Have you ever wanted to share a link, but it was longer than an essay? URL Shorteners is a service that will create a new short link for you that points to a long URL. Then you can share the link with whoever you want, without having to worry about it interfering with your posts, email messages, or tweets. See Step 1 below to learn how.
Step
Step 1. Copy the URL you want to shorten
You can shorten any URL, no matter how long and complex it is. Just highlight the URL in the address bar and copy it to the clipboard by pressing Ctrl + C (Command + C for Mac).
Step 2. Visit a URL shortener service
URL shortener provides shortened URLs for very long addresses. Because they are shortened, these URLs usually hide their destination. There are a wide variety of free URL shortening services available.
- Bitly (bit.ly)
- Google URL Shortener (goo.gl)
- TinyURL (tinyurl)
- X.co
Step 3. Decide if you want a premium shortening service or not
Services like Bitly allow you to track your shortened URLs to see how many clicks they are getting. This can be very useful for social network marketers and bloggers. These services usually charge a fee.
Step 4. Paste the URL into the URL shortener field
Place the cursor in the text field on the URL shortener site and paste the URL you copied. You can paste it by pressing Ctrl + V (Command + V for Mac).
Some services like TinyURL allow you to create preview URLs. It's a bit longer but allows the reader to preview the content of the site before clicking on the URL. This helps reduce some of the trust issues when you use shortened and hidden URLs
Step 5. Press the "Shorten" button
While each site is a little different, they all have a button next to the URL field to create a shortened URL. You will be taken to a page containing the new shortened URL, or the URL will be displayed on the same page below the box.
Step 6. Share the link
Now that you have a short URL, you can share it with anyone you want. The beauty of short URLs is that they can fit into tweets and text messages with minimal effort.
Warning
- This obfuscates the URL. Some services will allow users to view the URL.
- Some URL shorteners prohibit affiliate links and spam.
