Know if you can click on a short URL or not

These days whenever we post a URL (Uniform Resource Locator / Link) on any social media site, it will be converted to a short URL with that specific site's domain in it.

This is ok, because the shortened URL will reduce the number of characters in the post and also when you look at a post with a long URL (more than 25 characters in it), it will no look good.

But, we often receive messages over WhatsApp or other social media websites, sometimes even as SMS on our phone with short URLs in them, asking us to visit that URL to claim a gift or something else.

The main problem here will be that most of these short URLs will be created by using services which are free and you really cannot tell where you will be redirected by clicking on it.

Then how to know what's behind the short URL?

There are a few websites and services which will tell you what is behind a short URL and where you will be redirected once you click on it.

One such service is ExpandURL - Link

How to use ExpandURL?

First go to ExpandURL and there you will see a page like this,

Paste the short URL (which u received as a message) in the input text field and click on Expand URL

The service will check the short URL and will give you results of it. The results will be shown like this,

Results will include,

the number of redirects made from the short URL to the expanded URL (long URL)

Available Meta description, and keywords

Content-Type

Whether the link appears to be safe or not (Google Safe Browsing)

This is only a way to check where the user will be redirected after clicking on the short URL and whether the URL is appearing to be safe or not.

After confirming that the URL is safe and clicking on it, you should also check the content on that website.

Sometimes, the URLs (long URL) of the phishing websites will also appear to be safe, ultimately it is us who should decide whether you can stay on that site or should leave immediately.