Shrink Long URLs With Google URL Shortener

When you’re adding a link in Twitter, or in an email, you might not want to include a really long URL. In the past, I’ve often used a site like bit.ly or is.gd to create a shortened version of the link, and use that instead of the long link.

Now there’s a Google URL Shortener, that’s built in to your Google account, so I’ve just switched to using that. It’s easy to use, and I can quickly see all my shortened links, and track the clicks.

[Update: 2023-07-02]

• Google URL shortener is no longer available, so now I use BL.INK to create short links, and highly recommend it. I bought a lifetime deal from AppSumo in 2021, and it was a great investment!
• Or, if you don’t create many short links, Bitly has a free version that you can try. I used Bitly for a while, after Google’s shortener shut down, and it worked reliably.

Google Short Link Example

For example, I created a short link for this Contextures Blog post.

• The full link is: blog.contextures.com/archives/2010/11/01/excel-vba-click-shape-to-sort-column/
• The Google shortened link is: goo.gl/fqmr

Create a Shortened URL

To create a shortened link:

• Copy the long link
• If you want to track the click on the shortened link, log in to your Google account
• Go to the Google URL Shortener page, and paste the copied link into the URL box

• Click the Shorten button, to create the shortened URL
• Copy the short URL, and paste it into your tweet or email (or anywhere else you need a link)

Track the Shortened URL Clicks

To see the details on clicks for the shortened links:

• Log in to your Google account, and go to the Google URL Shortener page
• In the list of your shortened URLs, click the Details option for any of the links

• You’ll see the information about the clicks on the selected URL, such as Referrers and Countries.

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