How to track real-time clicks using shortened URLs

Introduction

In the age of digital marketing and online content sharing, URL shorteners have evolved from simple link shorteners to powerful marketing tools.

In addition to making long URLs shorter and more concise, the ability to track and analyze clicks in real-time has become an essential tool for marketers, content creators, and business owners.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at how to utilize URL shortening services to track link performance in real-time across social media and various online platforms. We'll share tips and tricks for effective utilization, along with a step-by-step guide that anyone from beginners to experts can easily follow.

You can get more useful information by reading it together with the previously written article, “Why shorten long links? Why use URL Shortener?”

What are URL shortening services?

A URL shortener is a service that converts long web addresses (URLs) into a shorter form.

Shortened URLs improve readability by reducing the number of characters, make them easier to share on social media, and give you the ability to analyze click-throughs so you can precisely measure your marketing performance.

For example, it takes a long URL like https://www.example.com/articles/2025/03/15/how-to-use-url-shorteners-for-tracking-clicks-and-improving-social-media-engagement and shortens it to something more concise like https://vvd.bz/3xYZ .

How it works

The URL shortener service works on the following principles

• Redirection mechanism: When a user clicks on a short URL, the service redirects them to the original long URL.
• Database storage: The mapping information of the short URL to the original URL is stored in the service provider's database.
• Tracking functionality: Various data (click time, location, device, etc.) is collected each time a user clicks on the short URL.

Popular URL shortening services

• Vivoldi: Offers customizable shortened URLs and powerful statistical analysis and tracking.
• Bitly: One of the most popular URL shortening services, but customer support can be difficult for non-English speakers.
• TinyURL: A service with a simple, easy-to-use interface.
• T.co: A service that automatically shortens all links on Twitter.
• Ow.ly: URL shortening service that integrates with Hootsuite.

The need to track clicks with shortened URLs

Simply sharing a link doesn't tell you exactly how users are reacting to it. Using shortened URLs gives you the following benefits

• See real-time clicks.
  With shortened URLs, you can see in real time when and how often a particular link is clicked. This allows you to instantly recognize user interest and adjust your marketing strategy.
• Analyze user behavior
  Analyze your funnels (social media, email, blog, etc.) to understand which channels are effective. This helps you allocate your ad budget more efficiently.
• Measure campaign performance
  Through A/B testing and more, you can see which messages drive higher click-through rates. For example, you can create two links with different representations of the same content and compare their performance.
• Detect spam and bot clicks
  Detect abnormal traffic to avoid wasting your ad budget. Some services offer the ability to automatically detect bot traffic and filter it out.

Benefits of URL shortening services

URL shortening services offer many benefits beyond just making links shorter:

1. Save space and improve readability
Social media platforms often have character limits. Twitter, for example, has a 280-character limit, so long URLs take up valuable characters. Shortened URLs allow you to include more content and provide a cleaner-looking link.

They're also very effective for SMS for text messaging.

2. Click tracking and analytics
Most URL shortening services offer powerful analytics features, including

• Real-time click tracking: See how many times your link is clicked in real time.
• Geo-analytics: Know from which countries and cities your links are clicked.
• Time of day analytics: See when your links are clicked the most and at what time of day.
• Device and browser information: Analyze which devices and browsers are accessing your links.
• Funneltracking: Understand which websites and platforms your links are being clicked from.

3. Measuring marketing effectiveness
Tracking through URL shortening services can help you accurately measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns:

• When you share the same content across multiple marketing channels, analyze how each channel performs in comparison.
• A/B testing to see which message or content drives more clicks.
• Getting accurate data to calculate return on investment (ROI).

4. Manage and update links
Some URL shortening services offer the ability to change the destination URL of a link that has already been shared. This is useful in the following situations

• When a URL changes due to a change in website structure.
• When you need to correct typos or invalid links.
• When you need to update the destination page for a seasonal or campaign-specific reason.

If you manage multiple blogs and you've written about them all with the same URL, and you need to change it later, you'd have to go to all of your blogs and change the URL. However, since the shortened URL acts as an intermediate bridge, you can simply change the long URL, which is the final destination, without changing the post content on any of your blogs.

This way, the short URL remains the same, but only the long URL changes.

The importance of real-time click tracking

Real-time click tracking is a key component of your digital marketing and content strategy. Here are some of the benefits you'll get from it

1. Instant feedback.
Immediately after sharing your content or marketing campaign, you can see how users are reacting in real-time. This allows you to quickly adjust your strategy or reinforce a successful approach.

You can create content and see how many users clicked on your URL over time.

2. Identify trends
Real-time data helps you understand when and where your content is gaining traction. If you see a spike in clicks at certain times of day or days of the week, you can use that pattern to optimize your future content distribution schedule.

3. Respond to issues quickly
If a link is getting fewer clicks than expected, you can immediately identify and respond to the issue. For example, you can take quick action if a link isn't working correctly, or if your content isn't appealing to your target audience.

If you're getting fewer clicks, you can beef up your content.

4. Stay ahead of your competitors
With real-time data, you can react quickly to changes in trends and user interests, helping you stay one step ahead of your competitors.

How to use each social media platform

Each social media platform has its own unique characteristics and user behavior patterns. Let's take a look at how to utilize URL shortening services for each platform:

1. Facebook
On Facebook, you can utilize shortened URLs in a variety of places, including posts, comments, messages, and even profile bios.

Tip for effective utilization:

• Add shortened URLs to posts that include images or videos.
• Use customized shortened URLs for specific target audiences in a Facebook group or page.
• Use shortened URLs as registration links on event pages.

2. Instagram
Shortened URLs are even more important on Instagram, especially since profile links are limited.

Tips for effective utilization:

• Update your profile link regularly and track clicks.
• Utilize shortened URLs for the "swipe up" feature in Stories. (For accounts with 10k+ followers)
• Utilize shortened URLs in conjunction with services that aggregate multiple links (like Linktree).

3. Twitter
Shortened URLs are essential on Twitter with its 280-character limit. Outside of Twitter, they are also very effective for SMS, which also has a character limit.

Best practice tip:

• Use shortened URLs in conjunction with hashtags to increase reach.
• Include a shortened URL at the end of a Tweet thread to improve click-through rates (CTR).
• Share the same content link in different messages and compare performance.

4. LinkedIn
Shortened URLs can also be effectively utilized on LinkedIn, a professional network.

Tips for effective utilization:

• Use shortened URLs when sharing industry-related articles or blog posts.
• Maintain a consistent shortened URL scheme across your company page and personal profile.
• Use trackable shortened URLs for job postings and event promotions.

5. YouTube
Utilize shortened URLs in the description and comment sections of your YouTube videos.

Tips for effective use:

• Include shortened URLs in the video description as links to related resources or products.
• Create shortened URLs that link to specific timestamps.
• Providing partner-specific shortened URLs for collaborative promotions.

Let's say you're selling a product across all media platforms, including YouTube. Your video is about your product.
When you put a link to buy your product in the video introduction or first comment, you can use the shortened URL to see in real time how many people watched the video and clicked the link.

How to analyze click data

Click data collected through URL shortening services can be analyzed in a variety of ways to gain insights:

1. Analyze by time of day
Identify the time of day when clicks are most likely to occur so you can optimize your content publishing and promotion schedule:

• Daily/weekly patterns: to see if clicks are concentrated on certain days of theweek.
• Activity by time of day: analyze what time of day you get the most clicks.
• Seasonal trends: Analyze monthly and quarterly click patterns.

For example, if you see that you get the most clicks between 2pm and 5pm, you can time your content creation around this time.

2. Geographic analysis
Understand the geographic distribution of your target audience with information about where your clicks are coming from:

• Country/city breakdown: Understand which regions have the most interest.
• Language and cultural factors: Analyze regional differences in response to localize your content.
• Market expansion potential: Discover new market opportunities through interest from unexpected geographies.

3. Device and platform analysis
Analyze which devices and platforms users are accessing your links from:

• Mobile vs. desktop: Understand users' device preferences.
• Browser distribution: Percentage of usage by browser: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.
• OS analysis: Access by operating system, including iOS, Android, and Windows.

Users with the latest premium devices may be wealthier users.

4. Referrer analysis
Understand from which website or platform your link was clicked:

• Social media performance: Comparing which social platforms drive the most clicks.
• Email campaign effectiveness: Tracking clicks from email marketing.
• External site impact: Measure link performance on other websites or blogs.

If you've shared your URL on multiple platforms, knowing which platforms your link was clicked through is critical to your marketing.

Guide to choosing a URL shortening service

Choosing the right URL shortening service is important for effective click tracking. Here are the main factors to consider when choosing a service:

1. Basic features
Essential features that all URL shortening services should offer:

• Easy URL creation: Easy-to-use interface and fast processing speed.
• Reliable redirects: accurate redirects to the original URL without errors.
• Basic click statistics: at least the ability to track clicks.

If your shortened URL service crashes frequently, you might as well not use it at all.

2. Advanced Analytics
Advanced analytics for more detailed insights:

• Real-time dashboards: Ability to visualize click data in real-time.
• Detailed visitor information: geography, device, browser, and more.
• Customizable reports: Ability to create customized reports for specific time periods or campaigns.
• API support: Provides APIs for integration with other marketing tools.

API support is especially important for enterprise users. Links should be created as intended by the system or developer, and short URLs should be shared in text messages or emails immediately based on user behavior.

3. Customization options

Customization features to strengthen your brand identity:

• Custom domain: Create a shortened URL using your own domain (e.g., yourbrand.link).
• Custom URL slug: Customize the end of the URL with meaningful text.
• Branding features: Set up branded pages to reflect your logo, colors, and more.

If you have a lot of additional options beyond the basic link reduction features, you can apply them to make your link management easier.

4. Security and reliability
Security features for safe link sharing:

• Malicious link detection: Block dangerous links, such as phishing or malware.
• Privacy: Clear policies for handling user data.
• HTTPS support: secure redirects over a secure protocol.

If you've ever used a shortened URL service, you know what it's like: the number of clicks keeps growing even though no real person clicked on it.
It is very important to be able to detect and block malicious bots or foreign page trackers and provide more accurate click statistics.

5. Pricing and Plans
Choose a service that fits your budget and needs:

• Free plan: If you only need basic features, consider the free service.
• Premium features: Consider paid plans for advanced analytics, team collaboration, API access, and more.
• Scalability: Flexible plan structure that scales as your usage grows.

Avoid services with no paid plans and only a free plan. If it's only free, you won't know what to do if something goes wrong and you won't have access to customer support.

If you have questions about the service, there's often no customer support or they don't respond to your inquiries.

Advanced usage tips

Here are some advanced tips to maximize the effectiveness of URL Shortener:

1. Utilize UTM parameters
How to include UTM parameters in your shortened URLs to integrate with Google Analytics:

https://www.example.com/page?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spring_sale&utm_content=banner

Long URLs like the one above can be shortened with a shortening service and still retain full tracking functionality.
Vivoldi, in particular, allows you to set your own ID for the short link and is Unicode-enabled, so you can utilize it in a variety of local languages, including Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and more.

2. Run A/B testing
Create different shortened URLs for the same content to test which message or approach is more effective:

• Sharing the same link with different social media headers.
• Sharing the same content at different times of day and comparing performance.
• Share links with customized messages to different target groups.

3. QR code integration

Many URL shortening services offer the ability to generate QR codes:

• Utilize QR codes on offline marketing materials (posters, business cards, product packaging, etc.).
• Provide QR codes that link to digital resources at events or conferences.
• QR code scans are also included in click statistics to measure the combined effectiveness of your online and offline marketing.

4. Optimize team collaboration
Tips for marketing teams or cross-functional teams:

• Establish consistent naming conventions. (For example, campaign-platform-date)
• Organize links using tags and folders.
• Set access permissions for each team member and monitor activity logs.

5. Utilize webhooks and automation
Automation features for advanced users:

• Set up webhooks to receive notifications when certain conditions are met (e.g., 100+ clicks).
• Integration with automation tools like Zapier or IFTTT.
• Automatically generate periodic reports and receive them by email.

Frequently asked questions

Here are some common questions and answers about URL shortening services and click tracking:

Do URL shorteners negatively impact SEO?

In general, URL shortening services do not have a significant impact on SEO when used properly.

Most modern URL shortening services use 301 redirects to ensure that search engines recognize the SEO value of the original URL. However, we recommend that you use the original URL whenever possible for important internal links on your website.

Is there a risk that my shortened URL will expire or stop working?

Shortened URLs can stop working if a service provider goes out of business or changes its policies. For links that are important in the long run, we recommend choosing a large, trusted service or considering a shortened URL solution using your own domain.

Is all click data 100% accurate?

Click data from URL shortening services is generally accurate, but some discrepancies can occur due to the following factors

• The user's browser settings. (Blocking cookies, disabling JavaScript, etc.)
• Difficulty distinguishing bot traffic from real users.
• Data loss due to network errors or outages.

Therefore, we recommend using it as a tool to identify exact trends and relative changes.

If you've ever used a shortened URL service, you've probably noticed that the number of clicks increases significantly as the day goes on, even when no real users click on them. This is due to malicious bots and crawlers trying to access the short URL, which also increases the number of clicks.

With Vivoldi's platform, we are blocking most of the malicious bots and crawlers, so we have a very high accuracy rate.

What are the main differences between free and paid services?

In general, free services offer basic shortcuts and limited analytics, while paid services offer additional features such as

• More detailed and longer-term analytics data.
• Team collaboration features and advanced access controls.
• Custom domain and branding options.
• API access and integrations with other services.
• Prioritized technical support.

We recommend avoiding websites that are only available for free.
They often don't have customer support, or you can't get an admin to answer your questions, and they're very slow to respond if something goes wrong.

If you only have a few shortened URLs, it's fine, but if you're creating and managing 1,000+ shortened URLs, you should be concerned.

Is it safe to use URL shortening services from a privacy perspective?

Most URL shortening services have clear privacy policies regarding data collection and use. When sharing sensitive information or private links, it's a good idea to check the service's privacy policy and choose a service with password protection if necessary.

The bottom line

URL shortening services have evolved from simple link shortening tools to powerful marketing analytics platforms. With real-time click tracking, you can instantly see how your content is performing and make data-driven decisions.

To succeed in social media and digital marketing, it's not just about sharing content, it's about measuring and optimizing its performance. URL shortening services can make this process easier and more effective.

By actively utilizing the analytics offered by Vivoldi and other shortened URL services, you can create better marketing strategies. Start using shortened URLs today to see real-time click-throughs and start practicing data-driven marketing!

Use the strategies and tips in this guide to track the performance of the links you share on social media and other digital channels in real time, and continually improve your marketing strategy. Harness the power of URL shortening services to take your digital marketing efforts to the next level!

Thank you.