The ShortFreeURL blog
Guides, comparisons and practical tactics for branded links, QR codes and campaign tracking.
Links for podcasts and audio: designing for the ear
A spoken link has to be understood once, at speed, without spelling. That constrains almost every choice.
Roles and permissions for a link workspaceFIELD NOTES / 062 Guides · 2 min readRoles and permissions for a link workspace
Who can create, who can edit, who can add a domain. A small permission model prevents most link accidents.
What to do when a published link is wrongFIELD NOTES / 061 Guides · 2 min readWhat to do when a published link is wrong
A link that is already in fifty thousand inboxes cannot be unsent. Here is the order of operations that limits the damage.
Query parameters, fragments and what survives a redirectFIELD NOTES / 060 Guides · 2 min readQuery parameters, fragments and what survives a redirect
Whether a parameter reaches your landing page depends on where it sits in the URL and what each hop does with it.
HTTPS for short domains: certificates, renewal and the failure modesFIELD NOTES / 059 Guides · 2 min readHTTPS for short domains: certificates, renewal and the failure modes
Automatic certificates work until they do not. Here is what has to be true for issuance, and what breaks renewal.
Why your click count never matches your analytics sessionsFIELD NOTES / 058 Guides · 2 min readWhy your click count never matches your analytics sessions
The gap between clicks on a short link and sessions in your analytics is normal, explainable and worth quantifying once.
Making a UTM convention that a whole team will followFIELD NOTES / 057 Guides · 2 min readMaking a UTM convention that a whole team will follow
Conventions fail for social reasons, not technical ones. Here is how to write one people can actually comply with.
Short links in print: what changes when there is no clickFIELD NOTES / 056 Guides · 2 min readShort links in print: what changes when there is no click
Print links are typed, not clicked. That single fact changes the slug, the domain, the tracking and the failure modes.
Running a link hygiene auditFIELD NOTES / 055 Guides · 2 min readRunning a link hygiene audit
Short links accumulate. Once a year, find the dead ones, the duplicates and the ones pointing somewhere embarrassing.
Where redirect latency actually comes fromFIELD NOTES / 054 Guides · 2 min readWhere redirect latency actually comes from
A short link adds one round trip. Whether that costs 30ms or 400ms depends on four things, and only one of them is the database.
How to choose short link slugs that survive contact with humansFIELD NOTES / 053 Guides · 2 min readHow to choose short link slugs that survive contact with humans
The path after the slash gets typed, read aloud, printed and misremembered. Design it for those four situations.
A security checklist for running short linksFIELD NOTES / 052 Guides · 3 min readA security checklist for running short links
Short links concentrate trust in a single hostname. Here is what to lock down before that hostname is on a billboard.
ShortFreeURL 1.0 — what shippedFIELD NOTES / 051 Product Updates · 2 min readShortFreeURL 1.0 — what shipped
The full first release: link editor, QR studio, analytics, bundles, posts, teams, admin and API.
Case study: turning packaging into a reorder channelFIELD NOTES / 050 Case Studies · 2 min readCase study: turning packaging into a reorder channel
One dynamic QR per product, a reorder destination, and the measurement that justified the print cost.
How an agency runs branded links for twenty clientsFIELD NOTES / 049 Case Studies · 2 min readHow an agency runs branded links for twenty clients
A workspace structure, naming convention and reporting rhythm that survives client churn.
QR codes on packaging and print: a production checklistFIELD NOTES / 048 QR Codes · 2 min readQR codes on packaging and print: a production checklist
Size, quiet zone, contrast, substrate and proofing — the things that decide whether a printed code scans.
Link retargeting: building audiences from clicks on other people's contentFIELD NOTES / 047 Marketing · 2 min readLink retargeting: building audiences from clicks on other people's content
Attach a pixel to a short link and every click becomes an audience member — with real limits worth knowing.
Five Zapier automations worth building around short linksFIELD NOTES / 046 Tools · 2 min readFive Zapier automations worth building around short links
Concrete recipes, not a feature list.
Links as code: managing short links from a Git repositoryFIELD NOTES / 045 Developers · 2 min readLinks as code: managing short links from a Git repository
Keep link definitions in YAML, review changes in pull requests, and sync on merge.
Custom 404s and main-page redirects on a short domainFIELD NOTES / 044 Guides · 2 min readCustom 404s and main-page redirects on a short domain
Two settings that take a minute and quietly save a lot of traffic.
End-to-end encrypted short links: how they workFIELD NOTES / 043 Developers · 2 min readEnd-to-end encrypted short links: how they work
The destination is encrypted; the key lives in the URL fragment, which browsers never send to the server.
GDPR and link analytics: what you can collect and howFIELD NOTES / 042 Guides · 2 min readGDPR and link analytics: what you can collect and how
IP addresses are personal data. Here is how click analytics stays useful and lawful at the same time.
Referrer hiding: what it does and when it is appropriateFIELD NOTES / 041 Guides · 2 min readReferrer hiding: what it does and when it is appropriate
The Referer header tells the destination where a visitor came from. Sometimes that is exactly what you do not want.
Link-in-bio tools compared: dedicated apps vs your own domainFIELD NOTES / 040 Comparisons · 2 min readLink-in-bio tools compared: dedicated apps vs your own domain
Dedicated tools are prettier out of the box. Owning the page keeps the audience, the data and the URL.
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Frequently asked questions
What is written about here?
Branded short links, QR codes, UTM and campaign tracking, click analytics, link-in-bio pages, and honest comparisons between link platforms.
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