How to Create a Short Link The Complete Step-by-Step Guide 2026

It will take a moment to create your short link. Creating a short link that is branded, tracked, analytics-ready, connected to GA4 and built to remain useful for years — that takes knowing what you are doing. This guide covers both: from the very first click to advanced campaign setup.

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How to Create Your First Short Link — Step by Step

Step 1: Create a Free Account

Go to cutt.ly/register and create your free account. You need an email address and a password — no credit card, no commitment. The account is required: it is what connects every short link you create to your analytics dashboard. Without an account, there is no place to store click data, manage link destinations or generate QR Codes.

Registration takes under a minute. Once confirmed, you are immediately in your dashboard and ready to create your first link.

Step 2: Find the Shortener Field

The URL shortener field is prominently displayed in your Cuttly dashboard. It is the primary action on the page — you cannot miss it. It shows a text input for your long URL with a Shorten button.

Step 3: Paste Your Long URL and Click Shorten

Paste the full destination URL — the long URL you want to turn into a short link. The URL must include the protocol: https:// or http://. A URL copied directly from a browser address bar already includes this. Click Shorten — Cuttly creates the short link instantly with an auto-generated slug. It appears in your dashboard with a copy button.

Step 4: Edit the Link — Add a Custom Alias, UTM Parameters and Tags

Once the link is created, open it to perform actions on it. This is where you set a custom alias, add UTM parameters via the built-in builder, assign a campaign tag and configure any advanced settings. In Cuttly, you shorten first — then customise.

Always set a custom alias after shortening. It takes 10 extra seconds and makes the link more trustworthy, more readable in analytics, typeable on printed materials and more professional in every context where the raw URL is visible.

Step 5: Copy and Distribute

Copy the final short link from your dashboard and use it anywhere — email, SMS, social posts, printed materials, QR Codes. Analytics start recording from the very first click.

Step 6: Use and Track

Paste your short link wherever you want to share it. Every click is tracked automatically from this moment. Open the link's analytics view in your dashboard any time to see click volume, device breakdown, country data and referrer source — no setup required, no code on the destination page needed.

Custom Aliases — Why They Matter and How to Choose Them

A custom alias is the human-readable part of your short link. It is what someone reads in an email hover preview, types from a printed brochure, or speaks aloud in a podcast. It is not just cosmetic — it directly affects trust, click-through rate and usability.

Why Custom Aliases Outperform Random Slugs

• Trust before click. go.brand.com/spring-offer communicates destination intent. go.brand.com/3xKpQ2r communicates nothing. The first reduces hesitation; the second creates it.
• Readable in analytics. A dashboard full of 3xKpQ2r, 7yMnP4s and 2wLkQ8t is unnavigable. A dashboard with spring-email, spring-sms and spring-poster is self-documenting.
• Typeable from print. Any short link that will appear on a printed material — brochure, packaging, poster, business card — must have a typeable alias. Random strings fail at the first character.
• Shareable verbally. A podcast host reading out go.brand.com/guide works perfectly. Reading out go.brand.com/3xKpQ2r is impossible.

How to Choose Good Aliases

• Keep it short. 5–15 characters. Long enough to be descriptive; short enough to be typeable and memorable.
• Use hyphens, not spaces or underscores. spring-sale reads naturally and URLs handle hyphens cleanly.
• Always lowercase. Mixed case aliases create confusion — is it SpringOffer or springoffer? Lowercase eliminates this.
• Describe the destination. /guide, /offer, /register, /menu — the alias should hint at what the click delivers.
• Distinguish by channel for campaign links. /spring-email, /spring-sms, /spring-fb — one per channel, all pointing to the same destination, all tracked separately.

Branded Short Links — Your Domain in Every Link

A branded short link uses your own custom domain instead of Cuttly's default domain. Instead of cutt.ly/spring-offer, your link becomes go.yourbrand.com/spring-offer. The destination and the tracking are identical — but every person who sees the link sees your brand name before they click.

Why Branded Links Are Worth Setting Up

• Trust. Your brand domain in a link is a recognition signal — particularly valuable in email hover previews, SMS messages and printed materials where the domain is visible before the click decision.
• Deliverability. A branded domain has a reputation built exclusively by your own sending behaviour — no shared risk from other users of a generic shortener domain.
• Consistency. Every link from your organisation, on every channel, looks the same — one domain, your brand, everywhere.
• Permanence. A branded domain you control is yours permanently. No dependency on a third-party platform's branding decisions.

How to Connect a Custom Domain

Cuttly's free plan includes one custom branded domain slot. Setting it up requires adding two DNS records at your domain provider:

1. Go to account settings in Cuttly and click Add Custom Domain
2. Enter your chosen subdomain — typically go.yourdomain.com or links.yourdomain.com
3. Add the A record (Cuttly's IP address) and TXT verification record at your DNS provider
4. Wait for DNS propagation — typically 1–4 hours
5. From the Single plan, enable Let's Encrypt SSL with one click for automatic HTTPS

Full DNS setup guide: URL Shortener with Custom Domain — Complete Setup Guide.

UTM Parameters — Connecting Short Links to GA4

A short link tracks clicks on Cuttly's side — device, country, referrer, timing. But to track what happens after the click — sessions, conversions, revenue — you need GA4. UTM parameters are the bridge.

UTM parameters are added to the destination URL (not the short link itself). The short link stays clean and branded. The destination URL carries the attribution data. When GA4 loads on the destination page, it reads the UTM values from the URL and attributes the session correctly.

The Three Essential UTM Parameters

Cuttly has a built-in UTM builder in the dashboard for every link. Fill in the three fields — Cuttly assembles the correctly encoded parameter string and appends it to your destination URL automatically. No manual URL construction, no encoding errors.

Three channels where UTM parameters are not optional but essential: email (apps strip referrer headers, all email traffic becomes "direct" in GA4 without UTM), SMS (no referrer produced, same result) and QR Codes (scans produce no referrer). For these channels, UTM parameters are the only mechanism for attribution in GA4.

Complete UTM guide with naming conventions and common mistakes: How to Use UTM Parameters — Complete Guide.

QR Codes — Generated Automatically from Every Short Link

Every short link created in Cuttly automatically generates a dynamic QR Code. You do not need a separate QR Code generator. Open any link's analytics view and the QR Code icon gives you immediate access to the code — with customisation options and download in SVG or PNG format.

The QR Code is dynamic — it encodes your short link, not the final destination URL. This means:

• The destination is updatable. If the destination changes, update it in Cuttly — every already-printed QR Code automatically routes to the new destination.
• Every scan is tracked. Scans appear as clicks in the same link analytics — device type (iOS vs Android), country, timing.
• Customisable. Brand colours, logo embedding (with error correction level H), rounded modules — the QR Code can match your brand identity.

Download format rule: always SVG for print (vector — scales to any size without pixelation), PNG for digital use only.

Editing and Updating Short Links After Creation

One of the most valuable features of a managed short link: the destination can be changed at any time without changing the short link URL. The link you distributed in 10,000 emails, printed on 5,000 brochures and encoded in QR Codes on packaging — all of those automatically route to whatever destination you set in your dashboard.

To update a short link destination: open the link in your Cuttly dashboard, click Edit, change the destination URL, save. The update is live within seconds. Every instance of the link — digital and physical — routes to the new destination immediately.

When to update a link destination:

• Campaign page has been replaced by a new seasonal page
• Website migration changes the destination URL structure
• A product sold out and you want to redirect to similar available products
• An event has passed and the registration page should redirect to an archive or future event
• A document or resource has been updated and now lives at a different URL

Organising Links with Tags and Campaigns

As your link library grows, organisation becomes essential. Cuttly provides two organisation mechanisms:

Campaign Tags

Tags group related links together for aggregated analytics. Apply the same tag to all links in a campaign — spring-sale-2026 — and Cuttly shows total campaign engagement across all links in one view. Which channel drove the most clicks? What was the combined device breakdown? Which country showed the most engagement?

Tag naming convention: match your campaign tag names to your utm_campaign values. spring-sale-2026 in Cuttly tags and utm_campaign=spring-sale-2026 in your links means cross-referencing Cuttly analytics with GA4 campaign reports is seamless.

Slug Naming Conventions

Consistent slug patterns make your link library navigable at a glance:

• Campaign links: /[campaign-short]-[channel] → /spr26-email, /spr26-sms
• QR Codes: /[campaign]-qr-[placement] → /spr26-qr-poster
• Evergreen resources: /[resource-name] → /guide, /pricing, /demo
• Influencer or partner links: /[campaign]-[partner] → /spr26-sofia

Understanding Your Link Analytics

Every short link in Cuttly has an analytics view accessible from your dashboard. Here is what each metric means and how to use it:

Known bots are automatically excluded from click stats on all plans including free. From the Single plan, a separate chart shows known bot clicks — giving full transparency into recognised automated traffic alongside your clean click data.

For a complete guide to every analytics dimension: The Complete Guide to Link Analytics.

Short Links for Every Channel

Email

Replace every destination URL in your email template with a Cuttly short link before sending. Add UTM parameters — email strips referrer headers, making UTM the only attribution mechanism for email traffic in GA4. Separate short links per CTA in the email (with utm_content identifying each position) reveal which CTA placement drives the most clicks.

SMS

SMS has a 160-character budget. A full UTM-tagged URL can consume most of it. A branded short link uses 20–30 characters — leaving room for your message. Use a branded domain: in SMS, the link domain is often the only visible brand identifier. Add UTM parameters: SMS produces no referrer headers, making UTM essential for GA4 attribution.

Social Media

Separate short links per platform allow per-platform performance measurement. /spring-linkedin vs /spring-twitter vs /spring-instagram — all pointing to the same destination, all revealing which platform drives the most traffic for this specific content type.

Print and Physical Materials

Every printed material should have a meaningful custom alias that can be typed. Every printed material should also have the QR Code version of the same short link — covering both scanning and typing preferences. Both tracked in the same analytics. Always download QR Codes as SVG for print.

Advanced Features: A/B Testing, Retargeting and Expiration

A/B Testing (Single Plan+)

A/B testing splits traffic between two (or more) destination URLs from a single short link — 50/50 by default, or custom percentages. Use it to test landing page variants, offer messaging or destination page layouts without needing separate links distributed across different audiences.

Retargeting Pixels (Single Plan+)

Add retargeting pixels (Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, etc.) to short links. When a visitor clicks the short link, the pixel fires before they reach the destination — adding them to your retargeting audience. Short link retargeting works even if the destination page has no pixel installed, and reaches visitors who click but do not convert.

Link Expiration

Set an expiration date on time-limited campaign links. When the expiration date passes, the link automatically redirects to a fallback destination — a "this offer has ended" page, your homepage, or the next campaign's landing page. No broken links, no outdated destinations, no manual management required when campaigns end.

Common Short Link Mistakes to Avoid

• Using random slugs. Takes 10 seconds to fix. Custom aliases make every link more trustworthy, readable and useful.
• Not adding UTM parameters to email and SMS links. Without UTM, all email and SMS traffic is invisible in GA4 as "direct." Every campaign send with untagged links permanently loses attribution data that cannot be recovered.
• Creating links on-the-fly during campaign production. Links created under time pressure skip UTM parameters, miss campaign tags and get random slugs. Create all campaign links before building any campaign asset.
• Using static QR Codes for printed materials. When the destination changes, static QR Codes break permanently. Always dynamic QR Codes from Cuttly for any print use.
• Never updating dead destinations. Links to 404 pages, expired offers and outdated content damage trust every time they are clicked. Review active links when destination pages change and update immediately.
• Not reviewing analytics after campaigns. The data is there — the insights it contains only become useful if someone looks at them. Build a post-campaign analytics review into every campaign process.

Create your first short link now — register a free Cuttly account in under a minute and start tracking every link from the first click.