Cerkl Broadcast uses Sendgrid as the default email sender for all organizations. All the clickable and tracked links in emails are converted to Sendgrid URLs to allow for click tracking and reporting.

By default, link URLs sent in Blasts or News Digests will look similar to 'https://url123456.sendgrid.net/ls/click...'. These URLs already support SSL requirement with HTTPS as they use Sendgrid's SSL certificate and they are unique for your instance.

Link Branding is an option we offer that can be configured to utilize a domain of your choice. Because these utilize your domains, Link Branded URLs utilize HTTP by default. These URLs will look similar to 'http://comms.yourdomain.com/ls/click...'

To allow your domain to be used for Link Branding, a Host Domain and CNAME records will be provided to your team to add to your domain's DNS.

This is all that's required for basic HTTPS Link Branding.

After this step is completed, notify your Cerkl Team to verify. Then we can move forward with the next steps of setting up SSL Certificate association for your domain.

For organizations that want their branded links supporting modern browser security standards, or are part of a company that require SSL Certification (Support for Links that begin with HTTPS://), Sendgrid requires either a CDN or Proxy Server to host an SSL certificate for your domain.

First, you must set up SSL for your domain, as you would for other domains. Then, forward all the requests coming to your domain to sendgrid.net. You can forward the request using your own CDN or Proxy Server.

Sendgrid has provided instructions on setting up SSL Hosting using a few CDNs on their website here: Content Delivery Networks

If you are using a Proxy Server, these steps may be unique for each web host/server configuration.

To add a custom SSL configuration:

Important: To forward traffic from an inbound email, you will need to set the Proxy Server's Host HTTP Header with your link branded domain.

While setting up SSL, you will edit the CNAME record for comms.yourdomain.com and point that to your CDN or Proxy Server.

To check that your forwarding and proxy setup is correct, run a dig command in the terminal to check that the first CNAME resolves at your CDN and not sendgrid.net.

To Test, from your instance, create any Blast with at least one link included. Simply click Send Sample and send to yourself or your team.

Right-click on the link received in your email to Copy the Link URL, Then in a new web browser window, paste the URL. At the start of the URL, change HTTP to HTTPS, and press Enter.
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If Successful, the link will forward as expected.

If Failed, please review with your Cerkl Team.

If you are using CDN, Some CDNs automatically put the Host Header from the original request; in that case, you need not take any action to add this header additionally. In Azure CDN, you must configure this by putting lurl.example.com in the Origin host header while configuring your CDN.

If you use a proxy, you must explicitly set this Host header to lurl.example.com, as mentioned in the setup instructions.

If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at support@cerkl.com or use the support Chat toward the bottom right-hand corner of any cerkl.com page.