Short Links
Shorten the links in your social posts so every click can be traced back to the post that drove it
When you add a link to a social post, Quotient turns it into a short link like
https://quot.link/a8Kd2Qz. Your post shows the short link, and anyone who
clicks it lands on the page you linked to.
Short links solve a problem every social marketer runs into. To know which post sent someone to your website, the link needs tracking tags on it. But a link with a dozen tags looks messy in a post, and on most platforms it eats into your character limit. A short link keeps the post clean and carries the tags behind the scenes, so a visit from your LinkedIn post shows up in Quotient as a visit from that LinkedIn post.
How Short Links Work
When you paste a link into a post, or type one and press space, it turns into a link chip showing the short link. Short links work everywhere you can put a link in a post: the post itself, a LinkedIn or Facebook first comment, X thread replies, and the links in X Articles.
Nothing about the link is final until the post goes out. When Quotient publishes your post, it adds tracking tags to the page each short link points to: the post, the platform, and the campaign the post belongs to. From then on, anyone who clicks the short link is sent to your page with those tags attached, and your website analytics (Quotient, Google Analytics, or anything else that reads UTM tags) can see exactly where the visit came from.
Each spot in a post gets its own short link. If you use the same URL in a post and in its first comment, each one gets a separate short link, so you can tell which one people clicked.
Editing a Link
Click any link chip in the editor to see its details. The popover shows the short link, which you can copy, and the Original URL (the page people will land on). To send people somewhere else, change the original URL and click Save. The short link stays the same.
If you'd rather show the full URL in your post, turn off Shorten & track. The post will show your original URL instead of a short link, and the popover warns you that the link posts exactly as written. A link that isn't shortened isn't tracked: clicks on it won't carry any tags, so visits from it can't be credited to the post. Turn Shorten & track back on to make it a short link again.
Turning Shortening On or Off
Link shortening is on by default for every platform. You can change that in Settings → URL Tagging, under Link shortening. Turn off Shorten links in social posts to stop shortening everywhere, or leave it on and turn off individual platforms under Platform overrides.
These settings only decide what happens to links you add from now on. Links already in your posts stay exactly as they are, so turning shortening off won't change a post you've already written, and turning it back on won't shorten old links. You can still turn shortening on or off for any individual link from the editor.
Before you turn shortening off, keep in mind what you give up. Links that aren't shortened go out exactly as you typed them, with no tracking tags, so visits from them won't be credited to your posts or campaigns.
Asking Quotient to Write Posts
When you ask Quotient to write or edit a post, the links it adds follow your settings, just like links you paste yourself. You can also ask for a specific link to be left as the full URL, or for a link to be shortened even on a platform where shortening is off.
Character Counts
The character count in the editor counts each link the way it will actually be published. A short link counts as the length of the short link, which is often much shorter than the page it points to. On X, every link counts as 23 characters no matter how long it is, so shortening doesn't change your X character count. If a post is over its platform's limit, Quotient won't let you schedule it.
Things to Know
Links in older drafts aren't shortened. Posts you drafted before short links were available keep their links as plain text. To shorten one, delete the link and paste it again.
Instagram and TikTok captions can't be clicked. These platforms don't make links in captions clickable, so a short link in a caption won't get clicks. It's still a tidy way to show a link people can type or copy.
Your own UTM tags. If a link already has UTM tags that Quotient also sets,
Quotient's values replace yours. Tags Quotient doesn't set, like utm_campaign
on a post that isn't part of a campaign, are kept.
Unpublished and failed posts. If you unpublish a post, or it fails to publish, its short links keep working but send people to your page without tracking tags. Publishing the post again restores the tags.
Labeled links in X Articles. In an X Article you can link text, like "read the full guide," instead of showing the URL. If you turn shortening off for X Articles, those labeled links still get tracking tags, because nobody sees the URL.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I change where a short link goes after the post is published?
A: No. Once a post is published, its links are fixed. To send people somewhere new, publish a new post.
Q: Can I use my own domain for short links?
A: Not yet. Short links currently use quot.link. Custom domains are on our
roadmap.
Q: Do link previews count as clicks?
A: No. Social platforms visit your link to build its preview card. Quotient recognizes those automated visits and doesn't count them as clicks.