Google Drive is an easy way to share your PDF online via URL. The downside?Google Drive URL is always too long and gibberish - this makes sharing PDF via Google Drive looks unprofessional - sometimes downright scam-like.
To your custom domain name as the main URL for sharing, and redirect it to your Google Drive PDF.
In this article, we look at the benefits of custom domain redirect for your PDF, and how you can set it up easily.
A custom domain, or domain name refers to the domain name you purchase and owned from domain registrar websites like Namecheap.com and Godaddy.com. It could be something like ABC.com, ABC.co.uk, ABC.net etc.
Once you have set up the custom domain redirect for your PDF, the sharing experience will look something like below:
If your PDF file is an important asset (like a well written and researched ebook or paper) that can stand on itself, then it certainly deserves its own branded URL like a custom domain.
There are a few benefits to this:
Before getting started, you need to have your own domain (you can buy at namecheap.com), and a Google Drive account.
It is also recommended to update your PDF metadata and compress your PDF file for better reading experience before you start.
Upload your PDF file to the right folder in your Google Drive.
Click on the "Share" button at top right to access the file sharing setting. Make sure it is set to "Anyone with the link can view". This will ensure anyone - even without signing into their Google account - will be able to access and view your PDF files, just by clicking on the URL.
Log in to your domain name provider dashboard, and go to the DNS settings of your domain name.
The DNS setting is usually located within the domain name details page. If you are not sure where it is, do reach out to your domain provider support for help.
Once you are in the DNS settings page, create a new DNS record with the following details:
If you want to use a sub-domain instead (eg. pdf.abc.com), then you can use the setting below:
Feel free the replace the host record value from "pdf" to something else for your sub-domain.
Now, when you click on your custom domain (or sub-domain), it will immediately redirect you to the Google Drive PDF file.
This means you can now share the PDF easily with your own custom domain or sub-domain; there is no need to copy and paste the long and gibberish Google Drive URL when you share your PDF.
Sharing PDF with your custom domain URL has immense benefits for any business that wants to establish professionalism and be taken seriously.
Even if you are hosting it on your Google Drive, it is fairly simple to set up a custom domain redirect for your PDF file - and requires no coding knowledge.
One potential downside is if you intend to share the PDF openly and hoping for Google to index it on the search result page (SERP), this is no longer possible as of 2024.
Otherwise, Google Drive is great for personal usage, you can also hack together a simple analytics solution with Google Drive and link shortener services like Bitly to monitor PDF performance.