To help you understand link management, we've put together this list of Bitly terms. Some terms are especially helpful when communicating with your developers to set up a connection through our API.
Some of these features are available with a subscription.
View our pricing page for the full list of features and plans.
| Term | Definition | Used in a sentence |
| API access | Ability to create a Bitly link or view your click data programmatically without logging in to Bitly's web page. | I can check the metrics on this link with an API call through our account's API access. |
| API V4 | Bitly's current data processing system as of 2019. | API V4 provides a faster and smoother experience for the bitly platform. |
| Auto-branding |
A feature that automatically shortens any bit.ly link to your designated domains to your own custom domain, no matter who shortens it in Bitly. This will only occur if someone doesn't use their own custom domain to shorten the link.
|
I shortened a link to an Amazon listing and instead of the bit.ly domain it started with "amzn.to." Amazon must be a Bitly customer who is using auto-branding. |
| Back-half (aka 'hash') |
The part of your short link after the last forward slash. Ex: bit.ly/BACK-HALF |
The back-half of your short link can be customized with words or phrases to better identify the link. |
| Branded Link Hub | A portal feature that allows all employees at a company to utilize the company's Bitly account to shorten links. This brands the links with a custom domain without having to add a user seat for each employee. | After setting up our Branded Link Hub, everyone at our company can create Bitly links with our custom domain without having to set up separate user accounts. |
| Branded link | A link that utilizes a custom domain and a randomized back-half. Ex: your.co/2gh6nm |
I know by clicking a Branded Link like 'amzn.to' it will take me to an Amazon approved page. |
| bit.ly link | A short link that uses the default "bit.ly" domain available to all users. | The link I wanted to send was too long for an SMS so I quickly shortened it to a bit.ly link. |
| The leader in link shortening, offering in depth analytics and increased visibility and branding for your company's links. | Bitly shows me metrics for all the links I've shortened since I signed up for an account. | |
| Bitly link | A URL shortened through Bitly; ideal for sharing in social posts and other communications due to its neat and compact size. | I put Bitly links in all my tweets to add brand recognition and save character space. |
| Bitly plans | Account tiers that offer different features and limits to best suit your needs. All plans are listed on our pricing page. | I looked over the Bitly Plans to decide which plan best fits my needs. |
| Bitly Support | Our Customer Support Team! The best team ever! We're here to help subscribing customers with any questions you may have and provide a seamless and enjoyable Bitly experience. :) | When having trouble with your Bitly account, Bitly Support can help out. |
| Campaigns | A feature that allows you to create custom links for multiple platforms that can be tracked separately. | The campaigns feature is ideal for tracking separate link performance data for my influencer marketing campaign. |
| City-level data | Metrics showing click data by city. | By viewing my city-level data, I can see that my link performed very well in New York. |
| Click-throughs, Click-through rate or CTR | The ratio of people who click on a link to the total number of people who view your website page, social post, email or ad. | Our click-through rate shows a lot of our traffic is coming from our Bitly links. |
| Link management platform | A product where you create and manage your links, view link data, edit account details and more. | Bitly is the most trusted and reliable link management platform in the world. |
| Country-level data | Metrics showing click data by country. | By viewing my country-level data, I see that our campaign performed better in European markets than it did in the United States. |
| Custom back-half | A specified back-half of your link as opposed to the auto-generated, randomized half. Ex: bit.ly/YOURHALF |
A custom back-half helps create better brand visibility as well as security and trust for users. |
| Custom domain |
The short domain you use for your Bitly links instead of the default "bit.ly." This domain will be used with Bitly to shorten links. It cannot be your website domain. (But you can redirect it to your home page! ;)
Developers may refer to this as the branded short domain or BSD, since this is what it's called in the Bitly API. |
Your custom domain can align with your branding and give you full control of all links using that domain. |
| Custom links or custom branded links |
A Bitly link that utilizes both a custom domain and a custom back-half. Ex: shop.co/springsale |
Custom links are unique to you and your content. |
| Dashboard | A page that displays an overview of your Bitly link performance including your total clicks, top links, city-level data and more. | Your dashboard provides an all-in-one place to view your link data. |
| Domain 1-Step Setup |
After upgrading your account, you can select a free custom domain with a one-step setup. This means you don't have to deal with a domain's DNS settings and verification to brand your links. |
With the Domain 1-Step Setup, you'll quickly get a custom domain up and running. |
| Domain Finder | After upgrading your account, you can select a free custom domain. Domain Finder is the search function. | The Domain Finder will let you search available domains you can select and use with your Bitly account. |
| Domain Root Router | Redirect visitors to a web page you designate when they enter your custom domain with nothing after the slash “/”. We recommend setting this to your home page. | The Domain Root Router allows my custom domain to direct to any page I want so I'm going to route it to my site home page. |
| Domain 404 Error Fixer | Prevents 404 dead-ends by pointing visitors to a designated web page if your branded short link contains an error or typo after the slash “/”. | If clients enter a typo when trying to access my link the Domain 404 Error Fixer will bring them to my designated page. |
| Group selector | A selection from the Bitly profile menu that allows you to switch between different Bitly Groups. | I couldn't find a link I made in my account until I realized I made it in a different group. The Group Selector let me switch to that group and access it. |
| Help Center | Our knowledge base containing helpful resources such as support articles and videos. | The Help Center is filled with articles that can help you learn how to best utilize Bitly |
| Link-in-bio |
A simple webpage that you can use to organize your most important links — perfect to share in your social media bios (and elsewhere). |
When you share the URL for your Bitly Link-in-bio, your followers, customers, and others can click through to find all of your great content and relevant information. |
| Link-level data | Analytics focused on one specific link. | The entire summer campaign is doing well. By looking at Link-level Data, we can see which links are performing well to replicate their success. |
| Knowledge base (KB) | A collection of resources to guide you through Bitly. | The Knowledge Base in Bitly's Help Center is filled with great videos and articles. |
| Mobile Deep Linking |
Mobile Deep Linking points your links directly to screens in your apps or to your app store listing. |
Mobile Deep Links allow for a seamless user journey taking the user to a specific location in an app. |
| Monthly link limit | The number of links per month you can shorten through Bitly (including QR Codes and links for your Link-in-bio). Each plan has a different monthly limit. | You may hit your monthly link limit if you are shortening a high volume of links. The count resets on the first day of every month. |
| Parameter Passing |
Bitly will include parameters (like UTM's) from a long URL that are included before we shorten it. With Parameter Passing, you can add parameters to the end of the short link itself. |
You can add unique parameters to your links after already shortening them to provide a page for a specific user ID. These can be added after the link is already shortened allowing you to use them individually for each recipient. |
| QR Code | A randomly generated visual code that can be scanned from a device to automatically direct users to a desired link | If you scan this QR Code, it will bring you to the page our Bitly link directs to, and will track the clicks. |
| Rate limits | The rate per second/minute/hour that the API can be called to. | Different Bitly plans have tiered rate limits based on the volume of links you create. |
| Redirect | Changing the target URL of a link. | When the destination page for my Bitly link needs to be changed, I can do so with a Redirect. |
| SSL certificate | SSL certificates protect communications between your browser or computer and a website through encryption. Bitly provides one, but you can also use your own. | Bitly provides an SSL certificate through LetsEncrypt but if you want to use your own custom SSL certificate, that is possible too. |
| SSO | With single sign-on (SSO), you can centralize user management across multiple platforms, including Bitly, and your users can sign in using one password. Bitly gives you total control over the SSO configuration through your settings page. | With SSO implemented, our whole team was able to set up their Bitly accounts with no hassle and they can log in easily now every time. |
| User seat |
Each individual who uses your Bitly account has a user seat. Bitly plans have tiered limits on the number of users for each account. User seats are assigned to one individual or one API integration only. User seats may not be shared. |
Additional user seats are required in order to have multiple primary users have access to the account. |
| Webhooks | A method of sharing link information from Bitly to an application outside of Bitly. It's a way to automate actions or updates between two different systems. | Webhooks keep our data up to date and organized. |