The InBio Blog

We followed 134,515 archived links over 9 years. Short links died 2.1× as often as direct links — and 8.6% of survivors now point somewhere else.

Most link rot is unavoidable — but 6.2% of shortened links are killed by the shortener itself. Data from 134,515 links on why owning matters.

tr.im, x.co, su.pr, tcrn.ch — shorteners that shut down and took every link with them. Plus the zombies that fake being alive with a 301 home.

A dead link is honest; a repointed one keeps collecting clicks. In 3,869 working short codes, 8.6% now land on a different domain than they did.

Link cloaking hides an affiliate URL behind your own domain. What it does, where it's allowed, where it gets you banned, and when to skip it entirely.

QR codes can't carry malware, but they can hide a phishing link. How quishing works, the signs to look for, and how to check where a code goes before you tap.

A QR code that won’t scan usually has one of nine causes — size, contrast, quiet zone, a dead destination, or a platform that switched it off. Test yours here.

A QR code on a business card can save your contact details in one scan — or waste space nobody uses. When it works, when it doesn't, and how to do it properly.

QR codes never expire — the pattern is just printed pixels. What expires is the service behind them. Here's what actually breaks a code, and how to avoid it.

A dynamic QR code is just a QR pointing at a short link you can edit. Change the destination after printing, track every scan — and skip the premium upsell.

Print, outdoor, events and podcasts send no referrer, so the response lands as direct traffic. Three mechanisms that fix it, and what none of them can tell you.

Artwork locks months before the press run and packs sit on shelves for years. Encode a short link instead so the destination stays editable after printing.

Most agencies keep client links in a spreadsheet and one person's departure loses them all. Five rules for managing links across clients without losing any.

Bitly, TinyURL, Rebrandly, Short.io, Dub, Cutt.ly and shorturl.at benchmarked on redirect speed, UTM survival, link longevity and free tiers. 800 samples.

Shortening takes five seconds. The useful part is what comes after: a name people can read aloud, a matching QR code, and click data you can actually trust.

A link shortener with click analytics that never stores a visitor's IP address, plus a keyless API and an MCP server. Here's what we built and why.

Preview crawlers, email security scanners and scrapers hit your link the second you post it. Here's what's actually inflating your clicks, and how to filter it.

A plain QR code counts nothing. Put a short link inside and every scan is recorded — with time, location and device data you can actually act on.

The five UTM parameters, what each one actually does, and the naming rules that stop one campaign splintering into a dozen rows in your analytics reports.