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How to Apply a Custom (Vanity) URL
  • Updated

A vanity URL is a custom URL that redirects to the SurveyMonkey Apply web address of your site. This article covers how to apply a vanity URL to an SM Apply site to make your site URL easy to remember and share.

Adding a Custom URL is only available for Enterprise clients.

In this Article…

 

Why Use a Vanity URL

A vanity URL acts as a mask and will remove the smapply domain from your sites web address. Preferably a vanity URL is short, easy to remember, and allows you to keep your brand consistent. A vanity URL must be purchased from a domain registrar.

In most cases, you will want to contact your IT department to handle the configuration required for associating your vanity URL to your domain name as updates to DNS settings are required.

 

Applying Your Vanity URL

Using a vanity URL will require some changes to your DNS settings in order for your browser to match the new URL with your SM Apply site. This process will vary depending on the domain registrar you are using, but most registrars will have extensive documentation on their unique process.

Generally, these steps consist of:

  1. Choosing a vanity URL name.
  2. Accessing the DNS settings of your domain.
  3. Adding a CNAME that points to smapply.io.

NOTE: The DNS configuration must have a CNAME pointing to your SM Apply site URL (example: <yoursite>.smapply.io) for the domain to direct your users successfully. Please note that most registrars do not allow CNAME records on the root domain, so you will need to use a subdomain in order to configure this correctly. The use of a root domain with an apex record pointing to an Apply IP address is not supported and will result in users being unable to access your site when IP address changes occur.

WARNING! It can take up to 48 hours for these changes to propagate which will force you to wait before adding your vanity URL to SM Apply.

 

Applying Your Vanity URL in SM Apply

 

  1. In your site go to Settings
  2. Click on General
  3. Under the Site Details section, click the Add Custom Domain button.
  4. Enter your custom domain
  5. Select Save

If the CNAME has not been added successfully or has not yet been recognized the error message “your domain is not a valid domain” will be displayed after selecting save.

NOTE: Once you have added your custom domain you will have the ability to add additional custom domains, if necessary.

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