What is a Tracking Domain?

← Tips and Tricks for Advanced Users
The Tracking Domain is the "long domain," owned and controlled by you, for which we will report all click traffic from all bitly users. All click traffic on your tracking domain, including clicks on links that were created by other bitly users, will appear in your dashboard. For example, the tracking domain for The New York Times is "nytimes.com", and the tracking domain for Tech Crunch is "techcrunch.com". You can set up and verify your tracking domain from within your bitly account settings, under the 'advanced' tab here.

IMPORTANT: The tracking domain cannot be the same as your custom short domain

ALSO IMPORTANT: You must have FTP access to your tracking domain. Some sites, for example wordpress.com, allow you to purchase a domain but they do not give FTP access to users.

Once you select a tracking domain, you will need to verify that you own the domain. You can demonstrate ownership of your domain by choosing any one of the following:*
  • Add an HTML tag to your web site's home page
  • Upload an HTML file to your web site
  • Make a DNS change

*Note: This information is explained in further detail on your Advanced Settings Page once you select a tracking domain.

After your tracking domain is set up you will be able to see stats for the tracking domain on your Stats Page. Just change the dropdown menu above your stats bar graph to your tracking domain chart.


Tips and Tricks for Advanced Users

  1. What’s a custom short domain and why do I want one?
  2. How do I set up a custom short domain?
  3. Can I have more than one custom short domain in my account?
  4. What is a Tracking Domain?
  5. How do I make a QR code?
  6. How do I resize a QR code?

Feedback and Knowledge Base

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