Shorten a URL
Have you ever wanted to share a link, only to find that the URL is longer than an essay? URL Shorteners are services that will create a new short link for you that directs to that long URL. You can then share that link with anyone you want, without having to worry about clogging up your post, email message, or tweet. See Step 1 below to learn how.
Steps
- Copy the URL you want to shorten. You can shorten any URL, regardless of its length and complexity. Simply highlight the URL in your address bar and copy it to the clipboard by pressing Ctrl + C (Command + C for Mac).
- Visit a URL shortener service. URL Shorteners provide abbreviated URLs for extra-long addresses. These URLs typically hide the destination due to shortening. There are a wide variety of free URL shortening services available.
- Bitly (bit.ly)
- Google URL Shortener (goo.gl)
- TinyURL (tinyurl)
- X.co
- Decide if you want premium shortening services. Services such as Bitly allow you to track your shortened URLs to see how many clicks they get. This can be especially useful for social network marketers and bloggers. These services typically have a fee.
- Paste the URL into the shortener field. Place the cursor in the text field on the shortener’s website and paste the copied URL. You can paste by pressing Ctrl + V (Command + V for Macs).
- Some services such as TinyURL allow you to create preview URLs. These are slightly longer but allow viewers to preview what the site is before clicking it. This helps alleviate some of the trust issues with using shortened, hidden URLs.
- Press the “Shorten” button. While every site will be laid out a little differently, they all have a button next to the URL field to create the shortened URL. You will be taken to a page with your new shortened URL, or it will be displayed on the same page below the box.
- Share the link. Now that you have a short URL, you can share it with whomever you’d like. The beauty of a short URL is that it can fit into tweets and text messages with little effort.
Warnings
- This obscures the URL. Some services will allow users to see the URL.
- Some URL shorteners prohibit affiliate links and spam.
