URL Sharing Tips

Let's talk about shared URL links

Note: This information is provided to help other local companies and entreprenuers understand and explore what is possible.
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CanadaTips

Looking at the actual URL link you want to use

Terminology: URL (Universal Resource Locator) 

Working definition; URL is the actual link to a thing on the internet.
In your web broswer, the URL is what you would type into the address bar of your web browser (Safari, Chrome browser, Firefox, etc).
You type the URL by hand or perhaps click a link on the screen. The URL is how your browser finds and gets to the desired thing.

Edit the encoding URL to remove unnecessary ’extra’ data

I often see URL links that include a bunch of ‘junk’.
For example, after searching for Blueberry on our web store and then clicking on the product, the URL in the browser address bar is;
https://granolala.ca/products/granolala-blueberry?_pos=1&_sid=f7622410e&_ss=r

Often everything after the ? is unnecessary and should NOT be included
Even the ? should be trimmed away, which shrinks it down to
https://granolala.ca/products/granolala-blueberry

In general always review the URL you intend to share*. Make sure the URL does not include unnecessary 'garbage'. Trim your URL to be as compact as possible and still properly deliver the QR scanner to the correct target web page.

* If you are just going to embed/share a link to something to/from social media, perhaps a post you are creating, or whatever, always review and trim each URL before posting or sharing. 

This trimmed URL could now be pasted into a QR generator tool and it would work just fine.

URL shortening with Redirect

A further refinement can be done if your web host* offers URL Redirects (sometimes known as link shorteners).
In our case we use Shopify to host our web store, which includes URL Redirects. Many other website hosting services also offer redirects.

So, we have created a shortened URL for our ecommerce store in Shopify
https://Granolala.ca/Blueberry 

When our QR is scanned, the smartphone will first go to the shortened Granolala.ca/Blueberry link and be instantly redirected to the longer ’full’ URL which in turn will display the actual Blueberry product page.

https://Granolala.ca/Blueberry
redirects to ==>  https://granolala.ca/products/granolala-blueberry

Future Proofing: Another benefit of using Link Redirect (link shortening)

When you have your URL linking through a redirect, you have the ability in the future to change where the published link goes to. Without changing the existing posted/shared URL

Just edit the redirect setting for that shortened URL to point it at some other web page you now want to send your customers to. No need to generate a replacement QR code or reprint signs and business cards.

This future proofs your URL links so they never fail to ‘work’ even when you change your website pages or product links. For each existing QR code, edit the redirect to wherever you now want the scanned QR code to lead your customer.

Bonus: If you include actual text of your URL links in your ads, social media, or printed cards and signs, a shortened link can look much tidier.
Easier to type and less chance for typos.
Here is an example we use

Granolala.ca/Contact

We use shortened redirect URLs for almost every link we share. Especially for social media sharing and certainly most QR codes we post, share or print.

* Third party URL link shorteners 

These services have been around for ages and there are many to choose from. Bitly, TinyURL and so on. Be aware that these services are separate from and independent of the actual company that hosts your web site.

They want to get paid somehow, so using a third party redirect service may involve showing ads to your customers (sooner or later) when they use the link, or you must pay a subscription (sooner or later), or there is a limit to how many times in a month the link can be used ‘for free’.

If the hosting service for your web site includes link shortening redirects for free, I recommend using that. 

If you do use an external link shortening service, make sure you understand how it will work for you, including long term. Especially, but not only, whether it will show ads and/or collect your customer traffic data, or demand payment, and so on.

Meta, Facebook, Instagram, etc using Pemalink URL

If you wish to directly link to your presence on a specific social media platform, look for instructions to find the correct 'permalink' for that. You want to use the technically correct URL that will continue to work over time, even if Meta (or whoever) rearranges how their internal links work.

Again, I will suggest your generated QR code points to a redirect URL, from which you can then direct to the actual page on Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Example; pretend our preferred shareable QR code URL is 
https://mynicewebsite.ca/MeOnFacebook
Inside your website redirect service, you include;
/MeOnFacebook ==> https://MyActualFacebookPermalinkURL

If you have a Personal Profile on Facebook and a Business Page, be sure to link to the permalink for the Page if you want to have customers arrive there.

Tip: If you are tempted to simply copy whatever link currently appears in the address bar of your web browser, be aware that the copied link may not work properly in the future. Find the proper permalink and use that.

Permalinks for online store products

Similar to social media, you may want your shared link to reliably connect to a specific web page within your online store. Check whether your store has a method for direct permanent links to the product (or whatever) you wish to directly link to. This may not be a copy and paste from your own browser's address bar. 

Embedding a Google Search into your QR code

Soemtimes I will check a QR code on someone's poster/sign/business card and discover it leads to a Google Search. When that QR is scanned by a customer, the user's device then does the Search and hopefully shows results that are what the creator of the QR code hoped for.

This is a whole topic of its own. We do not embed Google Search commands as we cannot reliably predict what results will appear on the user's screen when their phone does the search.

Note about WWW.

Years ago it was common and sometimes required to include the WWW. prefix when typing web addresses. This has mostly gone away and most web addresses work just fine without the WWW portion.
If the URL you wish to share includes the WWW prefix, try deleting the WWW. (including the dot). If it still works, use the non-WWW version.

HTTPS versus HTTP

These days almost all web sites incorporate ’security’ for your web pages. The S in httpS means the link to your web site is ‘Secure’. In fact, many/most http links will be automatically converted to httpS in use.

The recommendation is to always include the https:// in all your shared links. Check that the https link really does work, of course, before sharing it. Sometimes an old web site will require the non-secure http link, but these are becoming much less common.

It generally does not matter whether you use https:// or HTTPS:// as the prefix

Sometimes letter case (uppercase vs. lowercase letters) does not matter for the web link or email address. Sometimes a website will be picky about letter casing, but maybe only for certain links.

Can I skip the  HTTPS://  thing entirely?

Well, maybe. When another smartphone reads your QR code and hands off the URL (without any HTTP prefix) to the web browser on the device, the device's web browser may understand that the HTTP prefix portion is implied. In which case it will automatically add the missing HTTP portion and your link should work as expected.

But, sometimes, the missing HTTP prefix really is needed. This entirely depends on the browser on the customer's smartphone. Which is what matters, not whether it works with your phone.

Since we cannot test every possible device out there, my advice is to include the HTTPS:// prefix with the target web site URL which you then encode into your QR. Providing the HTTP prefix ensures that the customer's web browser knows exactly what it is expected to do (open your target web link).

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Creating a QR code with your URL link

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URL Sharing Tips