Shortening and unshortening links
Most links that are shared on social media are shortened links rather than full URLs purely because they have a smaller presence with the same effect. Links you drop into the composer when scheduling posts through Buffer are automatically shortened using the buff.ly link shortener, but this can be changed if desired.
In this article:
đĽ Keen to learn more about link shortening and Google Analytics? View our tutorial videos here!
Changing your link shortener
Link shorteners are set individually for each social channel, meaning you might use buff.ly for some channels, and bit.ly for others (for example). To change your link shortener, select the channel on the left hand side of your dashboard that you'd like to change, and then select the gear icon next to the channel name.
Under the General tab, you'll find a section at the top called Link Shortening. In the drop down menu, you can choose between buff.ly and bit.ly. You can also select "No Shortening" if you want to disable link shortening completely.
If you have a Bitly account, you can click Connect Bit.ly to connect your account to Buffer and any bit.ly links you create in Buffer will appear in your Bitly dashboard.
Bitly also offers the option to use your own custom link shortener if it's registered with Bitly. Please see section below for more information.
Some social networks do not support or encourage the use of link shortening. For example:
- At the moment, Pinterest does not allow posting of shortened links to their platform.
- Similarly, using a link shortener on Mastodon is actively discouraged.
- While you can create posts with links on Instagram, Instagram does not allow clickable links in the post captions. Additionally, Instagram posts with links in the captions may be flagged for spam. To send followers to a specific link, check out our Instagram Shop Grid feature.
Therefore, we do not support link shortening on Pinterest, Mastodon, or Instagram in Buffer.
Setting up your custom link shortener
You must be registered with Bitly to use the custom link shortener option.
âď¸ If you have multiple Bitly accounts, logout before walking through the steps below to ensure we retrieve the correct one.
- Register the domain you'd like to use
Itâs important to note that this domain can only be used for shortened URLs. Your short domain name needs to be 15 characters or less (including the dot and extension), or your links wonât display your custom URL.
- Add your domain to Bitly
You'll need to sign in or register for a Bitly account. Once youâve logged into Bitly, youâll need to go to Settings in the top right hand corner, and then click on the Advanced button.
Under the Branded Short Domain header, select whether youâre using your short domain for personal or business use. Bitly should then ask you to verify your email address.
- Create a DNS record for your domain name
The next step involves changing your DNS information. A DNS is what makes a browser point to a website, so this is where youâre telling your custom short domain to point to Bitly. To update your DNS information, youâll need to go to the website where you registered your domain name.
Updating your DNS is typically pretty simple and should be very similar to the instruction below, even if you donât use Name.com. For Name.com customers, you would log into your Name.com account, click on your short URL, and then click on Update DNS records.
You would then need to edit the A record for your site. You can do this by changing the IP address to 69.58.188.49. If there isnât an existing A record, add a new one. Where you see host, you can either leave it blank or add an @ sign. Either option works because they do the same thing. Itâs also important to note that you should only have one A record. If you have more than one A record, you should remove all of them that donât point to Bitlyâs 69.58.188.49 IP address.
- Verify your domain ownership
Now that your A record has been added to your domain name you need to go back to the Branding Domains Settings on Bitly and click the Verify button. When you do this, your domain should then be connected to your Bitly account.
- Connect your Bitly account to your Buffer account
Next, log into your Buffer account, select the channel on the left hand side of your dashboard that you'd like to change, and lick the gear icon next to the channel name.
Make sure the General tab is selected and then click Connect Bit.ly. Follow the steps to authorize Buffer to connect to your Bitly account.
- Try it out!
Finally, schedule a new post, paste a link into the composer, and make sure it's shortened using your new custom link shortener!
Unshortening links
Unless you have explicitly disabled link shortening for a social channel, any links you paste into the composer will be automatically shortened and the buff.ly link shortener will be used by default. If you prefer the full URL, you can either unshorten URLs on a link by link basis, or turn off link shortening completely for the channel.
Unshortening individual links
If you have link shortening enabled in your channel settings, but want to occasionally leave a URL unshortened in your posts, you can use the link shortening button in the composer. If you change your mind, you can click the button again to re-shorten the link, like so:
Note: the Link Shortening button is only available if you have link shortening enabled within your channel Settings.
Turning off link shortening
If you know you don't want to shorten your links for a particular channel, you can click the gear icon next to the channel name.
From the Settings page, make sure the General tab is selected, then select No Shortening from the dropdown. None of your links for this channel will be shortened and the Link Shortening button will not appear in the composer.
âHave a question about link shortening? Send us an email at hello@buffer.com and our Customer Advocates would love to help!