Redirects and short links on your own subdomain
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 does here is send the visitor somewhere else, and that's one line of setup. What surrounds it, query strings, paths and dead destinations, is what decides whether the link survives the real world.
What the redirect actually does
The root of your name answers with a 301, a permanent redirect, to the URL you've set. Browsers and search engines read that as the definitive move, the destination takes the traffic and, over time, the credit.
The query string travels with it. Anyone landing on yourname.does.software/?ref=poster will reach your destination with ?ref=poster still attached, so the analytics you already have will keep working and campaign tags aren't lost on the way.
Path rules
Beyond the root you can send specific paths to their own destination. The rules are exact matches, there are no wildcards and no prefix matching, so a rule for /cv covers /cv and nothing hanging off 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 will take up to thirty seconds to reach every server, because the 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 won't fall through to the destination, and it won't return a bare web server 404 either. It will land on a page that says the name exists but that address doesn't, with a link to claim a name of your own.
It's a deliberate trade. A wildcard that forwarded /anything to destination/anything would be handy 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 mail, a visit from the browser will say so instead of failing silently. And if our daily probe finds the destination dead, the visitor will be warned instead of sent into a hole, and you'll get an email.
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'll be able to change where it points later, which is what a printed link can't do.
Every visit is counted. On any plan you'll see the totals and the last thirty days. Pro adds the breakdown, browser, operating system and device, hour of the day, which site sent the visit, which of your paths was used and the campaign tags that arrived in the query string.
The limits
The path rules on each subdomain go with the plan, two on the free plan, five during the trial, ten on the Starter plan and thirty on the Pro plan. The root destination is set apart and doesn't count towards that limit.
If you switch the name to serving a static site, the root redirect and every path rule will stop serving while the site is on. They aren't deleted, and turning the site off will bring 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 hanging off it, this isn't the tool.