How to Migrate from Bitly to Urlik with Custom Aliases

How to Migrate from Bitly to Urlik with Custom Aliases

A custom alias is often the part of a Bitly link people actually remember. If a team has shared an address such as bit.ly/spring-guide in emails, presentations, or customer conversations, replacing it with an unrelated string can cause confusion even when the destination page stays the same.

This guide focuses on recreating custom aliases in Urlik, not on transferring every part of a Bitly account. The key is to decide which endings matter, document their destinations, check Urlik’s current alias rules, and record any name that cannot be reused. Exact settings and limits should be confirmed in Urlik before creation.

1. Define which Bitly aliases you want to recreate

Start with the names people remember. An alias like spring-guide may appear in a printed handout, while support may be used by staff in customer replies; those links have a stronger case for recreation than a one-off link in an old internal note.

Make the decision link by link. Check campaign documents, email templates, social profiles, slide decks, and any other place where someone might have copied a Bitly short URL. A link’s click history can help identify whether it is still in use, but do not treat one quiet reporting period as proof that nobody needs it.

• Keep an alias if customers or staff recognize it, or if it appears in a current campaign asset.
• Review an alias if its destination is obsolete or the page owner cannot confirm its purpose.
• Leave an alias out of the first recreation batch if its owner or destination is unknown.

Give each selected alias an owner before building it in Urlik. For example, the person responsible for the spring campaign can confirm whether spring-guide should still lead to the current guide page or to a replacement. That decision prevents a familiar name from directing visitors to an outdated offer.

2. Build an alias-to-destination inventory

Record four essentials for every selected link: the Bitly short URL, its custom alias, the full destination URL, and a note that identifies its purpose. The note might say “spring campaign guide” or “support contact page”; a useful label gives a teammate context when two links lead to similar pages.

Check which export or access options are available for your Bitly account. If an export is available, check that it includes the fields you need; if it does not, gather missing details from the Bitly interface or the documents where the short links were originally used. Do not assume that an export contains a complete history of every alias.

Keep the destination as a full URL, including any existing query parameters. For a link that points to a campaign page with UTM tags, omitting part of the query string could change the reporting result. A separate note can explain whether the tags are intentional and who owns them.

• Bitly short URL: the complete address currently shared.
• Alias: the custom ending after the short-link domain.
• Destination: the complete page address, including query parameters.
• Purpose: a plain-language note and, where known, the person who approved it.

Keep one approved inventory as the working record. If a colleague corrects the destination for support, update that record before anyone creates the Urlik link; two competing spreadsheets can leave the team unsure which URL was checked.

3. Check Urlik’s alias rules before creating links

Before assigning names, review Urlik’s current alias requirements, including any rules for allowed characters, length, capitalization, and uniqueness. Check the relevant requirements in Urlik before deciding whether spring-guide can be used as written or needs a different form.

Do not infer those rules from another short-link service. A name accepted by Bitly may not meet Urlik’s current requirements, and the same spelling may already be assigned within the relevant Urlik account. Confirm the rule in the product or its current help material, then write the result beside the inventory rather than relying on memory.

Case handling deserves a specific check. If Urlik treats uppercase and lowercase letters as equivalent, Support and support may not represent separate names; if it handles them differently, a printed or spoken alias can still be hard to distinguish. Choose a readable form and apply it consistently to the inventory and any team instructions.

Record any alias that Urlik indicates is unavailable as a conflict, rather than silently replacing it with a guess.

4. Flag aliases that may need a different name

Compare every selected alias with Urlik’s rules and the names already present in the relevant account. Mark each one as available, conflicting, or needing review. This small status field helps the person creating links distinguish an approved alternative from an unfinished decision.

For a conflict, choose an alternative that preserves the meaning without suggesting that the original name was successfully transferred. If spring-guide is unavailable, a team might consider a clear variation tied to the content, such as spring-reading-guide, but it should first confirm that the new wording is acceptable to the campaign owner.

Avoid adding a year, region, or department just to make a name unique unless that detail will remain accurate. An alias that names a year can become misleading when the page is reused, while a department abbreviation may be unclear to customers. The alternative should describe the destination or purpose, not the history of the migration.

• Keep the original alias in the inventory, even when it cannot be reused.
• Write the proposed alternative beside it and record who approved the change.
• Note where the original Bitly alias is still printed or published, so the team can assess those placements separately.

Some names should not be recreated at all. If old-offer points to a discontinued promotion, the right decision may be to retire it rather than assign the same name to an unrelated page. Reusing a familiar alias for a different purpose can make a link look trustworthy while sending visitors somewhere unexpected.

5. Create Urlik links using the approved alias map

Once the inventory has approved destinations and alternatives, create Urlik links from that record rather than copying URLs from old chat messages. Add the destination, then follow Urlik’s displayed process for assigning the approved alias and saving or publishing the link.

For each entry, preserve the destination exactly as approved. If spring-guide is meant to open a particular campaign page, compare the complete address in Urlik with the inventory before saving; a missing query parameter or a copied staging URL can send visitors to the wrong page even when the alias looks right.

Use the agreed alternative whenever the original alias is unavailable. Record the Urlik short URL beside the original Bitly short URL, including the final alias that was assigned. If the resulting address differs from the requested name, make that difference visible to the link owner instead of leaving it for someone to discover after sharing.

Campaign links may also carry tracking parameters. If you need to review what those parameters do, see this guide to UTM tracking for short links and the article on UTM link tracking for campaigns. Keep attribution changes separate from alias decisions: the short ending identifies the link, while the destination and its query string determine where it leads and what tracking data it carries.

Do not treat creating a Urlik link as proof that every Bitly use has been replaced. The old Bitly URL may still appear in an email or saved document, and this workflow is about creating the new alias and verifying its destination. Your inventory should make that distinction clear by storing both addresses.

6. Verify each alias against its intended destination

Test every new Urlik short URL against the approved inventory. Open the address, check that its alias matches the approved name, and confirm that the final page is the intended destination. For a link with query parameters, inspect the resulting address or page behavior closely enough to catch an omitted or altered parameter.

Record the result beside each entry, including the date of the check and any correction made. If support opens the wrong page, mark it as failed and follow Urlik’s current process to correct it; then test it again.

Ask a second person to review aliases that will appear in customer-facing material. The reviewer can compare the link with the source document and check that a name such as spring-reading-guide has not been mistaken for the original spring-guide. A second set of eyes is especially useful when the alternative is similar to another active alias.

Keep a final record with the old Bitly URL, the new Urlik URL, the approved destination, the alias status, and the test result. That record gives the campaign owner a concrete reference when updating an email or presentation, and it shows exactly which custom aliases were recreated and which received an approved alternative.