How to Create Free Short Links to Use on Squarespace
There are many reasons you might want to shorten the links 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 visitors clicks they get.
What Does it Mean to “Shorten a Link”?
When you “shorten a link”, you create a short placeholder URL (that doesn’t link to anything on its own) and then set up URL re-direct that tells the internet to send people the longer URL when they use the short URL.
For example, I have a short, memorable URL 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.
What Domain is Used for Short Links?
Your short link domain options depend on the tool you use to set up your short links:
If you use Squarespace’s built in URL mapping, you have to use your website domain (e.g. shannahalbert.com/genie)
If you use a URL shortening service you can’t use your exact website domain, but you have a few other options:
You can use a sub-domain of your website domain (e.g. go.shannahalbert.com/genie) which is free
You can purchase a similar domain just to use for short links (e.g. shannah.link/genie)
You can use a generic domain provided a link shortening app (e.g. rebrand.ly/genie) which is also free – this option is good for sharing on social media when space is very limited so being short is more important than being personalized
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. 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, sallyb)
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 301Click SAVE to save the update
You don’t put your domain name in the URL mapping, just the slug. But when you share your short link, you need to include the whole domain. So my short link 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:
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
Option 2: Create Short Links with a URL Shortener
There are many URL shortening services you can use to create short links, including Rebrandly, Sub, 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.
As mentioned above, you can’t use your exact website domain with a URL shortener, but here are your 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 when you need a REALLY short links.
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!
