You will often have to send a link to a website to a friend and find yourself dealing with a web address with a mileage length. Unfortunately, it is so: not always those who work as a Webmaster or, more generally, in the “behind the scenes” for the creation of a website pay attention to this technical aspect.
Anyway, leaving aside the speeches on the SEO of a website, you are reading this tutorial because you would like to know how to shorten a web address. That is how it is, isn’t it? Well, then know that you are in the right place! In fact, I am going to provide you with several tips that, I am sure, you will find especially useful.
Shortening a web address is a simple procedure to conduct and there are various tools to do it: below you will find some of those that I consider among the best. So take a few minutes of free time, carefully read the instructions I am about to provide you and choose the one that best suits your needs. I am sure you will find everything you need to reach your goal!
How to shorten web address
If you want to share a website or webpage whose URL is exceptionally long, you can choose to shorten the address in question to simplify the submission process. In this regard, you can use, both from PC and smartphone / tablet, one of the services that I will indicate in the next chapters, which all allow you to shorten the address of a website in a few clicks or taps.
Please note that although some of the services can be used for free, a subscription may be necessary if you want to access additional features, such as viewing statistics or customizing shortened URLs. You can find all the information you need below.
Bitly
One of the most popular 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 personalized wording.
This service is free in its basic version and can also be used without registration, 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 changing the initial part (i.e. “http://bit.ly/”) and replacing it with your own brand.
If you want to use it, the first thing I recommend you do is connect to its official website. After that, if you do not want to register because you only want to shorten a web address and you are not interested in customizing it and / or looking at its statistics, you will only have to paste the link in the text field that you will see on the screen, at the bottom, in the Shorten your link box.
Then, to shorten the link entered, just press the Shorten button. Once you have done this step, a small box will appear on the screen that will indicate the URL of the shortened link. Simply click the Copy button to copy the reduced-format link to the clipboard.
If, on the other hand, you have decided that you want to use this service in an advanced way, customizing the shortened link, then you will have to proceed to register for free. To do this, simply click on the Sign-up button that you can see located in the upper right corner of the home page. You can sign up with email or Google Account.
Once registered, to shorten a URL and customize it, you will have to click on the orange Create button which is in the upper right corner. After that, in the Enter Long URL text field, you will have to paste the URL you want to shorten and finally you will have to press the Create button.
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 Customize back-half section. When finished, then press the Save button to confirm the operation.
T.LY
An equally good online tool that allows you to shorten the address of a website is T.ly. It is an extremely easy and immediate service that can be used for free (up to 3 URLs), including public statistics. Alternatively, you can subscribe to a subscription plan (starting at $5/month) that allows you to create more shortened links and private statistics.
To use T.ly for free and without registration, simply paste the URL you want to shorten into the Past a link to shorten it box. Then press the Shorten button to generate the URL: using the Copy button next to it you can copy the new URL to the clipboard, while pressing on the Stats item you will be redirected to the statistics.
To use, instead, the additional features of this service, you must first register an account (with a 4-day trial version, then you will have to pay for the subscription), pressing the Sign up button at the top and providing your name, email address and password to be associated. In the dashboard, in the Links tab, then paste the URL in the appropriate box and press the Shorten button. Through the gear icon, you can access advanced statistics, change the shortened URL, as well as generate a QR code.
Tiny URL
Among the services that allow you to type or copy the address of a website and get a shorter one there is also the historical Tiny URL, much appreciated and used for years by many users.
The first thing you need to do to avail yourself of it is to connect to its official website. Then enter the address of the website you want to shorten in the text field Enter a long URL to make Tiny URL and click the Make Tiny URL!
If you wish, before pressing the Make Tiny URL! you can customize the final wording of the URL you want to shorten. Just type a few letters, numbers, or hyphens into the Alias text field.
After doing this, you just must wait for the upload to finish and, in the side section that is shown to you, you will see the new web address shortened by Tiny URL.
In case the custom wording you set is not available, you will be presented with the shortened URL with a randomly generated wording. Otherwise, you will see the shortened URL, which will eventually present the alias you set.
At this point, you can copy the shortened URL by pressing the Copy button. The link will be saved to the clipboard of your computer (or mobile device), so you can share it wherever you want.
WP.me
If you have a website designed with WordPress, you should know that you can easily get the shortened URLs of published articles, using the plugin Jetpack. In fact, through the free version of this add-on (and without you having to connect your website with WordPress.com), you can easily get the shortened version of any URL of your domain in formatWP.me.
What you need to do is install Jetpack on your WordPress site: you can do it by accessing the Plugins panel > Add new and searching, through the appropriate search engine, for the term “jetpack”. After locating the plugin in question, made by Automattic, press the Install Now and Activate buttons. At this point, through the side menu, click on the Jetpack item and press the configuration button in the center of the page.
Now all you must do is wait a few moments and completely skip the process of creating a WordPress.com link account. In the Jetpack Settings section of the Traffic tab, then move the lever under the heading WP.me Shortlinks to ON and you are done!
When you edit an article or create a new one, you will find in the top area the Get Shortlinks button through which to get the shortened URL. In the block view of the editor, however, by pressing on the Jetpack logo located at the top right of the Shortlinks section you will find the shortened URL to copy.