Bitly Bulk Shorten

You’ve got 100 URLs, and you want to convert them all to Bitly shortened URLs. But you don’t want to copy and paste 100 times into Bitly, and then another 100 times out of Bitly. Here’s a bulk solution that allows you to use Google Docs and the Bitly API to automate the process. This is an approach based on a modification of the article Tag and Shorten Your URLs in Bulk for Better Google Analytics Data by Setaris.

This post assumes you already have a Bitly account and are somewhat familiar with using Google Docs, although there’s no need to be an expert.

1. Click here to get my Google Docs spreadsheet. Go to File > Make a copy to create a copy you can edit.

There are two tabs visible in the lower left hand corner of Google Docs, while viewing the spreadsheet. You’re currently looking at the “Settings” tab.

2. Enter your Bitly username in the appropriate cell. Make sure to replace the <> characters as well, not just what’s inside the brackets.

3. Enter your Bitly API key in the appropriate cell. Once again, make sure to replace the <> characters as well, not just what’s inside the brackets. You can find your Bitly API key by logging into your Bitly account and clicking on your username in the upper right corner. Then click on Settings > Advanced and then at the bottom of the page where it says Legacy API Key click on “Show legacy API Key.”

4. Return to the spreadsheet. Select the “Shortener” tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

5. Paste up to 50 long URLs into the first column (it only works on 50 URLs at a time. But still, that’s 50 times faster than doing it manually). Within a few seconds, you should see the Bitly URLs appear in the second column.

If you are copying these shortened URLs into a spreadsheet, you’ll need to right click and use the “Paste Special” function and paste “Values Only” otherwise you get the formula rather than the URL.