How to Put a Landing Page on Your Own Custom Domain (With Free SSL)

Putting a landing page on your own custom domain takes one DNS record: a CNAME pointing your subdomain at gatedleads.com. Once it's saved and has propagated, the HTTPS certificate is issued automatically the first time someone visits, no separate SSL purchase or manual certificate install required.

What you need

A custom domain is a Pro plan feature, and you need a domain you already own (or a subdomain of one) from any registrar or DNS provider, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, or otherwise. You don't need any technical setup beyond adding one DNS record.

Step by step

1. In your Gatedleads dashboard, open the domain settings for the page you want to move to your own domain and enter the domain, for example guide.yourcompany.com.
2. Sign in to your domain provider and open its DNS settings.
3. Add one new record with these exact values:

Type   CNAME
Name   guide          (whatever subdomain you're using, not the whole domain)
Value  gatedleads.com
TTL    Automatic (or leave the provider's default)

4. Save the record, then use the "check status" option in your dashboard to confirm it's connected.

New DNS records usually take effect within minutes, but can take up to an hour depending on your provider, this is normal DNS propagation and not specific to Gatedleads.

The root domain caveat

If you're trying to use your bare root domain (yourcompany.com rather than a subdomain like guide.yourcompany.com), most DNS providers won't allow a CNAME record directly on the root. The straightforward fix is to use a subdomain instead, go.yourcompany.com or guide.yourcompany.com work identically and avoid the restriction entirely. If you specifically need the bare root domain, check whether your provider offers an ALIAS or ANAME record, which some providers support as a root-compatible equivalent to a CNAME.

How the SSL certificate works

There's no separate step for HTTPS. Once your CNAME record is live and pointing at gatedleads.com, the certificate for your domain is issued automatically the first time the page is visited, and every visit after that loads over HTTPS with a valid padlock. You don't buy a certificate, generate a CSR, or install anything, it's handled the moment DNS resolves correctly.

Checking on status

Your dashboard shows one of three states for a connected domain: pending (DNS hasn't propagated yet, or hasn't been checked recently), misconfigured (the record doesn't match what's expected, worth double-checking the Type, Name, and Value against what your dashboard shows), or connected, meaning the domain is live and serving your page over HTTPS.

Why bother with a custom domain at all

A free gatedleads.com address works fine for testing an idea or for a lead magnet you're not attaching to a broader brand. A custom domain matters more once you're sharing the link in places where your own domain builds trust, an email signature, a paid ad, a partner's newsletter, since a link on your own domain reads as more legitimate than a third-party subdomain, and it keeps the page consistent with the rest of your brand presence. This becomes more important the more traffic and spend you're putting behind a specific page, which is also when testing your headline starts to pay for itself.

If you're launching a pre-launch waitlist or an early lead magnet for a new product, setting this up from day one means you're not migrating links later once the domain matters more.

FAQ

Do I need a different domain for every page, or can I reuse one?

You can use subdomains of the same root domain for different pages (guide.yourcompany.com, checklist.yourcompany.com), each pointed at its own page with its own CNAME record.

What happens if I remove the custom domain later?

The page continues to work at its free gatedleads.com address. Removing a custom domain doesn't delete the page or its content, it just stops serving it at that domain.

Is a custom domain available on the free plan?

No, custom domains are a Pro plan feature, along with unlimited pages, Zapier and webhooks, and A/B headline testing. See the full plan comparison.

My status says "misconfigured," what usually causes that?

Most often it's a typo in the record's Name or Value, an extra or missing subdomain label, or a leftover conflicting record at the same name from a previous setup. Double-check the exact values against what your dashboard shows and remove any old records at that same name.

Ready to move a page onto your own domain? Upgrade to Pro and connect it in a few minutes.