Branded link: a short link that says who sent it

A branded link is a short link whose host, or whose path, identifies the sender — links.yourbrand.com/ launch or gc.mw/growcord-deck rather than an anonymous code on a shared domain.

What carries the brand

The host first. A reader scanning a message looks at the domain and almost nothing else, which is precisely why phishing invests in lookalike domains. A short link on your own subdomain is the only form of branding that survives being pasted into a message with no surrounding text.

The path second. On a shared host, a readable alias tells the reader what they are about to open even though the domain is generic. That is worth something, and it costs one Pro plan rather than a DNS change.

Three ways to get one on gc.mw

A custom alias on the shared host. Pro and above, four to sixty-four characters, checked against the reserved paths and the brand-protection list.

A subdomain namespace. Claim a name and use name.gc.mw/code on Pro, with no DNS work at all.

Your own domain. Point links.yourbrand.com at cname.gc.mw with a CNAME, prove ownership with a TXT record under _gc-verify, and the certificate is issued once both records check out. Verification re-runs every five minutes until DNS propagates. Custom domains are a Business feature; the hard cap is fifty per workspace.

What it changes operationally

Reputation becomes yours. A shared shortener domain inherits every other customer's mistakes, and mail filters make judgements at the domain level. On your own domain the reputation you build is the reputation you carry — which cuts both ways, and is a reason to keep your own abuse handling tidy.

Unknown codes on a custom domain return a 404 on that domain rather than a gc.mw page, so a mistyped link never advertises us on your letterhead.

Example

A print run of 20,000 flyers with links.cafe.example/menu and a QR encoding the same URL. The menu moves hosts twice in a year; the flyer never changes; and the DNS records that make it work are two lines you added once.

Start with a readable alias in the URL shortener and add the domain when the print job justifies it.