It has often happened to you that you have to send the link of an Internet site to a friend and find yourself having to deal with a web address with a kilometer length. Unfortunately this is the case, not always those who work as Webmasters or, more generally, behind the scenes for the creation of an Internet site pay attention to this technical aspect. Anyway, leaving aside the SEO talk of a website, I guess you are reading this tutorial because you would like to know how to shorten a web address.
It’s so true? Well, then know that if you are reading my guide on Aranzulla.it it means that you are in an iron barrel. I am going to give you several tips which I am sure you will find very useful. Shortening a web address is a pretty simple procedure to do, and in the course of this tutorial, I’ll tell you about those are the best tools to do it.
Are you interested in the topic and can’t wait to get started? So can you know what are you waiting for ?! Come on, sit comfortably, take a few minutes of free time and carefully read the information I am about to give you. I wish you a good reading and a good “job”.
Index:
- How to shorten web address
- Bitly
- Google URL Shortener
- Tiny URL
- URly
How to shorten web address
Bitly
One of the most well-known online services that allow you to shorten a Web address quickly is the one offered by the Bitly.com website.
It is one of the most famous and used tools that allows you to customize a URL, shortening it with a custom wording. This service is free in its basic version, and can also be used without registering, but in the latter case it only allows you to shorten links and not to customize the final part (the one after “http://bit.ly/”) or have the tracking of clicks on the link and detailed statistics for the same. There is a paid plan, from $ 29 / month, which allows you to customize up to 1,500 links by also changing the initial part (ie “http://bit.ly/”) and replacing it with your own brand.
So if you want to use it, the first thing I recommend you do is connect to its official website. After that, if you don’t want to register because you just want to shorten a web address and you don’t want to customize it, you just need to paste the link in the text field you will see on the screen below. Then, to shorten the link entered, just press the orange button Shorten.
Once you have completed this step, a small box will appear on the screen that will show you the URL of the shortened link. Then just click on the button Copy to copy the link in reduced format to the clipboard. You will then be able to view some basic statistics by clicking on the button with the symbol of a graph.
If, on the other hand, you have decided that you want to use this service in an advanced way, by customizing the shortened link, then you will have to proceed to register. free. To do this, just click on the button Sign up which you can see located in the upper right corner of the home page. You can register with email, account Facebook, Google or Apple.
After registration, to shorten a URL and customize it, you will have to click on the orange button Create which is located in the upper right corner. After that, in the text field Paste Long URL, you will have to paste the URL you want to shorten and finally you will have to press on the button Create.
In the new section that you will see on the screen, you can then customize the final wording of the shortened link by referring to the section Customize. When finished, then press the button Save to confirm the operation.
Google URL Shortener
An equally good online tool that allows you to shorten the address of a website is the service Google URL Shortener. As you can easily imagine, this is a service developed by Google that is configured as a tool with an extremely easy and immediate use.
However, we must take into account that the service free offered by Google only allows you to shorten a hyperlink and does not give the possibility to personalize it and rename it with a personalized wording.
In any case, if you want to use this service, know that you can do it without having to make any type of registration. All you have to do is go to the official Google URL Shortener website via any browser to browse the Internet such as Google Chrome or Safari.
Then, using the text field Your original URL here, you will need to copy or type the URL you want to shorten. To carry out the link resizing procedure, you will then need to check the box I am not a robot and pass the Captcha verification. After that, press the button Shorten URL.
Once the operation has been completed, a small box will be shown on the screen and the URL that has been shortened will appear in correspondence with the text field Your short URL.
At this point, pressing the button with the symbol of two overlapping sheets, you can copy the URL in question and paste it elsewhere.
If you are interested in knowing the advanced statistics for this URL that you have shortened, know that you can do it by clicking on the button See analytics data.
Tiny URL
If you want to send a message to your friend to refer them to an Internet site or a Web page, you can choose to shorten the URL to simplify the sending procedure. To carry out this operation you can easily use one of the services indicated so far from mobile devices, which allow you to shorten the address of an Internet site.
As you have surely understood, if you have come this far to read this tutorial of mine, most of these web services allow you to type or copy the address of an Internet site to get a smaller address.
To carry out this purpose you can also use the Internet site that I am about to recommend: TinyURL.
You have probably heard of it because it is a historical tool of the Web. Although the TinyURL website has a slightly dated user interface, it still proves useful for the purpose for which it was designed.
The first thing you need to do to use it is to connect to the Tinyurl website. Then enter the address of the website you want to shorten in the text field Enter a long URL to make tiny and click the button Make TinyURL!.
If you wish, before you take me on the button Make TinyURL! you can customize the final wording of the URL to be shortened. Just type a few letters, numbers or dashes into the text field Custom alias (optional).
After carrying out these operations that I have indicated to you, you will only have to wait for this service to load and, in the page that opens, you will be able to see the new web address that has been shortened by Tinyurl.
In case the custom wording you have set is not available, you will be presented with the shortened URL with a randomly generated wording. If not, you will be able to see the shortened URL, which will present the alias you set up at the end.
At this point, you can copy the shortened URL by pressing the button Copy to clipboard. The link will be saved to your computer’s clipboard so that you can share it wherever you want. Please note that the short address you created is nothing more than a personalized link to the original website.
Urly
There are really many services that allow you to shorten a web address but only a few are really noteworthy. Precisely for this reason I want to advise you to take a look at the Urly website which has a particularly simple and minimal user interface.
All you have to do to use it is to connect to its official website and, in the text field that you will see on the screen, type or paste a long URL.
As you can see the user interface of this service is presented in Italian, consequently, to shorten the URL typed or pasted, just press the button Shorten.
Once you have done this you will see the URL you typed in an abbreviated format. Unfortunately you will not be able to rename it with a custom wording but you can still share it easily.
Then press the buttons Facebook or Twitter to share the shortened URL in these two main social networks, or press the button QR Code to generate a QR code that will lead to the original address.
You can use this tool in such a way free without registering, however you can press the button Sign in located at the top right and fill in the text fields you will see on the screen. In this way you will be able to proceed with the registration of your account and you will be able to take advantage of additional features.
The registration free the Urly service will allow you to view the statistics for the shortened and shared links; you will also always be able to keep track of all the URLs shortened via the section My links.
The latter is visible by clicking on the button with the hamburger icon in correspondence with the item Menu and then clicking on the item My links which will be visible in the drop-down menu. To access this section it will be necessary to have registered and then also to access the website.
