When you have a custom domain in Bitly, be sure to set up landing pages for your custom domain and URL errors. This prevents visitors from seeing an error page if there's a problem with the link they enter.
The Root Domain URL is the address a visitor will be directed to if they enter only your custom domain.
Let's say you have a music business and you add the custom domain erigby.com to your Bitly account to shorten links, but your website domain is erigbymusicstars.com. If a visitor enters only the erigby.com in their address bar, you can add your website domain as the Root Domain URL.
The Invalid Address URL works the same way and is used when someone enters a valid domain, but makes a mistake with the rest of the web address (the back-half).
So if the only short link your music business has created is erigby.com/ricedream, and someone enters erigby.com/peopledream, this would normally trigger an error page. Instead it will go to the website address you enter in this field.
To set up a root or 404 redirect:
- Sign in to Bitly and click the settings menu.
- Make sure you have the correct group selected, and click Account Settings
- Click Custom Domains.
- Click a domain name.
- Enter the full addresses where you would like visitors to be directed for the Root Domain URL and Invalid Address URL. It's fine if this is the same URL.
- Click Save.
Now your account is set up to redirect to your landing pages.
Keep these things in mind as you choose and set up a custom domain:
- The domain for your short links must be different than your website domain.
- It can't be more than 32 characters long, including the dot.
- If you haven't added one yet, Bitly offers a complimentary domain. However, if you add your own domain, you won't be able to redeem this offer later.