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Choose the right domain for your short links

Subdomain or root, which name to pick, and what not to use for a branded short-link domain — the decision to make before touching any DNS record.

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CodeQR Team
Content Team

The domain you pick shows up on every link and inside every QR code you print, and changing it later invalidates all of them. Ten minutes of deciding now is worth more than any setting in the product.

Availability

  • Plan: Starter and above for a custom domain of any kind. On Free, links use a CodeQR shared domain.
  • Where: the decision happens outside CodeQR, at your registrar.

Use a subdomain of a domain you already own

For most teams this is the answer, and CodeQR says so in the Add Domain modal: "We recommend using a domain or subdomain that is dedicated to short links and available for you to configure (e.g. go.yoursite.com). Do not use your main website or e-commerce domains—changing their DNS would take your site offline."

The Add Domain modal with the Recommendations panel open and a subdomain typed in

A subdomain gives you three things at once:

  • Recognition without a purchase. go.acmestore.com says Acme as clearly as any new domain, and costs nothing.
  • Zero risk to your website. A new subdomain has no DNS record today, so adding one cannot break anything.
  • One less thing to renew. No extra registration to lose track of.

Common choices: go., link., qr., l., s.. Pick one and use it everywhere; consistency is what makes people trust the address.

When a separate domain makes sense

Buy a short domain of its own when the URL itself is the asset — a code printed at small size, an address read aloud, a campaign where every character counts. It costs a registration and one more renewal to track, and it starts with no reputation of its own.

If you go this way, keep it boring and readable: no hyphens, no digits that sound like letters, no spelling that has to be dictated twice. A domain that has to be explained defeats the point.

Do not point your website's root domain here

Pointing acmestore.com at CodeQR means acmestore.com serves short links — your website stops being reachable at that address. Root domains are also the ones carrying email and other services, and a mistake there is visible to everyone.

There is one case where it is fine: a domain bought for links alone, with no website and no email on it. That is what the A record described in Point your domain with a CNAME or A record is for.

The SEO question, answered plainly

Using a subdomain instead of the apex does not cost you search visibility for your website, and short links are not indexed anyway: links on a custom domain are served with a noindex instruction by default. Choose based on operational risk, not on search.

What to check before you commit

  • Does the domain already have DNS records for that exact name? A hostname cannot hold a CNAME next to other records.
  • Is your DNS on Cloudflare? It works, but the record has to stay unproxied. The orange cloud is the single most common cause of a domain that never verifies.
  • Does the domain have a history? A domain bought second-hand can carry a reputation you did not choose, and a domain that once hosted spam can be flagged by security filters. Check it before printing anything.
  • Who else needs access? Adding the record requires DNS access. Confirm you have it, or that someone will do it this week rather than next quarter.

Steps

  1. Decide subdomain or standalone domain, using the sections above.
  2. Confirm you can add DNS records for it.
  3. Add it in CodeQR: Domains → Add Domain.
  4. Add the record shown, then select Refresh.

Verify it works

Before committing, check that the name is free of conflicting records:

dig +short go.example.com ANY

An empty answer for the subdomain you intend to use means nothing is in the way.

Troubleshooting

The domain I want is taken

Take a subdomain of a domain you already own. It reads as well as a short domain and requires no purchase.

My team already prints one domain and wants another

Both can coexist — a workspace holds several domains. Mark the new one as Primary Domain so new links use it, and keep the old one connected so old codes keep working. See Use more than one domain in your workspace.

Can I use a path instead of a subdomain, like acmestore.com/go

No. CodeQR works at the domain level, and the field rejects a domain containing a slash.

I picked the wrong domain and already shared links

Read Change or remove a domain without losing links before changing anything — renaming a domain breaks every URL already in circulation, and deleting one removes its links entirely.

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