URL Shortener

What it is

The URL Shortener takes a long link and creates a short address with your project’s name in it. Whoever clicks the short link is taken straight to the original address.

Every short link has this format:

https://u.carameloai.com/YOUR_PREFIX/CODE

• YOUR_PREFIX is your project’s short name, which you set only once (see section 2);
• CODE is the end of the link. The platform generates one for you, or you pick your own, like black-friday.

1. When to use

The shortener is a good fit when:

• The original link is too long for a post, a text message or a printed piece;
• You want the address to show your brand name instead of a random string of letters;
• You want to be able to switch the link off when the campaign is over.

2. First-time setup

The first time you open it, the platform asks for a prefix: the short name that will appear in every link of the project.

1. Go to your Project and click URL Shortener in the side menu.
   • On mobile, open the menu with the ☰ icon at the top of the screen.
2. Click Shorten URL.
3. The “Configure URL Shortener” screen shows up. In the URL Prefix (Short Name) field, type your project’s name, for example project-name.
4. Click Save Prefix.

🔒 Think it over before saving: once configured, the prefix cannot be changed. It will appear in every link you share.

Prefix rules:

• Only lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens (-). Spaces are removed as you type;
• Between 4 and 25 characters;
• It can’t be in use by another project. If it is, you’ll see the message “Este prefixo já está em uso” (“This prefix is already in use”).

As soon as you save, the form for creating links shows up on the same screen.

3. Creating a short link

1. In URL Shortener, click Shorten URL.
2. Fill in the fields:
   • Original URL (required): the full address the link will point to, starting with https://;
   • Custom URL (optional): the end of the link. The address with your prefix is already shown before the field. If you leave it blank, the platform creates a code;
   • Google Tag ID (optional): the ID of your Google Analytics property, in the G-XXXXXXXXXX format. Read section 7 before using it.
3. Click Shorten URL.

The “URL Shortened Successfully!” screen shows the finished link, with a button next to it to copy it. To create another one, click Shorten another URL.

💡 Tip: if the original URL has already been shortened in this project, the platform doesn’t create a new link. It gives you back the existing one, even if you typed a different custom URL.

4. What the platform shows after creation

Before the first link, the shortener screen only shows an overview of the feature and the Shorten URL button. After that, it becomes a list with 25 links per page. The column names are shown in Portuguese:

The list doesn’t show clicks or any other metrics. To track visits, use Google Analytics (see section 7).

4.1 Deactivating and reactivating a link

In the Ações (Actions) column, click the switch button. From then on, whoever opens the link sees the “URL Desativada” (URL deactivated) page instead of being redirected. To turn it back on, click the same button. The address stays the same.

📌 Want to change where a link goes? The original URL can’t be edited after the link is created. Create a new link and deactivate the old one.

5. How it all connects

┌─────────────────────┐                        ┌──────────────────────┐
│  Someone clicks the │   1. opens the link    │  Caramelo Shortener  │
│  short link         │ ─────────────────────▶ │  (u.carameloai.com)  │
└─────────────────────┘                        │  → finds the link    │
                                               │  → checks that it is │
                                               │    active            │
                                               └──────────┬───────────┘
                                                          │ 2. link is active
                                                          ▼
                                               ┌──────────────────────┐
                                               │  With Google Tag ID: │
                                               │  → 5-second waiting  │
                                               │    page              │
                                               │  → visit sent to     │
                                               │    Google Analytics  │
                                               └──────────┬───────────┘
                                                          │ 3. redirects
                                                          │    (without Google Tag ID, goes straight)
                                                          ▼
                                               ┌──────────────────────┐
                                               │  Destination page    │
                                               │  (original URL)      │
                                               └──────────────────────┘

Step by step:

1. Someone clicks the short link;
2. The shortener finds the link and checks that it’s active. If it’s deactivated, it shows the “URL Desativada” page and stops there;
3. If the link has a Google Tag ID, a “Redirecionando…” (redirecting) page appears with a 5-second countdown. That’s when the visit is sent to Google Analytics;
4. The person lands on the original address. Without a Google Tag ID, they go straight there, with no waiting page.

6. Link behavior

💡 Best practices: use a short prefix, ideally your brand name. For the end of the link, a name that describes the campaign (black-friday, launch-2026) is easier to recognize than a generated code.

7. Google Analytics integration

The platform has no click report. To find out how many people opened a link and where they came from, you need Google Analytics: the shortener sends each visit to your account, and that’s where the numbers show up.

You can set the Google Tag ID (G-XXXXXXXXXX) in two ways:

• On a specific link: in the Google Tag ID field, when creating the link;
• For the whole project: in the project Settings, in the “Other Settings” card, Google Tag ID field. From then on, every new link created with the field left blank uses this ID.

In Google Analytics, each visit shows up as a page view of u.carameloai.com/YOUR_PREFIX/CODE. To check that it’s working, open the Realtime report, click the short link and watch the visit come in.

⚠️ Heads up: with a Google Tag ID, whoever clicks waits 5 seconds on the “Redirecionando…” page before reaching the destination. Without the ID, the redirect is immediate. So it’s worth turning Analytics on only for the links you’ll actually track.

You don’t need to install anything on your website for this to work. The Google Analytics script runs on the shortener’s own redirect page.

8. Frequently asked questions