# Your own tracking address

> Load the Datacenter tag from a subdomain of your own site, like stats.yourdomain.com, with one DNS record. No proxy or code to run.

Source: https://datacenter.so/docs/own-tracking-address
Section: Start here

Your tag can load from your own domain: `stats.yourdomain.com` instead of `datacenter.so`. You add one DNS record. Datacenter does the rest: the HTTPS certificate, serving the tag and taking its events.

What it gets back, honestly: visitors whose blocker looks for Datacenter's address now count. Blockers that follow the DNS record to Datacenter, such as uBlock Origin in Firefox, can still stop it. Nobody can say how many visits that is for your site, so we do not guess.

It is on paid plans: Solo, Studio, Agency and Custom. It is the easy version of the [script proxy](https://datacenter.so/docs/script-proxy): nothing to host, and the visitor's real address and country come through without a token.

## Step 1: add the address in Datacenter

1. Open the site, then **Settings**.
2. Under **Your own tracking address**, keep `stats.yourdomain.com` or type another subdomain of your site.
3. Choose **Set up**. Datacenter shows the record to add.

Pick a name you do not use for anything else. It cannot be your site itself or `www`.

## Step 2: add one CNAME record

| Type | Name | Target |
|---|---|---|
| CNAME | `stats` | `go.datacenter.so` |

Some DNS hosts want the full name, `stats.yourdomain.com`, instead of `stats`. Some call the target **Value**, **Points to** or **Content**. Datacenter shows the steps for your DNS host when it can tell which one you use.

### On Cloudflare

Set **Proxy status** to **DNS only**, the gray cloud. With the orange cloud, Cloudflare answers for the name itself and the tag never reaches Datacenter. If your record is orange, Datacenter tells you which record to click. Nothing else on your site changes.

### The name already points somewhere

If `stats.yourdomain.com` already points to another service, Datacenter shows where. Changing the record moves the name off that service. If something still lives there, remove the address in Datacenter and pick a new name.

## Step 3: wait for Active

Datacenter checks the record when you press **Check now**, when you open Settings and every 15 minutes. Once the record is right, the HTTPS certificate usually takes a few minutes.

## Step 4: paste the new tag, once

When the address is **Active**, the tag in Settings changes by itself:

```html
<script defer data-site="yourdomain.com" data-api="https://stats.yourdomain.com/js/u" src="https://stats.yourdomain.com/js/app.js"></script>
```

Paste it over the old tag in the `<head>` of every page. Until you do, the old tag keeps counting as before. The same tag works with Private mode and 90-day tracking, so switching modes later needs no new tag. Settings says **In use** once visits arrive through it.

## What the address serves

- `/js/app.js`: your site's tag, the same as the standard one.
- `/js/u`: your site's events, for this site only.
- `/`: sends visitors to your site.
- Short links, only if you choose **Use it for short links too**. That uses one of your custom short domains.
- Everything else: not found.

Nothing changes for privacy. The address sets no cookies. With 90-day tracking the tag keeps its first-party id on your own domain, as before, and the same bot filtering and limits apply.

It does not make the id last longer in Safari. Safari treats a subdomain that points to another company's server as that company's, and caps any cookie it sets at 7 days ([WebKit](https://webkit.org/blog/11338/cname-cloaking-and-bounce-tracking-defense/)), the same cap as a cookie set by a script.

## Remove it

Choose **Remove** next to the address. Put the standard tag back on your site first, because a tag that loads from the address stops counting. If short links use the address, archive them first.