Links and analytics

Short link parts

Custom ending rules

Custom endings are optional. If you leave the field blank, URLNow creates one automatically.

The public short-link form keeps alias and advanced settings optional. Open Customize alias and advanced options only when you want to choose the ending yourself, pick an available domain, or add optional link settings.

When you choose your own ending, it must:

• Be unique.
• Use 3 to 64 characters.
• Use only letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores.
• Avoid reserved words used by URLNow, such as app, api, login, register, pricing, features, organizations, and qr-code-generator.

Link options

Depending on the form or workspace you are using, a short link can include:

• A verified branded domain.
• A custom ending.
• An expiration date.
• A visitor password.
• Tags or campaign details for reporting.
• Scheduled activation or deactivation when you need a link to start or stop at a planned time.

Password-protected links show an unlock screen before redirecting. Expired links stop sending visitors to the destination.

QR codes

When you generate a QR code, URLNow creates a tracked short link and encodes that short link into the QR image.

This means:

• The QR code can use the active workspace and branded domain.
• Every scan is recorded as link activity.
• QR links can appear separately from regular links in analytics.
• QR images can be downloaded, copied, printed, or regenerated from the dashboard.

Analytics available

URLNow records visits when people open short links. Depending on the visitor and request, analytics may include:

• Total visits.
• Visit time.
• Device and browser.
• Referrer, such as a website that sent the visitor.
• Campaign details from UTM tags.
• Country or region when available.
• Language when available.
• Automated traffic indicators.

Open Analytics to review activity for links you can access.

Campaigns, conversions, and sharing

Campaigns group related links so you can review clicks, countries, devices, referrers, tags, and conversion rates together. Use campaigns for launches, clients, newsletters, paid media, events, or seasonal promotions.

Conversions can be recorded through the server-side API or a lightweight browser pixel. They connect downstream actions back to the short link and campaign that started the visit, which makes click-to-conversion reporting possible.

Read-only analytics share links are designed for reporting. They are public to anyone with the share URL, marked noindex, can expire, and can be revoked from the Power Tools console.

Analytics pages include date ranges, widgets, charts, and tables for:

• Total clicks, human clicks, unique visitors, QR scans, and link growth.
• Top links and top QR codes.
• Devices, browsers, operating systems, countries, languages, and referrers.
• Campaign and branded-domain performance.
• Recent clicks and links that may need attention.

Use Customize to hide or show analytics widgets, change density, save dashboard views, or reset your view. Export buttons download selected analytics tables as CSV files. Shareable analytics links can be created when you need to give someone read-only access to a report.

Why numbers can differ

Different dashboard views may separate all visits from likely human visits. This helps teams understand real engagement while still keeping a full record of total activity.

Examples:

• A social network preview may open a link automatically.
• A search crawler may check a link.
• A real visitor may open the same link more than once.

Workspace visibility

The active workspace affects what you can see.

Switch workspaces from Organizations or from an organization dashboard.