one name, many destinations
How the redirect works, what happens to the query string, and how path rules turn a subdomain into a set of short links you can measure.
The simplest thing a name here does is send visitors somewhere else. That is one line of setup. What surrounds it, query strings, paths and dead targets, is what decides whether the link survives contact with the real world.
what the redirect actually does
The root of your name answers with a 301, a permanent redirect, to the URL you set. Browsers and search engines both read that as the canonical move: the destination gets the traffic and, over time, the credit.
The query string travels with it. A visitor who lands on yourname.does.software/?ref=poster arrives at your destination with ?ref=poster still attached, so the analytics you already have keep working and campaign tags are not eaten in the middle.
path rules
Beyond the root you can map individual paths to their own destinations. Rules are exact matches: no wildcards and no prefix matching, so a rule for /cv covers /cv and nothing under it.
- Open your subdomain and go to the redirect section.
- Add a rule: the path on the left, starting with a slash, and the full destination URL on the right.
- Save. A change takes up to thirty seconds to reach every server, because resolutions are cached.
/cv -> https://example.com/files/cv.pdf /talk -> https://youtu.be/xxxxxxxxxxx /book -> https://cal.com/you/30min / -> https://example.com (the root, set separately)
a path with no rule
A path you never mapped does not fall through to the destination, and it does not return a bare 404 from a web server. It lands on a page that says the name exists but that address does not, with a link back to claim a name of your own.
That is a deliberate trade. A wildcard that forwarded /anything to destination/anything would be convenient right up to the day the destination reorganises its URLs and every link you printed points at its error page.
The same page covers two other states. If the name only does email, a browser visit says so instead of failing silently. And if our daily prober finds the destination dead, visitors are told rather than sent into a hole, and you get an email about it.
short links you can measure
Path rules are a short-link service you control, on a name people can read out loud. Put yourname.does.software/talk on a slide instead of a thirty-character video URL, and you can change where it points afterwards, which is the part a printed link cannot do.
Every hit is counted. On any plan you see the totals and the last thirty days. Pro adds the breakdown: browser, operating system and device, hour of the day, which site referred the visit, which of your paths got used, and the campaign tags that came in on the query string.
the limits
Path rules per subdomain go with the plan: five on the free plan, ten on Starter, thirty on Pro. The root destination is set separately and does not count against that.
If you switch the name over to serving a static site, the root redirect and every path rule stop serving while the site is on. They are not deleted, and turning the site off brings them straight back.
One name, a 301 that keeps your query string, and a handful of exact paths you can repoint later. If you need a path to match everything underneath it, this is not the tool.