Imagine your site is at mydomain.com and you want your own link shortener. The usual result is something like links.mydomain.com/abc: a subdomain that makes the link longer instead of shorter. Would it not be much better if your links were simply mydomain.com/abc?
Well, you can, and that is what this article is about. Here is what a brand domain is, why it is worth it, and how to set it up without moving your site or making things complicated.
The subdomain problem
When you run your own shortener, you almost always end up on a subdomain (links.mydomain.com, go.mydomain.com...). It works, but it has two drawbacks: it is longer than it should be and, above all, it is not your real domain. People trust a link they recognise, and mydomain.com/offer reads far better than a prefixed subdomain.
The classic alternative is to pay for the "branded domain" of a service like Bitly. It is convenient, but you are back to the same thing: a monthly fee to use your own domain. I wrote about this in Bitly alternatives with your own data.
What a brand domain is
A brand domain is exactly that: serving your short links on your real domain (mydomain.com/abc), even if that domain already has its website. It is not a subdomain or a separate site: they are your links, with your brand, on the address your audience already knows.
Why it is worth it
It is not just looks. A link with your domain works for you:
- Trust and clicks: people click more on a domain they recognise than on a generic or unknown one.
- Your brand on every link: every time you share a link, you share your domain. Free advertising.
- Easier to remember:
mydomain.com/summeris easy to say out loud and to type. - Full control: the links are yours and the stats live in your Linsei, not with a third party.
The best part: you do not touch your site
This is where most people back off, thinking they have to move hosting or fight the website they already have. Not at all. Links are created and measured in a single central Linsei install, and on your brand site you install a lightweight connector that does the work.
The connector only acts when your site would return a 404. If someone visits mydomain.com/abc and that page does not exist, the connector asks Linsei and redirects. If the page does exist, it touches nothing. That is why it never gets in the way of your real site.
The connector is a WordPress plugin or, for any other site with PHP, a small file and one line in your configuration. It is all explained on the add-on page.
When it pays off (and when it does not)
Let me be honest, because it is not for everyone. If you shorten a link now and then, plain Linsei or even a subdomain is plenty. But if you share links often, live off your brand, or manage several domains, having your links on your own domain makes a real difference.
One warning: the connector needs your site to be able to run some server-side logic. On closed or fully static platforms (Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, GitHub Pages...) it is not possible, and there the alternative is still the subdomain, which needs no connector.
How to get started
The "Brand domains" add-on installs on your central Linsei. You give each manager a domain, install the connector on the brand site, and from then on every link you create can go out with your domain. You have the details and the connectors on the add-on page, and if you do not have Linsei yet, you can start for free and add it when you need it.
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