and a custom short link has a slug you picked. A branded link needs a hostname you own.

How a branded short link works

A click passes through 5 steps.

1; zone file for yourbrand.com2go    CNAME    <target shown on your link tool's Domains page>3 4$ curl -I https://go.yourbrand.com/launch5HTTP/2 3026location: https://yourbrand.com/pricing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email

DNS: one record per hostname

The Domain Name System (DNS) handles a subdomain with a CNAME, an alias to the tool's hostname.

RFC 2181 section 10.1 allows only DNSSEC record types beside one, and RFC 1912 section 2.4 says it may not coexist with any other data.

A root domain always carries NS and SOA records and usually MX records, so it cannot hold one.

Some tools offer an A record for the root instead, and TrackRev's Domains page warns that it replaces whatever site runs there and that every other A or AAAA record on that name must go.

TLS: a certificate for your hostname

Transport Layer Security needs a valid certificate for your hostname, or browsers show a warning before the redirect runs, so the tool obtains one, usually from Let's Encrypt.

Its HTTP-01 challenge works on port 80 only and cannot issue wildcard certificates, while DNS-01 can. Short.io's pricing page promises a free certificate, and TrackRev's custom tracking domains page calls issuing and renewal automatic.

Why the redirect is a 302

RFC 9110 (STD 97, June 2022, Internet Engineering Task Force) lets caches reuse 301 and 308 responses without asking the server again.

A browser that cached a 301 can skip the link tool, so that click goes uncounted and a changed destination is ignored.

A tool that counts every click and allows edits needs a 302 or 307, and TrackRev sends a 302.

Branded short link vs generic shortener

Twilio SendGrid's documentation says spam filters and inbox providers judge a message's links by the reputation score of the root domain. Your own domain carries your reputation, while a shortener's root domain is shared with every customer.

Do branded short links get more clicks?

Vendors that sell custom domains quote lifts. Bitly's Click Expectation Report says links with a custom domain see a 2.3x lift in clicks over unbranded ones, which reads as 130% more, and Rebrandly's branded links page says 39% more.

Neither page shows how it measured the figure.

The same report includes a survey with a stated method: 1,006 US consumers and 501 US marketers and creators on an online panel, fielded between July 27 and August 5, 2026, with a consumer margin of error near 3.1 points at 95% confidence.

It records stated attitudes, so it shows what people say they weigh and says little about how your own list behaves.

What happens when a vendor shuts down

A company that owned its hostname lost the service but kept the address, and could point DNS at a new tool. Its slugs had to be re-created. Export your slug list on a schedule and keep the domain on auto-renew.

Set up a branded domain in 6 steps

• Pick a hostname on a domain you own. Dub's custom domain guide suggests go, try, links and l, and advises against www.
• Add the hostname in your link tool, which lists the DNS records to create.
• Create a CNAME named go with the tool's value pasted exactly (Dub suggests a TTL of 86400), after deleting any A or AAAA record on that name. On Cloudflare, check whether your tool wants DNS only, which Dub's Cloudflare guide recommends because proxying can skew analytics.
• Wait for verification and the certificate. A new subdomain has nothing cached, and TrackRev's product page quotes about 5 minutes.
• Run curl -I on a test link and expect a 302, an https:// destination in the Location header and a valid certificate.
• Move the links that matter. TrackRev links made earlier keep working on the default short host.

What custom domains cost

Short.io, Dub, Rebrandly and TrackRev all allow a custom domain on a $0 plan, and Bitly Core, at $10 a month, has none. Registration is usually extra, though Bitly Growth and Dub Pro each include 1 complimentary domain.

Branded short links in TrackRev

Once a domain verifies, TrackRev serves links as go.yourbrand.com/slug through a 302, and the custom tracking domains page says affiliate partner links on paid plans use it too.

The server logs each click, flags bots and appends a visitor ID that the pixel on your site reads on the first page view, tying the click to a later signup and, on a paid plan, to Stripe, Polar, Lemon Squeezy or Paddle revenue.

Server-side logging does not rely on the script-written cookies that Safari Intelligent Tracking Prevention deletes after 7 days without interaction; our Safari ITP post covers what survives afterward.

The Free plan has 50 links and 1,000 tracked events a month with revenue hidden, and annual billing charges 9 months for 12 on Starter ($39 a month), Growth ($99) and Scale ($199).

If branded redirects with click counts are the whole job, Short.io's Free plan (50,000 tracked clicks a month) costs less.

Short.io vs TrackRev, Dub vs TrackRev and the Bitly alternatives roundup show where each fits, and link tracking adds revenue to those clicks.

When a generic shortener is fine

Skip the domain for a link pasted into a single Slack thread, a 1-hour incident redirect or a project with no domain yet. A link in an email template or a printed code outlives the campaign and carries your name.