How to shorten a link for free: for print, posts and QR codes

A two-hundred-character address cannot be dictated or printed on a flyer. How a shortener works, where short links help and what to check before a print run.

BOMBA DESIGN editorialNovember 13, 20268 min read

A long link turned into a short one in the BOMBA DESIGN tool — **URL shortener:** a long address with tags becomes twenty characters.

A link to a product on a marketplace, to a booking form or to a pin on Google Maps can be two hundred characters long. It is awkward to dictate, impossible to print on a flyer, and in a post it looks like an error.

A shortener turns a long address into a short one. A person follows the short one and lands exactly where the long one led. Nothing on your page changes.

Key points

A short link leads to the same page: it is simply a more convenient address.
The shorter the address, the simpler and more reliable the QR code.
Before publishing, always check the short link on a phone.

How-toHow to shorten a link: 3 steps

Paste the linkOpen the URL shortener and paste an address that starts with http or https.
Press “Shorten”The short address appears in a second. It is neutral, of the form is.gd/xxxxxx: it is created by the third-party service is.gd, and our site name is not in it.
Copy the resultPaste it into a post, print it on a business card or encode it in a QR code.

UsesWhere a business needs short links

PrintA business card, a flyer, a sticker on packaging. A short address can be typed by hand; a long one cannot.
QR codesA short address gives a code with large modules: it scans more easily and can be printed smaller. You can make one in the QR code generator.
Social mediaIn a profile bio and in stories a short link looks tidy and is not cut off.
Messengers and SMSIn an SMS every character counts, and long addresses with non-Latin letters turn into a string of percent signs.
AdvertisingLinks with UTM tags for analytics get very long. Shortening hides the “technical tail”.
Presentations and documentsAn address in a printed document must be possible to type on a keyboard.

AnalyticsShort links and UTM tags

UTM tags are additions to an address by which website analytics understands where a person came from: Instagram, a newsletter or a flyer. They look like a long tail after a question mark.

The order is this: first add the tags to the address, then shorten everything together. Each channel gets its own short link. Then the site statistics show that twenty people came from flyers and two hundred from the sticker on the door.

This way even printed advertising can be compared: two batches of flyers carry two different QR codes with different links.

TrustAre short links safe?

A short address does not show where it leads, so people sometimes treat such links with caution. Reducing that distrust is simple.

Label the link. “Menu: …”, “Book online: …”. A person should understand what will open.

Do not shorten without need. An address on your own website such as yoursite.com/menu is better left as it is: it is advertising in itself.

Check where it leads. Before printing a run, open the short link on a phone and in a private browser window.

Keep an eye on the page. A short link works as long as the page it leads to works. If the product is withdrawn or the page deleted, the link leads to an error. It also depends on the is.gd service that created the short address.

Do not shorten addresses with personal data. The address you shorten is passed to the is.gd service, and anyone who knows the short link can open it.

MistakesCommon mistakes

A link to a personal account. An address copied after logging in will not open for other people. Copy the public address of the page.

Shortening an already shortened link. A chain of two shorteners works more slowly and breaks more often.

An address with a typo. A shortener does not check whether the page exists. Open the long link yourself first.

One link for everything. If the address is the same everywhere, you will not find out which advertising works.

ChoiceShort link or QR code

Situation	What is better	Why
Business card	Both	The code for a phone, the address for those who type
Shop window, pavement sign	QR code	Typing an address in the street is awkward
Radio, spoken advertising	Short address	A code cannot be dictated
Social media post	Short link	There is nothing to scan a code with on the phone’s own screen
Presentation on a screen	Both	The code for the audience, the address for notes

TipWhat an address in printed advertising should look like

Without “https://” and “www”. On a business card the address alone is enough: the browser adds the rest.

Latin letters. An address in another script turns into a long string of symbols when copied.

Letters that cannot be confused. A capital “I” and a small “l”, a zero and the letter “O” look alike in print. If the short address contains such characters, check that they are readable in your font.

Sufficient size. An address smaller than 7 points on a business card is already hard to read.

HonestlyThe link is short. What about the advertising it sits on?

The tool only shortens the address. Whether people notice it and want to follow it depends on the layout: a business card, flyer, sticker or banner. Printed advertising in your brand style – with the right address size and a QR code – is what we design: print design.

A printed run with a broken link cannot be fixed. Checking takes ten seconds.