Apply Domain lets you map a custom domain or subdomain to your Zoho Desk customer portal so customers see your brand URL instead of a Zoho-hosted address. This creates a consistent, branded support entry point and requires verifying DNS records at your domain host.
What is it
Apply Domain in Zoho Desk maps a custom domain or subdomain to a Desk portal so the portal and its knowledge base load under your URL rather than a zoho.com path. The feature includes steps to verify ownership (TXT/CNAME or file upload) and configure DNS entries so SSL and routing work correctly. Once mapped, portal pages, help articles, and public ticket submission forms appear under your brand domain, improving trust and SEO.
When to use it
- You want customers to access the support portal at help.yourcompany.com instead of a Zoho URL for consistent branding and trust building [1].
- Your legal or security policy requires all external services to run under company-owned domains before publishing links or embedding help pages [4].
- You need better SEO for your knowledge base articles by hosting them on a domain you control, improving organic search discovery [5].
- You plan to use single sign-on or domain-based user verification and want portal URLs to align with your company domain and identity provider settings [2].
- You manage multiple portals and want each portal to use a separate subdomain for clear routing and reporting (example: eu-help.example.com and us-help.example.com) [1].
How to access it
Open Setup and go to the Portals or Portal Settings area of Zoho Desk, select the portal you want to customize, and choose the domain or custom domain option (often labeled Apply Domain, Custom Domain, or Domain Mapping). Follow the on-screen wizard to add the domain, verify ownership (TXT/CNAME or HTML file), and receive the DNS records to add at your domain host. See domain verification and portal mapping guidance for exact DNS record types and verification steps [1][4].
Related features
- Portal Themes and Customization — change layout, logo, and CSS for the mapped portal.
- Knowledge Base SEO Tags — optimize help articles for search engines after domain mapping [5].
- Domain Management in Zoho Directory — add and verify domains organization-wide for mailboxes and user provisioning [4].
- Single Sign-On and Identity Providers — tie portal access to SSO rules that assume the portal runs on your domain [2].