How to Create Free Short Links to Use on Squarespace

Jan 21

There are many reasons you might want to shorten the links (URLs) that you share with your audience:

Short links are easier to remember and use
Branded short links, using your business domain, make your links more personalized
You can update the final destination of a short link and it will still work wherever you have shared it
You can track analytics on short link clicks
Some social media platforms have character limits for the links you share

Short links are great for sharing affiliate links, lead magnets, popular content, or any external links on your website to track how many visitor clicks they get.

What Does it Mean to “Shorten a Link”?

When you “shorten a link” you:

Decide on a short placeholder link that is not connected to anything on its own
Set up a re-direct that tells the internet where to send people when they use that short, placeholder URL

For example, I have a short link shannah.link/genie which re-directs to this very long affiliate link https://www.will-myers.com/products/p/affiliate-link-genie?peachs_apc=shannah-albert (Full disclosure, these are affiliate links so I get a small commission if you use them and purchase something on the other end.)

How Do You Create Short Links?

If you have a Squarespace website, you can use Squarespace’s built in URL mapping to create free short links. (I expect all website platforms have some kind of internal URL mapping, but we are focused on Squarespace here.)

There are also URL shortening services (e.g. Dub, Rebrandly, Bitly, TinyURL) that you can use regardless of your website platform. The main benefit of a URL shortener is the ability to track analytics on your links, which you can’t do with Squarespace’s URL mapping.

Let’s compare Squarespace’s Built in URL mapping and some URL shortening apps, so you can decide which tool is best for your short links.

Option 1: Create Short Links with Squarespace URL Mapping

Squarespace’s URL mapping is included with your website and is pretty easy to set up. When you use Squarespace to create short links, all of your short links will use your website domain (eg. shannahalbert.com/genie)

Here is how you do it:

Decide on a unique “slug” for your short link that will go after your domain. Use one or two short words with no spaces. (e.g. genie, seospace)
In Squarespace go to Settings > Developer Tools > URL Mappings
Enter your URL mapping on it’s own line using this format

/slug -> longURL 301

For example:

/seospace -> https://www.seospace.co/?via=shannah 301
Click SAVE to save the update

You don’t put your website domain in the URL mapping, just the slug. But when you use your short link, you need to include your whole website domain. The short link I would use in this example is shannahalbert.com/seospace (and this is an affiliate link!)

FYI - 301 tells the internet it’s a permanent re-direct so they can update their indexes to always redirect this link, which is key for SEO.

Here is a two-minute video demo of what this looks like in Squarespace if you are a more visual learner!

Squarespace URL mapping is easy to set up and is included with the cost of your website. You can add unlimited redirects and everything is in one place, but there are some limitations to this approach:

There are no analytics on your short link clicks. If you want to know how many people click on your links, you can’t do this with Squarespace URL mapping.
Having many redirects on your website could slow it down a bit
You have to use your own domain name so if your domain name is LONG, the link won’t be that short

Option 2: Create Short Links with a URL Shortener

There are many URL shortening services you can use to create short links, including Rebrandly, Dub, Bitly, TinyURL. These services host your URL re-directs for you and track the number of clicks your short links get and where they come from.

Dub and Rebrandly have the best FREE plans, offering the most short links per month. But, they both have limitations (as anything free does!)

Dub has a nicer, more modern interface, more robust free analytics, offers 25 links and tracks 1,000 click per month on the free plan, and allows you to update existing links. But, it only stores your link analytics for 30 days.
Rebrandly stores your analytics as long as you have an account. But, those analytics are less detailed, they only offer 10 free links and 100 clicks per month on the free plan, and you can’t update your links. If one of your affiliates changes their link, you have to delete your “short link” and create a new one, which counts against your quota of 10 links for the month (and you lose your analytics history).

If you don’t care about losing your analytics after 30 days, Dub is the more flexible and robust option for short links.

You can’t use your exact website domain with a URL shortener, but you have other great options:

You can use your own domain with a different pre-fix (this is called a sub-domain). A common sub-domain for short links is go.yourdomain.com. So your short links would be go.yourdomain.com/slug. This is totally FREE.
You can purchase a version of your own domain with a different suffix. A common choice is to use yourdomain.link. Or you could buy a variation of your domain to get an even shorter link if that makes sense. I decided to purchase shannah.link. So, my short links are shannah.link/slug.
Link shorteners also have very short generic domains (e.g. dub.sh) you can use (for FREE) when you need a REALLY short link.

Pro Tip: If you decide to purchase a domain, don’t purchase it through a URL shortener. It might be free or very cheap for the first year, but the price will go WAY up in the second year ($2 for year 1 and $25 per year after that at Rebrandly). I purchased my shannah.link domain at Namecheap for $4 for the first year and $8/year after that. It is very easy to connect a domain to the link shortening service by just adding one entry in the DNS.

Rebrandly vs Dub for Free Short Links

Here is a quick video tour comparing Rebrandly vs Dub’s free plans to help you decide if either of these tools might be a fit for your business:

Using a URL shortening service requires a few additional steps, and you are limited in how many links you can set up, each month, but if you are interested in knowing how many people click on those links (and from where), a link shortener is the way to go! Dub is the link shortening service I would recommend for a small online business looking for a free plan.

The Net Net

Short links can be helpful for sharing, managing, and tracking your affiliate links and other links you share frequently in your business. You can create short links easily on your Squarespace website with URL mapping or take it to the next level with trackable short links using a URL shortening tool. You even have the option to use a custom branded domain that makes your links even shorter!