How to set up a custom domain for your short links

The difference between gc.mw/spring and go.yourbrand.com/spring is not aesthetic. It is that the second one cannot be created by anybody else, which is the only property that makes a short link meaningfully more trustworthy than another short link.

Setting it up is two DNS records and one check. Custom domains are included on Business and Team — three of them — and can be added to Pro as an add-on; the hard ceiling per workspace is 50.

Before you touch DNS: choose the name once

The subdomain becomes part of every link you will ever print, so this is the decision to be slow about.

Keep it short — every character is a character you pay for in an SMS and in QR modules. go. and l. are the shortest useful options; links. is clearer and three characters longer. Keep it boring: a subdomain that reads like an authentication page attracts exactly the wrong kind of attention from filters and from readers.

And keep it separate from anything else. A subdomain that also serves a marketing site or a staging environment cannot be pointed at a redirect service, because it can only have one CNAME.

The two records

1. 1

   Add the domain in the dashboard

   Domains, then Add. Enter the full host — go.yourbrand.com, not yourbrand.com. A verification token is generated and shown once, so copy it before you close the panel.

2. 2

   Publish a CNAME

   Name go (or whatever you chose), value cname.gc.mw. That is the record that makes clicks arrive at our servers instead of yours.

3. 3

   Publish a TXT record

   Name _gc-verify.go.yourbrand.com, value gc-verify= followed by the token. This proves the domain is yours and stops anyone else pointing a CNAME at us and claiming your name.

4. 4

   Verify

   Press Verify Now, or wait — the check repeats every five minutes on its own. Both records are looked up in parallel; when both pass, the domain goes active, the certificate is issued and new links can use it.

Where verification usually fails

What the check says	What actually happened
CNAME points to something else	Another service still owns the record, or a proxy is in front of it
TXT record not found	The record was added at the wrong name — it needs the _gc-verify. prefix on the full host
TXT record does not contain the current token	The domain was removed and re-added, which rotates the token
Nothing at all resolves	DNS has not propagated yet; give it an hour before assuming anything is wrong

The name of the TXT record is the single most common mistake. Many DNS interfaces append the zone for you, so typing the full _gc-verify.go.yourbrand.com produces _gc-verify.go.yourbrand.com.yourbrand.com. Type only _gc-verify.go in hosts that behave that way, and check what the panel shows after saving.

What changes once it is live

Everything a gc.mw link does works on your domain: aliases, UTM parameters, expiry, passwords, targeting rules, QR codes and analytics. Codes are unique per domain, so go.yourbrand.com/sale and gc.mw/sale are two different links owned by two different people, and your namespace is entirely yours — no more discovering that the word you wanted was taken in 2019.

You also choose what the bare subdomain does when somebody types it with no code: redirect to a URL you set, show a bio page, or leave it as the default claim page. A code that does not exist returns HTTP 404 rather than redirecting anywhere, which is the behaviour you want the first time somebody mistypes a code from a poster.

The part to check before you commit

Ask what happens when you leave. The reason to use your own domain is that the links keep working if the service does not, and that only holds if you can get the data out.

Export every link with its destination as CSV or over the API, keep a copy with your other records, and confirm the DNS records are ones you can re-point at another provider in an afternoon. A custom domain plus an export is the difference between a shortener being a tool and a shortener being a hostage situation.