Content-based domain name enconding, encryption, and routing system

System and methods are provided for encoding and encrypting DNS labels with content metadata and client metadata. A client computing device transmits a DNS query for the encoded domain name. A DNS server receives the encoded domain name and decrypts and decodes the domain name label. The DNS server uses the decrypted and decoded client and content metadata to make a routing decision to select a particular point of presence (PoP). The DNS server sends, to the client computing device, a DNS reply with the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the selected PoP. The client computing device requests content from the PoP identified by the provided IP address.