FAQs About Shortening Links

Website links are often long, complicated jumbles of characters and symbols that are difficult to remember and cumbersome to share with others. Shortening links makes them much easier for you to deal with. Here are some common questions relating to shortening website links.

Q: How do you shorten website links?

A: Use a website shortening service such as tinyurl.com, bit.ly or is.gd. Also known as URL shortening services, these websites automatically generate short links of just a few characters in length for any given website link. When used, the short link automatically redirects to the original website.

Q: Is the case of the shortened link important?

A: Sometimes, yes. Some link shortening services use both uppercase and lowercase characters in the shortened link to increase the number of website links they can store. If you are in doubt, consult the link shortening service's own help page.

Q: Can you customize your short website link?

A: Some link shortening services offer this useful feature, and some do not, so it is best to check that your chosen service supports this. You cannot use custom short links that others have used already.

Q: How can you tell what a shortened website link links to?

A: Some website shortening services such as tinyurl.com offer a preview feature that displays the full, long website address for a given shortened link. This allows you to make an informed decision as to whether to follow the shortened link or not.

Q: Will your shortened website links work forever?

A: There are no guarantees of this. Shortened links are designed for uniqueness, so there is no chance that anyone else can get the same one. However, if the website link shortening service shuts down, then shortened links provided by that service may stop working.