The problem with “v.short.gy”

By creating shortlinks on Short.io, you use our free “v.short.gy” domain for transparent links.

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In short, transparent links handle tracking, redirects, etc. for you, automatically, in the background.

However, due to the popularity of v.short.gy, we experienced an issue with “noisy neighbors” — malicious actors which caused Google Ads to flag our domain.

In truth, that was an issue with their internal checker, and it only affected the ability of our links to work with Google Ads. Despite filing a report with them, this issue was not able to be resolved on their end.

While this was an unexpected event on our end, it’s still something we need to address for our users.

Don’t worry, we have.

Our new solution

This year, we created a new domain — one that provides better transparent links.

And now, it’s a Google-certified click tracker.

Google has specific certification windows. We noticed the problem with v.short.gy in January, and submitted the request for our new domain immediately. 

In Google’s next certification window — Autumn — we were officially certified.

Our new transparent links domain is “Transparentlink.co.”

And the update is significant.

Google Ads will now see each user’s subdomain individually, proving destination, ownership, and tracking automatically.

Individual users will no longer be punished as part of a domain that treats users collectively.

The new Transparentlink.co domain finally solves this problem.

You can see a list of all approved domains — including ours — right on Google’s website.

You can find the settings for our new transparent shortlinks under “Link tracking” when clicking the “Edit” button next to your link.

If you use the “v.short.gy" domain as-is, you’ll still have issues with Google Ads.

But if you want to make sure Google Ads accepts your links and keeps you safe from bad actors, you’ll find your new transparent shortlinks in your link settings.

What now?

Now, we’re certified.

While we’ve had this feature ready to go for almost a year, it took until recently for it to be fully approved.

Where trust is needed, timely solutions are a must. 

Despite the problems with “v.short.gy," we’re now moving forward with a better tool — one that’s reliable and easy to use.

With Google’s certification now official, we continue being committed to what matters most — your campaigns’ success.

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For more information, see our documentation here.