Just another URL shortener!
Frequently Asked Questions
Any questions we receive more than once will be listed here. If you can't find the answer you are looking for, please email support@wel.ly.
What is Wel.ly?
Wel.ly is simply a service that allows a user to shorten a ridiculous, long, lengthy URL into a nice, tidy, neat one. For example:
Long URL: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=london+eye&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=12.188179,38.803711&ie=UTF8&hq=London+Eye&hnear=London+Eye,+Lambeth,+SE1+7,+UK&ll=51.503323,-0.119691&spn=0.001566,0.004737&t=h&z=18
Short URL: http://wel.ly/eye
Why would I want to shorten a URL?
URL shorteners have been used to reduce the number of characters in a Twitter post as you are restricted to 140 characters. Short URLs are also being used in emails for better presentation, texting to a mobile phone enabled with browser support and for sharing on most social networking websites such as Facebook and Google Buzz.
How do I share a short URL?
You can either "Copy & Paste" the short URL generated by Wel.ly into your preferred network, such as Twitter, Facebook or Google Buzz. Alternatively, view the statistics page of your short URL and click the "Share" button.
What's a custom tag?
Registered users have the ability to set their own short URLs such as http://wel.ly/eye ("eye" being the custom tag). Non-registered short URL requests are generated automatically.
How do I find the statistics page of my short URL?
Non-registered users will need to add a "+" at the end of the generated short URL and these statistics will be available for viewing by the public. For example: http://wel.ly/eye+
Registered users should log in and click on the statistics icon next to the short URL in question. Registered users have the option to allow all public users view their statistics or set them to be private, where they will only be visible to you when you have logged in.
How are the statistics generated?
Each time a user clicks on your short URL, Wel.ly detects information about the click before re-directing the user to the final URL location. We record this information so we can present to you how many times the URL has been clicked, the geographical location of the click and from what site the click was referred from.
Are Wel.ly re-directs safe?
We re-direct your short URL using a 301 technique which has been recommended by Google as the safest way to divert traffic from one URL to another.
How did you know the destination URL details?
We just gave it some Wel.ly! Actually, Wel.ly just detects the HTML tags of the destination page and either uses the <title>Your page title</title> or the <meta title="Your meta title" /> tag.
What is the 'Top URLs' section?
On the Wel.ly website, you will see our Top URLs. These are displayed by the short URLs submitted with the most clicks.
Why did you share my short URL?
Each day, Wel.ly will share the Top URLs section with our preferred social network. These are submitted automatically by our system using the social networking API. We currently: Share to Facebook, Tweet to Twitter and Buzz to Google.
What is an API and do you have one?
API stands for 'Application Programming Interface' and Yes we have one. Without getting too technical, an API is an interface that allows communication between systems. Therefore you could use our API to generate a short URL directly from your own website, system or application. Click here for further information.
