How branded short links work, how to set one up on your own domain with a TXT and a CNAME record, which redirect to use, and how to pick slugs people can retype
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A branded short link is a short URL that lives on a domain you own, like cpthn.ai/ABC123, instead of on a shortener's shared domain. It redirects to a longer address the same way any short link does, but the reader sees your name before they click, and the link keeps working if you ever change the tool behind it. Setting one up takes a domain you control, two DNS records, and a shortener that supports custom domains.
Carpathian's Link Shortener works on both: links can sit on our shared short domain, cpthn.ai, from the moment you enable it, and on any domain you prove you own once you add two DNS records. This guide covers how short links work, how to set up your own domain for them, which redirect a short link should use, and how to pick slugs that are easily readable and most importantly, memorable.
What is a link shortener, and how does it work?
A link shortener stores two things: a short path, called a slug, and the full destination URL. When someone opens the short link, the shortener looks up the slug, counts the click, and answers with an HTTP redirect that sends the browser to the destination. The visitor never sees a page in between, the redirect happens in a fraction of a second.
A short link has three parts:
The domain.cpthn.ai on the shared domain, or something like go.yourcompany.com on your own.
The slug. The part after the slash, such as SPRING-DEAL-2029 or a generated string.
The destination. The long URL the link sends people to, with any tracking parameters you want attached.
Because the shortener sits between the link and the destination, you can change where a link goes after you've printed it. A QR code on a flyer, a link in a podcast description, or a URL on a conference slide can all be pointed somewhere new without reprinting anything.
Why put short links on your own domain?
A short link on a shared domain tells the reader nothing about who sent it. Shared shortener domains carry links from everyone, so the domain alone can't show a link is yours. Your own domain fixes that. The person reading go.yourcompany.com/PRICING knows whose link it is before they tap it, and that's the whole reason branded links exist.
There are a few practical benefits on top of recognition:
You own the address. The links live on your DNS. If you move to a different shortener later, you point the domain somewhere else and the old URLs can keep resolving.
It reads cleanly out loud. "go dot yourcompany dot com slash demo" is easier to say on a call than a random string on a domain nobody has heard of.
It's consistent. Every link your team sends looks the same, which matters when those links end up in emails, invoices, and printed material.
The shared domain still has a place. For an internal link, a quick share in a chat, or a one-off you won't reuse, cpthn.ai is fine and costs nothing extra. Custom domains earn their keep on anything a customer sees.
How do you set up a custom short link domain?
You need a domain or subdomain you control, a TXT record that proves you own it, and a CNAME record that sends its traffic to the shortener. Most teams use a short subdomain of their main site, such as go., link., or l., because a CNAME can't sit at the root of a domain alongside its other records.
On Carpathian, the steps are:
Enable Link Shortener from Services in the dashboard. It's a self-service product, so an organization owner can turn it on without talking to anyone.
Open the Domains tab and add your domain, for example go.yourcompany.com.
At your DNS provider, add the two records the dashboard shows you:
A TXT record named _carpathian-links.go.yourcompany.com with the verification value from the dashboard. This proves the domain is yours.
A CNAME record for go.yourcompany.com pointing to cpthn.ai. This is what makes the links work, because it sends visitors to us.
Back in the dashboard, click Verify. If the TXT record is missing or doesn't match yet, you'll see the reason, and you can try again once DNS has caught up.
Once the domain is verified, new links can live on it instead of the shared domain. If you're new to DNS records in general, How to Point a Domain to a VPS and Set Up SSL walks through what each record type does.
A link on a custom domain only resolves while the domain stays verified and the service stays enabled. If you remove the CNAME at your DNS provider, the links stop working, because traffic no longer reaches us.
Should a short link use a 301 or a 302 redirect?
Most short links should use a 302, a temporary redirect. A 301 tells browsers the move is permanent, and browsers are allowed to cache that answer and skip the shortener on later visits. That's bad news for a link whose destination you might change, and it means those repeat visits never get counted.
A 302 sends the browser to the destination every time without telling it to remember the answer. Every click comes back through the shortener, so it gets counted, and an edited destination takes effect for everyone at once. Carpathian's short links answer with a 302 for exactly that reason.
A 301 makes sense when you're permanently retiring an old page on your own website and want search engines to move its standing to the new one. That's a site migration, not a short link.
How do you pick slugs people can retype?
A good slug survives being read from a screen, a slide, or a printed page. Keep it short, make it a word when you can, and avoid characters that look like other characters. DEMO beats d3m0, and SPRING-SALE beats SpringSale2026final, because people type what they see and get it slightly wrong.
Carpathian takes care of the two most common retyping mistakes for you:
Case doesn't matter. Slugs are stored in uppercase, and a link typed in lowercase still resolves. go.yourcompany.com/demo and go.yourcompany.com/DEMO are the same link.
Generated slugs skip confusable characters. When you let the shortener pick a slug, it leaves out every character that passes for another: 0 and O, 1 and I and L, 2 and Z, 5 and S, 6 and G, 8 and B, U and V. A random slug read off a screen comes out right the first time.
When you choose your own slug, the form tells you as you type if a character isn't allowed. Letters, numbers, and the separators . _ ~ - all work, so Q4-REPORT and TEAM.OFFSITE are fine.
A few helpful tips when naming your short link:
Name the slug after the destination, not the campaign code. PRICING is far more memorable CAMPAIGN-0412.
Keep a slug pointing at one idea. If the destination changes completely, make a new link rather than repurposing a well-known one.
Avoid slugs that differ by one character on the same domain. DEMO and DEMOS will get mixed up.
What click counts tell you and what they don't
A click count tells you how many times a short link was opened. That's enough to answer most of the questions people have about a link: did anyone use the QR code on the flyer, which of two links in a newsletter got more traffic, is the link in an old blog post still being found. Carpathian shows the count for every link in the Links tab.
It won't tell you who clicked, from which country, on what device, or whether they bought anything once they got there. Carpathian counts clicks, it doesn't break them down. If you need campaign attribution, put UTM parameters on the destination URL, like ?utm_source=flyer&utm_campaign=spring, and let the analytics on your own site do the rest. The short link stays short, the long tracking URL lives behind it, and your analytics tool sees exactly where each visit came from.
A count can also run a little high. Link preview bots in chat apps and email security scanners sometimes open a link before a person does, and every shortener sees some of that traffic. Compare counts between links over time rather than treating any single number as a head count.
Can you make short links for files?
Yes. A shared document, a PDF price sheet, or a download is often the thing you most want a short link for, because file URLs from storage services are long and full of random characters.
If your files live in Carpathian Object Storage, any public file has a Copy short URL action. It creates a short link to that file on your organization's own verified domain, or on the shared domain if you haven't added one, and copies it. Asking twice for the same file gives you the same link rather than a new one. What Is Object Storage, and When Do You Need It? explains how public files work if you haven't used object storage before.
What does a branded link shortener cost?
Carpathian's Link Shortener has a monthly base fee for each month it's enabled, and each verified custom domain bills monthly on top of that. Links on the shared domain cost nothing beyond the base fee, and there's no per-link or per-click charge. Current amounts are on the pricing page.
Any part of a month bills as the whole month, once. If you turn the service off, your links stop resolving and no further month is billed, but your links and domains are kept. Turning it back on brings them back for every domain that's still verified, and a month you've already paid for isn't billed again.
Team permissions are split by what they cost. A teammate can be allowed to see links, to create and edit them, or to add and verify domains, and adding a domain is its own permission because each verified domain bills monthly.
Where Carpathian fits
Carpathian's Link Shortener makes short links on cpthn.ai or on a domain you own, counts their clicks, lets you edit a destination after the link is out in the world, and creates short links for public files in Object Storage. It runs on the same account as the rest of Carpathian's cloud and AI products, so there's no separate login or bill.
Create an account and enable Link Shortener from Services, or contact us if you want help setting up a domain.
How to Shorten Branded URLs on Your Own Domain | Carpathian
