What Is Bitly & How Does It Work?

Bitly is a link-shortening tool that provides useful analytics on the links you add to your posts! It will change the look of your link and shorten it to something more aesthetically pleasing and easier for your followers to click! 
This is especially useful if your links are very long, include Google UTM parameters, or other tags that make your links less attractive. Rather than post an unsightly long link, automatically shorten it with Bitly so your social media posts are clean and orderly! ✨     

In This Article

How To Connect Your Bitly Account

1. If you don't already have a Bitly account, head over to Bitly.com to sign up for a free account!

2. In a new browser tab, navigate to the Profiles page of your SmarterQueue account.

3. Click the Bitly button to link your account to SmarterQueue.

Note: A Bitly account does not count as one of your attached Social Profiles!


4. Follow the prompts on the screen to authorize the connection and "Allow" access.

5. Once your Bitly account is connected, link tracking will be turned on by default.      
6. You can also connect multiple Bitly accounts if you wish, and set up custom link tracking for each Social Profile.  

How To Manage Your Link Tracking Settings

1. You can manage your default link tracking settings by navigating to the cog menu > Settings > Link Tracking.

2. Here you can turn Bitly off, configure custom link tracking for your social profiles, or change your link-shortening domain from Bitly to a customer one if you've purchased a custom domain!

If you have not purchased a custom domain, Bitly offers bit.ly as a free domain.

3. When creating or editing a post inside the Post Editor, you'll have the option to adjust your Bitly link shortening settings for individual posts. Navigate to "Link Settings" on the right pane.

4. Here you can turn Bitly Click Tracking "Off" for the individual post.

How To View Your Bitly Analytics

1. Once you have connected your Bitly account and shared posts with links, you will be able to see analytics of those links by navigating to Analytics > Past Posts.

2. You'll see the number of clicks displayed for posts with links.

3. For more information on stats for an individual link, click the three dots "..." > View Bitly Stats Page. This will open a new tab with the full statistics on your Bitly account for the particular link! 

Common Questions

1. Why doesn't Bitly shorten the links for my Pinterest posts?

Due to API restrictions, Bitly Link Tracking is not currently available on Pinterest. 

We are actively looking into increasing this functionality.  

2. I updated my Bitly settings but my queued posts are still being shortened? 

When changing the default link settings, this will only come into effect  for new posts, or when you edit an already queued post. It will not update previously Queued posts. 
For example, you decide you no longer want shortened links in your articles so you remove Bitly. Any articles already queued will still have the shortened link, you will need to edit those articles and change the link if you don't want the shortened link to be posted.
3. Why aren't my Bitly links being created? I'm seeing an error that my rate limit was exceeded.
If you are seeing the following error: "There was a problem creating a bitlink for your post: [RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED].
You can try to auto-fix all failed bitlinks. Otherwise, you may wish to edit the post and try to turn click-tracking on again.
Please note that Bitly has a rate limit for how many Bitly links you can create per hour - 100 per hour.
Rest assured, if you exceed your Bitly rate limit, SmarterQueue will automatically try again later to generate your links 💪 

4. Why am I seeing errors like "[API_USAGE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED]" or "Unable to get Bitly link for the post"?

This means you have reached your monthly limit for Bitly links. Bitly has recently reduced the number of links available to free plans to just 10 links per month, which includes both new and older free accounts that previously had higher limits.

Check your Bitly account to confirm your monthly limit. If you need more links, consider upgrading your Bitly account.

5. Why is there only one Bitly link tracking domain available?

Bitly no longer offers j.mp or bitly.com domains, so you can either use bit.ly or create a custom domain! 

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