How to Set Up Bitly Branded for Your Custom Domain in 12 Mintues or Less

Scott on Technology is a website following web design, security, programming and engineering. Covering tech news, correcting misinformation, and explaining how you can do the same.

This Instructable follows how we created our custom sot.bz URL shortener and how you can do the same for your custom domain.

Step 1: Create a Bitly Account

Sign up: https://bitly.com/a/sign_up or sign in: https://bitly.com/a/sign_in

Step 2: Verify Your Email Address

This is required and only takes a few seconds

Step 3: Go to Settings > Advanced

https://bitly.com/a/settings/advanced

Step 4: Click “Activate a Branded Short Domain”

Step 5: Enter Your Domain and Click “Add”

Step 6: Change Your Domain’s DNS a (or Cname) Record to the Value Listed.

Step 7: Wait a Bit

Step 8: Click “Verify”

Step 9: Redirect Your Root

Return to Settings > Advanced (https://bitly.com/a/settings/advanced)

Under "Branded Short Domain Root Redirect"

Enter the destination where you'd like visitors directed when they visit your custom short domain directly and click "Set Redirect URL"

We redirected http://sot.bz to https://scottontechnology.com

Step 10: Create a Short Link

Paste a link you'd like to shorten in the box at the top of the page

Step 11: Test

We created a short link for the article "By the numbers: In the Future, Employees Won’t Exist" which has a long URL of: https://scottontechnology.com/by-the-numbers-in-th...

The short URL: sot.bz/1TkG6LP works!

Step 12: Enjoy

Congratulations! Your URL shortener is now ready for action.

If you found this helpful give us a shout out and we'll return the favor.

This guide originally appeared on SOT. Adapted from scottontechnology.com "Set up Bitly branded in 12 mintues or less" licensed under CC-BY-3.0.