AI MediaBoost Custom Domain: what it is and how to activate it – THRON Guide

If you deliver your Digital Assets from the standard thron.com domain, you are publishing images, videos, and documents on a domain that search engines associate with THRON rather than your brand. With a Custom Domain, the same assets are served from your own subdomain, such as assets.yourdomain.com, and the SEO value they generate stays on your domain.

Custom Domain is available on all AI MediaBoost plans, regardless of the specific plan included in your contract. For your team, the required effort is minimal: a DNS record and an activation request.

Custom Domain: what changes in delivery

Only the delivery URL host changes: the rest of the path, the pKey, and query parameters remain identical.

URL with the THRON domain:

https://<clientId>-cdn.thron.com/api/v1/content-delivery/shares/<pkey>/contents/<id>/image/<dynamicSeoSuffix>

URL with your Custom Domain:

https://assets.yourdomain.com/api/v1/content-delivery/shares/<pkey>/contents/<id>/image/<dynamicSeoSuffix>

Warning: Custom Domain only works with Content Delivery APIs. It is not supported on legacy public APIs: if you still deliver using those, complete the migration first.

The benefits: SEO, brand consistency, and confidentiality

Better indexing: web crawlers penalize resources hosted on domains inconsistent with the main website's domain.
Domain consistency: links, images, and assets appear to belong to your brand in the eyes of search engines.
Domain trust: consolidating traffic and backlinks on a single domain strengthens overall SEO authority.
Vendor confidentiality: the THRON domain never appears in URLs, which is useful when you prefer not to disclose your underlying technology stack.
Brand consistency: professional URLs that align with your brand identity, even across shared links.

If you manage multiple brands, you can activate multiple Custom Domains in parallel and assign each brand its own delivery subdomain.

Domain requirements: what to prepare beforehand

Before requesting activation, verify that each domain you intend to use meets these four conditions.

Requirement	Detail
Domain ownership	You must already own the domain or domains you want to activate.
Domain level	It must be a third-level domain, for example `assets.yourdomain.com`, not `yourdomain.com`.
Dedicated domain	The subdomain must not already be in use for anything else.
DNS record	For each domain, you must create a CNAME record pointing to `<clientId>-cdn.thron.com`.

Warning: do not use a subdomain already active for other services. All requests to that subdomain would route through THRON, and the site hosted at that address would no longer render properly.

The activation process

Activation is a joint process: you prepare the domain, and THRON issues certificates and enables configuration.

Verify the four requirements in the table above for each domain you want to activate.
Request activation from your THRON account manager, specifying the exact number and names of the domains.
Create the CNAME record on your DNS. You can do this in parallel with the request, but having it configured in advance is preferred: it is needed to run tests once domains are activated.
THRON activates the required certificates and runs internal tests.
Run tests on your side on the activated domains, as requested upon completion of internal testing.
Once tests pass, configuration is complete and you can start using your Custom Domain.

Warning: activation involves manual steps with technical timelines that cannot be entirely predicted. Request it well ahead of your channel's go-live date.

Where you use Custom Domain in the platform

Once the feature is enabled, you will find Custom Domain in three locations.

Domain management: your domain list

Open Platform settings, then Delivery, and finally Domain management, under the AI MediaBoost section. The page is read-only and displays two blocks: Default domain, with the sample URL served by the THRON domain, and Custom domains, featuring a card for each Custom Domain with its status and the sample URL from which to obtain CNAME parameters.

To add a domain, use the Contact support button or email support@thron.com.

Domain management page with the default THRON domain and two active custom domains

URL creation: choose the domain for an individual asset

When you create a URL share for an asset, the URL Creation panel displays the Domain field, described in the platform as the CNAME appearing in the delivery URL. The dropdown lists THRON, the default domain, and your active Custom Domains. Select the domain, then click Update and generate URL.

URL Creation panel with the Domain field opened showing the choice between THRON and a custom domain

Activate sharing: choose the domain for a folder

When creating a folder pKey from THRON Custom Application Manager, the Activate sharing modal displays the Custom Domain field, with the same dropdown menu. Select the domain along with the Player Template and share type, then click Save.

Activate sharing modal with the Custom Domain field opened for domain selection

Note: permissions cannot be assigned per individual Custom Domain. Once activated, the domain is available to all users with asset sharing permissions.

Previously published links: what to do with existing pKeys

Each share is associated with one or more domains—by default the THRON domain—for security reasons and to maintain control over asset delivery.

pKeys generated before Custom Domain activation, whether for a single asset or a folder, do not automatically inherit the new domain: they require manual association. Compile the list of pKeys already in use on your channels and ask your THRON account manager to associate them with the new domain.

Recommended configuration

Follow the steps in this order to reach go-live smoothly.

Complete migration to Content Delivery APIs if you still deliver using public APIs.
Choose a dedicated delivery subdomain not used for anything else, and create its CNAME record.
Request activation in advance of go-live, specifying all domains in a single request if you plan to use more than one.
Request association of existing pKeys with the new domain at the same time.
Update URLs across your channels with the new host only after testing is successful.

## Additional articles
- AI MediaBoost: migrate to Content Delivery APIs without losing SEO value
- The pKey: what it is and how to manage it
- Integrate THRON into an external channel: developer guide
- Embed a Digital Asset into an external website or web page

Need help?

For technical issues, contact support@thron.com.

Channel Activation