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Creating Links

Creating shortened URLs is the core feature of Short Links. This guide covers all the options available when creating a new link.

A short link needs one thing to exist: somewhere to send people. Everything else — a name you will recognise later, your own short key, an expiry date, a private note — is optional, and this article covers what each one does and which plan it needs.

Creating a link

  1. Open Short Links and click Create Short Link

  2. Paste the address you want to shorten into Destination URL

  3. Fill in any of the optional fields below

  4. Click Generate Short Link

The link works from the moment you create it — there is nothing to publish or activate.

What you get back

Creating a link takes you to its page, which is also where you come back to later. It shows:

  • The short URL with a Copy button, ready to paste anywhere

  • The QR code for that link, with Download PNG and Download SVG buttons

  • Its click chart for the last seven days, on a paid plan

The QR code encodes the short URL, so a scan travels through the same redirect and counts as a click just like a tap would. Use the SVG for anything printed or resized — packaging, posters, signage — and the PNG for slides, social posts and email.

Names and notes

Neither of these is ever shown to a customer. Both are optional, and both can be changed later.

  • Link Name - What you will recognise the link by in the links table, in Analytics, and in any Shopify Flow message. Something like “Spring sale — Instagram bio” is far easier to find later than a URL. Links without a name are listed by their destination instead.

  • Private Note - Free-form detail for yourself, such as “Sent to VIP customers on 5 Jan”. A note icon appears next to the link in the table when there is one.

Custom short keys

By default the app generates a five-character key, so your link comes out as something like yourstore.com/k4m2p. Filling in Custom URL replaces it with a key you choose:

  • Up to 20 characters, using letters, numbers and dashes

  • Unique within your store — a key already in use is rejected when you save

  • Best kept short and obvious — sale, vip, winter-sale all read well in print

Custom keys are a paid-plan feature. On the free plan the field is visible but greyed out, alongside a link to upgrade, and your links get generated keys.

Expiration dates

Ticking Set expiration date reveals a date and time picker. Once that moment passes, the link is marked as expired in the app and moves into the Expired filter.

Expiry is a paid-plan feature, and it can only be set while you are creating a link — the date is fixed once the link exists. Link Expiration covers the details.

Linking to a product, collection, page or blog article

You do not have to hunt for the URL of something in your own store. On a product, collection, page or blog article in your Shopify admin, use that page’s Create Short Link action and the app opens with the right kind of form already selected:

  • Product - Pick a product or variant, then choose what the link does. Product Page sends visitors to the product as normal. Add to Cart/Checkout skips the product page and puts the item straight in the cart, with a quantity, an optional discount code applied automatically, and an option to go directly to checkout with Shop Pay.

  • Collection - Pick a collection and the link points at that collection’s page.

  • Page and Blog article - Pick the page or the article you want.

The link’s destination is built for you from your store’s domain, so it keeps working if you rename things later in the ways Shopify handles itself.

UTM parameters in the destination

You can put tracking parameters straight into the destination URL, and visitors arrive with them intact:

https://yourstore.com/collections/sale?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=bio&utm_campaign=winter_sale

  • utm_source - Where the traffic came from, such as instagram or newsletter

  • utm_medium - The kind of channel, such as social, email or cpc

  • utm_campaign - The campaign name, such as winter_sale_2026

  • utm_content - Which piece of creative, such as hero_image

  • utm_term - Paid search keywords

On a paid plan you can skip this entirely and let UTM passthrough add the parameters at share time instead — see UTM Passthrough.

Asking Sidekick to start a link

If you would rather describe the link than fill in the form, ask Shopify’s Sidekick assistant for it: “Create a short link for my summer sale collection”. It opens this same form with the destination and name already filled in, and you still press Generate Short Link yourself. The Shopify Sidekick article covers what else it can do, and Settings > Sidekick in the app lists example phrasings.

Next Steps

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