Glossary
The vocabulary of branded short links
Every term you meet while running a link platform: what it means, why it matters, and where it shows up in the product.
45 terms
Links and routing
- 301 redirectA permanent HTTP redirect that browsers are allowed to cache and that search engines treat as a lasting move to a new address.
- 302 redirectA temporary HTTP redirect that is not cached by default, which is why link platforms use it for links that count clicks and route traffic.
- A/B testingSplitting the traffic of one short link between destination variants in order to compare them on a metric such as conversion.
- Custom domainA domain you own that serves your short links, connected by pointing DNS at the link platform and secured with an automatically issued certificate.
- Link rotatorOne short link with several destinations, chosen per click by weights, caps, schedules and audience filters.
- Redirect chainA sequence of two or more redirects between a click and the final page, with each hop adding delay and a chance to lose data.
- Short linkA compact web address whose path is a code that a redirect service resolves to the real destination at the moment of the click.
- SlugThe part of a short link that follows the domain — the code that identifies which destination the link resolves to.
- Vanity URLA short link built to be read and typed by people: a branded domain plus a deliberately chosen, memorable slug.
Domains and DNS
- A recordA DNS record mapping a hostname to an IPv4 address, used for short-link domains where a CNAME is not possible.
- Apex domainThe bare domain with no prefix, such as brand.com, which cannot carry a CNAME record and needs ALIAS or address records instead.
- CNAME recordA DNS record that points one hostname at another, and the usual way a branded short domain is connected to a link platform.
- DNS propagationThe lag between changing a DNS record and everyone seeing it, caused by cached answers expiring rather than by any distribution.
- hreflangAn attribute that tells search engines which language and region version of a page to show, with x-default naming the fallback.
- NameserverThe server authoritative for a DNS zone — the one that actually answers queries for a domain and holds the records you edit.
- SSL certificateThe certificate that lets a short domain be served over HTTPS, issued after control of the hostname has been verified.
- SubdomainA name under a domain you already own, such as go.brand.com, and the simplest hostname on which to serve short links.
- TTLTime to live: how many seconds a resolver may reuse a cached DNS answer before asking the authoritative server again.
Analytics and measurement
- AttributionThe rule that decides which click a later outcome belongs to, using a click identifier and a time window around it.
- ClickA single recorded request to a short link, counted by the redirect service at the moment it answers with a destination.
- Click-through rateThe share of people who saw a placement and clicked it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions of that same placement.
- ConversionA recorded outcome after a click — a purchase, a signup, a trial — reported back with the click identifier and usually an amount.
- ReferrerA request header carrying the address of the page a visitor came from, used to attribute a click to the place that published it.
- Server-side eventA conversion reported from your own server rather than from the visitor's browser, so it does not depend on scripts loading.
- Unique clickA click counted once per visitor within a period, so repeated requests from the same person do not inflate the total.
- User agentThe text a browser or app sends to identify itself, from which device class, platform and crawler identity are inferred.
- UTM parametersFive query parameters that label a destination address so the analytics tool on that site can group traffic by campaign.
Campaigns, QR and mobile
- Android App LinkAn https address Android opens directly in a verified app, authorised by an assetlinks file and the app's signing fingerprint.
- Deep linkAn address that opens a specific screen inside a mobile app instead of the app's home screen or a web page.
- Deferred deep linkA deep link whose context survives an app install, so the first launch opens the screen the visitor originally asked for.
- Dynamic QR codeA QR code that encodes a short link instead of the destination, so what it opens can be changed after it has been printed.
- Geo targetingSending visitors of one short link to different destinations depending on the country, region or city their address resolves to.
- Link in bioA single page of links on your own domain, used where a platform allows only one clickable address in a profile.
- QR codeA square barcode that stores a web address, read by a phone camera so a visitor opens the page without typing anything.
- Retargeting pixelA script or tracking image from an advertising platform, fired as a visitor passes through a link so they join an audience.
- Universal LinkAn https address that iOS hands to a matching app instead of opening a browser, authorised by a file served from your domain.
Traffic quality and privacy
- Bot trafficClicks produced by automated software rather than people, and the reason a raw click count overstates how many humans saw a link.
- Click fraudClicks made deliberately to drain a budget or distort a report, separated from ordinary bot traffic by intent rather than by technique.
- CloakingServing one page to a search engine and a different one to the human who follows the same address, which search engines treat as a policy violation.
- Data retentionHow long individual click events are kept before storage deletes them, a limit on what exists rather than on what a report is allowed to show.
- GDPR consentPermission obtained before personal data is recorded, one of the lawful bases the GDPR requires for processing, and a question about data rather than about the redirect.
- IP anonymizationTruncating or simply not storing a visitor's network address, decided when the click is written rather than when the report is read.
- Proxy detectionRecognising the kind of network a click arrived through — data centre, VPN, public proxy or TOR — as context about the request, not a verdict about the visitor.
- ResellerA company that sells someone else's service to its own customers under its own name, setting the prices, taking the payment and keeping the difference.
- White labelOne company's service sold entirely under another company's brand, so that the dashboard, emails, payment pages and statements name the reseller rather than the supplier.
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