{"id":229,"date":"2010-11-01T22:28:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-02T02:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/"},"modified":"2023-07-02T13:29:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T17:29:28","slug":"shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/","title":{"rendered":"Shrink Long URLs With Google URL Shortener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you&#8217;re adding a link in Twitter, or in an email, you might not want to include a really long URL. In the past, I&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>Now there&#8217;s a Google URL Shortener, that&#8217;s built in to your Google account, so I&#8217;ve just switched to using that. It&#8217;s easy to use, and I can quickly see all my shortened links, and track the clicks.<\/p>\n<p>[<strong>Update: 2023-07-02<\/strong>]<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Google URL shortener is <strong>no longer available<\/strong>, so now I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bl.ink\/features\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">use <strong>BL.INK<\/strong> to create short links<\/a>, and highly recommend it. I bought a lifetime deal from AppSumo in 2021, and it was a great investment!<\/li>\n<li>Or, if you don&#8217;t create many short links, <a href=\"https:\/\/bitly.com\/pages\/pricing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bitly has a free version<\/a> that you can try. I used Bitly for a while, after Google&#8217;s shortener shut down, and it worked reliably.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Google Short Link Example<\/h3>\n<p>For example, I created a short link for this Contextures Blog post.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The full link is: <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.contextures.com\/archives\/2010\/11\/01\/excel-vba-click-shape-to-sort-column\/\">blog.contextures.com\/archives\/2010\/11\/01\/excel-vba-click-shape-to-sort-column\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>The Google shortened link is: goo.gl\/fqmr<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Create a Shortened URL<\/h3>\n<p>To create a shortened link:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Copy the long link<\/li>\n<li>If you want to track the click on the shortened link, log in to your Google account<\/li>\n<li>Go to the Google URL Shortener page, and paste the copied link into the URL box<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline; border: 0px;\" title=\"googleurl00\" src=\"http:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/googleurl00.png\" alt=\"googleurl00\" width=\"402\" height=\"147\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Click the Shorten button, to create the shortened URL<\/li>\n<li>Copy the short URL, and paste it into your tweet or email (or anywhere else you need a link)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline; border: 0px;\" title=\"googleurl01\" src=\"http:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/googleurl01.png\" alt=\"googleurl01\" width=\"299\" height=\"100\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Track the Shortened URL Clicks<\/h3>\n<p>To see the details on clicks for the shortened links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Log in to your Google account, and go to the Google URL Shortener page<\/li>\n<li>In the list of your shortened URLs, click the Details option for any of the links<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline; border: 0px;\" title=\"googleurl03\" src=\"http:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/googleurl03.png\" alt=\"googleurl03\" width=\"298\" height=\"134\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You&#8217;ll see the information about the clicks on the selected URL, such as Referrers and Countries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/googleurl02.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline; border: 0px;\" title=\"googleurl02\" src=\"http:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/googleurl02_thumb.png\" alt=\"googleurl02\" width=\"402\" height=\"345\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>____________<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c  no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you&#8217;re adding a link in Twitter, or in an email, you might not want to include a really long URL. In the past, I&#8217;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&#8217;s a Google URL Shortener, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Shrink Long URLs With Google URL Shortener&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-tips","category-excel-consulting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Shrink Long URLs With Google URL Shortener - Debra D&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shrink Long URLs With Google URL Shortener - Debra D&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When you&#8217;re adding a link in Twitter, or in an email, you might not want to include a really long URL. 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Now there&#8217;s a Google URL Shortener, &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Shrink Long URLs With Google URL Shortener&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Debra D&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-02T02:28:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-02T17:29:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/googleurl02_thumb.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"402\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"345\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Debra Dalgleish\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Debra Dalgleish\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Debra Dalgleish\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/fc3f038bcaeda478f9c5c06cfe648735\"},\"headline\":\"Shrink Long URLs With Google URL Shortener\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-11-02T02:28:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-02T17:29:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/\"},\"wordCount\":343,\"commentCount\":4,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/googleurl02_thumb.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Computer tips\",\"Excel Consulting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/debradalgleish.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/shrink-long-urls-with-google-url-shortener\/\",\"name\":\"Shrink Long URLs With Google URL Shortener - 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