How to set up your branded domain with JotURL

Using your own branded domain for your tracking links is very important to improve your marketing campaigns.

Associating a branded domain with tracking links created with JotURL is always highly recommended.

The benefits of using a branded domain

Using branded links will in fact provide you with many advantages:

• branding improvement
• higher link Trust
• higher CTR (+34% Click Through Rate on average, and up to +400%)
• avoid to be banned on Facebook and Google
• avoid to be blacklisted within emails
• best deep linking experience
• and much more!

JotURL offers you the possibility to use and add all your branded domains.

Of course, to do this you will first need to have purchased a domain.

This is a list of providers on which you can buy the domain you want (we’ve no affiliation with them):

• Mrdomain
• Google Domains
• Namecheap
• CloudFlare
• Bluehost
• GoDaddy

Each registrar has its own DNS management interface. 

These interfaces are similar to each other, but they can present substantial differences about how they work. If in doubt, the best option for you is to contact your registrar’s customer support or search for specific documentation.

What is a DNS?

The acronym DNS, a.k.a. Domain Name System, is a system that manages the names associated with the domain.

Very briefly, DNS allow you to associate names with values. In the world of domains, a DNS is used to associate everything about our domain: where it’s located and where it directs users, to which servers it refers, if the domain is known by other names, if the domain has subdomains where it must point, or if it’s used to point on different services, etc.

There are many types of DNS – but they all have common basis.

All DNS are made up of multiple records, a line of text that explains what that specific part of DNS should do.

DNS record usually has 4 main fields:

• type
• name
• value
• TTL ( time to live)

JotURL only cares about type A records and AAAA records.

A type A record can be imagined as: a name assigned to a specific web address.

Usually these records point to your server, but to correctly associate JotURL to your domain you have to make the records point to JotuRL.

You have to remember that DNS can only target one single server at a time. 

So you have to choose or your server, or JotURL, not both simultaneously.

If you have a website don’t point its DNS to JotURL, but reserve a branded domain specifically for JotURL, or use subdomains (like on.yourwebsite.com).

The difference between domain, subdomain and third level domain.

• Domain
  The domain is the overarching structure that contains the subdomains. For example, test.com, google.com and joturl.com are domains (namely, they are second level domains). The .com extension is technically known as TLD (top-level domain). Although the most popular TLD is .com, there are many others available, including .us, .ca, .de, .it, .uk, .fr, .es, .org, .net, .eu, .info, .dev, .io, .rocks, .link, .top and a lot more… even .pizza !

• Subdomain
  A subdomain is a domain that you can create from a larger primary domain.
  Examples of subdomains are: test.domain.com, example.domain.com or even go.link.domain.com

• Third level domain
  A third level domain is a specific subdomain that has only 3 parts. For example, west.example.com, go.example.com and east.example.com are third level domains (and even subdomains), but go.link.example.com is a subdomain but it is not a third level domain (since it has 4 parts, in fact it is a fourth level domain).

It’s possible to have even longer and multi-part domains, but their use is not recommended.

Also using a third level domain is recommended only for those who have a short domain in itself. 

In fact, in case of long domains, inserting parts before the domain would lengthen your branded links too much, not allowing you to take full advantage of them.

Even in case of short domains, having long, or too many parts before the domain would lengthen your branded links too much, not allowing you to take full advantage of them.

For example, having an exaggeratedly long link would prevent you from effectively using deep linking on mobile devices, or also branded links within SMS campaigns and you may lose CTR.

Configure your branded domain

As we have already said, there are several providers that allow the registration of a branded domain.

Each of these has different pages and configuration types.

For this reason we have created very useful guides to guide you in configuring your branded domain.

Namecheap

Mrdomain

Google Domains

CloudFlare

Bluehost

If the provider you want to use is not listed above you can read this generic article on our help center.

Records

Remember to create two different records, regardless of the provider used to register your domain.

The first record is: www.domain.extension

The second record is : domain.extension 

They must have the same configurations, changing only the “host” field.

Why use two different records?

Because www.domain.extension and domain.extension are not the same and could also be used in a different way even if they usually lead to the same destination.

If you make a mistake, you will not lose any data, you simply have to reset the DNS to the original address.

Once done, you have to wait for the complete propagation of the DNS on the worldwide net, it usually takes few hours, but in some cases it can take up to 48 hours.

Please note that the DNS service and its propagation do not depend upon the JotURL platform, it’s an Internet protocol.

If you want to know more about the argument you can read this article!

Note that if JotUrl allows you to add a custom domain, this does not mean that DNS records have fully propagated, since our engine does not test all DNS servers worldwide, but only a small part of them.

You can use this online service to test the global status of your domain’s DNS records.

Type in your domain name and click on search to check whether and where it was already propagated or not.

After the complete propagation, you can add your domain to your JotUrl dashboard.

How to add a branded domain to JotURL.

First you need to access the JotURL dashboard and click your account in the upper right corner.

Click the “Settings” item to access the various options that can be configured starting from your profile.

There are a lot of options available, you have to choose “Domains”.

All your branded domains are registered and added on this page, within this list every record can be kept under control, modified and updated without anything ever being lost.

Click the “Add Domain” button to add a new domain to JotURL.

Fill in the fields by entering the name and extension of your domain.

Don’t forget to set up the additional options, they are very important.

In addition to adding a nickname or favicon to your domain, you can decide to associate a specific deep linking configuration for your domain, in case you own or manage a mobile app.

The most important part of this configuration concerns the possibility of forcing an HTTPS connection for your domain.

This flag takes effect only if a valid SSL certificate is associated with the domain.

SSL credentials establish an encrypted connection between a browser or computer and a server or network.

At each session, the SSL connection protects credit card information and other information that is not intercepted by unauthorized parties.

For this reason, activating an SSL certificate is very important for the security of your site, your content and your users.

Read this article to discover how to add a digital SSL certificate (even for FREE) to your branded domain!

After these operations you can save your branded domain and start making the most of its features!

Cheers!

JotURL Team.

PS: Try to read this article about Custom Branded Shortener!