Every short link makes a small promise before anyone clicks it. The promise is "this goes somewhere you expect". A link that starts with a domain the reader has never heard of makes that promise on behalf of a stranger. A link that starts with go.yourbrand.com makes it on your behalf, and people treat the two differently.
This is not a branding nicety. It shows up in click-through rates, in deliverability, and in how much of your own work you get to keep.
Trust is decided before the click
Readers scan a link the way they scan a sender name. In inbox tests we have run with customers, the same email sent with branded links outperformed the generic-domain version on clicks by a margin that varied between campaigns but never went the other way. The mechanism is simple: a recognisable domain removes the half-second of "is this safe?" that a random one adds.
The effect is strongest where links are seen without context. A QR code on a poster, a URL read out on a podcast, a link pasted into a support reply. In each case the domain is the only signal the reader has.
Deliverability rides on reputation
Mail providers score links by the reputation of their domain. A shared shortener domain carries the reputation of every account on it, including the ones sending things you would not want to be associated with. When one of those accounts gets flagged, the domain gets flagged, and your newsletter goes with it.
A domain you control has only your history attached to it. Warm it up with a few honest sends and it stays clean for as long as you do.
You keep the asset
Links accumulate. Two years of campaigns is thousands of links in decks, PDFs, printed material and old social posts, and every one of them still resolves. If they live on someone else's domain, that history belongs to them. Change providers and the links break, or you pay to keep them alive.
On your own domain, the links are yours. Point the DNS somewhere else and every one of them keeps working. That is the difference between renting a shortener and owning your links.
Setting one up
The whole thing is a DNS record and a few minutes of waiting.
- Pick a subdomain. Short and obvious beats clever:
go.,link.,l.andon.are all common. - Add a CNAME for it that points at the address shown in your domain settings.
- Wait for the record to propagate, then click verify. SSL is issued automatically once the record resolves, and renews itself from then on.
- Set it as the default for a workspace, so every link the team creates uses it without anyone thinking about it.
If you already have short links on the default domain, nothing changes for them. They keep resolving, and you can move them over one at a time or leave them be.
What to do with the old domain
Keep it. Redirect it if you can. The only real mistake is letting a domain lapse while links that use it are still out in the world. Set a calendar reminder for the renewal date the day you register it, and you will never have to think about it again.