Why put your QR codes on your own domain

Every dynamic QR code has a short address inside it. With most services, that address is on the service’s own domain, like gtdqr.com/abc2345 on ours. You print it on ten thousand boxes, and the address on every one of them belongs to someone else.

Putting the codes on your own domain, as in qr.yourbrand.com/menu, changes three things.

You can leave without reprinting

If the service raises its prices, closes or stops suiting you, codes on its domain stay with it. Codes on your domain don’t. You point qr.yourbrand.com at another service, or at a simple copy of your redirects, and the printed codes follow. The service becomes replaceable, which is how it should be for something you paid to print.

Someone else’s scam can’t get your codes blocked

Short links are a favorite tool of scammers. When a shared short domain gets used for phishing, browser safety lists can flag the whole domain, and then every code on it opens a red warning page, including the ones on menus and packaging that did nothing wrong. A code on your own domain is judged on its own record.

People can see it’s yours

Many phones show the address before opening it. qr.yourbrand.com/menu looks like it came from you. A random short domain looks like every other link, and some people won’t tap it.

How the setup works

You don’t move your website or your email. You create one subdomain, usually qr, by adding one DNS record wherever your domain is managed, at your registrar or DNS host:

Type    Name    Points to
CNAME   qr      (the address your QR service gives you)

The service then gets a security certificate for the subdomain and starts answering for it. That usually takes minutes, sometimes a few hours while the record spreads. Your website and email carry on as before.

Two things to keep in mind:

• Use a subdomain, not the main domain. yourbrand.com should keep pointing at your website.
• Keep the domain renewed. A code on your domain works for as long as you own the domain. If it lapses, someone else can register it and decide where your printed codes go.

Three questions for any QR service

1. Can my codes use my own domain, and is that included or extra?
2. If I stop paying, what happens to my codes?
3. Can I export my codes and destinations in a form I can host myself?

Our answers at Guaranteed QR: yes, included from the Pro pack; nothing, because you pay once; and yes, as a ready-to-host exit kit we email you every month.