How to configure branded custom domains

Branded domains allow you to use a custom domain of your own to shorten links via utm.io.

People are suspicious of clicking on generic short domains like bit.ly because they don't know what to expect from it. (It could be a great piece of content but also spammy junk).

Branded domains are a great way to stand out from the crowd and build recognition and trust for your brand, while still getting all the benefits of having a clean short URL.

To set up custom domains on utm.io is pretty straightforward.
This feature is part of our team & enterprise plans see more details about plans here. 

If you are on our enterprise plan, we use dedicated servers to attend your demands and make sure your links never go down. Some of our customers are so huge that they can use a dedicated private server instance to run their links in high availably without having to share resources with any other service.

1 - Ideally, you buy a new short, catchy domain name (2-5 characters max).

For example, businessinsider.com uses "read.bi" and nytimes.com uses "nyti.ms"

You can use any domain service to buy the domain, we use domainr.com

Alternatively, you can also use a subdomain of an existing domain, like  link.yourdomain.com or go.yourdomain.com 
But remember any content already hosted on this domain will stop working so make sure to use an unused subdomain.

2 - Once you have decided on your domain login to your account at app.utm.io > 

3 - Go to the Link Shortener sections form Top Left dropdown. ( You will only be able to access this menu if you are an owner or admin of the account)

4 - From the page click the Add Link Shortener button and follow the instructions to set it up.

5 - Once you complete the process you will be given an "A" record to add to your domain's DNS.

IMPORTANT: If you are using a subdomain of an existing domain, the subdomain must be unique to utm.io. If the subdomain you choose already has a DNS record you will get a "You domain has multiple IP addresses associated" error and your shortener will not be usable until it is resolved. For more on this issue, see How to resolve "Your domain has multiple IP addresses associated" issue.

6 - Each DNS provider has slightly different instructions but this should be a quick step and once you update the record you'll be ready to go.

Using Cloudflare?

If you are using Cloudflare make sure the DNS is a direct pass-through. By disabling the orange icon. More details here: https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200169626-What-subdomains-are-appropriate-for-orange-gray-clouds-

NOTE: If you are an existing user that had set up their custom domain before 1st Apr 2019. 
The old and new custom domains live on two separate systems hence the issues. You would need to remove the domain and re-add it to migrate to the new system. Your current links won't be removed but there will be a little bit of downtime (a couple of hours at least) until the DNS fully propagates the new records. 

I already updated my DNS why is the domain not ready in utm.io?
Our system waits for your DNS to fully propagate meaning most of major services have acknowledged your changes, this makes sure everyone trying to use your links sees the right content. This means we need to wait a few hours before the changes are live. You can check if the A record is updated here: https://dnschecker.org

In case you have any questions feel free to reach out to support.

Happy Link Building!