Glossary: Plain-English Terms

What words like path, DNS, unique click, conversion pixel, and weight actually mean.

Every term you will run into in this app, explained without jargon. Skim it once and the rest of the help pages will read much more easily.

The basics

Short link: The address you hand out to people instead of the real one, for example https://go.example.com/spring-sale. Clicking it counts the visit and then sends the person to the real page.
Destination URL: The real page you want people to end up on. Always include the https:// part.
Domain: The front part of your short link, such as go.example.com. It is the part people see and recognize.
Path (also called a slug): The ending you choose for a short link — the /spring-sale in the example above. Short and readable works best.
Redirect: What happens when someone clicks: their browser is passed along from your short link to the destination. It takes a fraction of a second and visitors normally do not notice.
Group: A label you put on links to keep related ones together, like a folder. Only you see it.

DNS: The internet's phone book. It translates names people type into the addresses of the computers that answer them.
A record: One entry in that phone book. You add one where your domain is managed so your short-link domain points at our servers.
IP address: A number that identifies a computer or a visitor's device on the internet, like 165.245.154.6. We show you one to use for your A record, and we use visitors' addresses to count unique clicks.
HTTPS / SSL / TLS: The secure version of a web address — the padlock in the browser. Leave HTTPS on unless you have a specific reason not to.
404: The standard code for "page not found". If someone requests a short link that does not exist, that is a 404, and it is recorded on the 404 Log page.
SCT Connect: A WordPress plugin that handles short-link redirects on your existing site without changing DNS. Install and connect it from Account › Integrations.
Standalone SCT script: A small PHP folder (/sct) you upload to a non-WordPress PHP site so short links work on that domain without pointing DNS at SCT. See Using Your Own Domain.

Click: Every single time your link is followed, including repeat visits by the same person.
Unique click: Roughly the number of different people, counted by IP address. One person clicking six times counts once.
Referrer: The place a click came from — a social site, a search engine, an email tool. Sometimes it is blank, which normally means the visitor typed the link, used an app, or blocked that information.
Conversion: The action you actually care about after the click: a purchase, a signup, a booking. Clicks tell you interest; conversions tell you results.
Conversion script (pixel): A small snippet of code you place on the page people reach after converting — usually the thank-you or confirmation page. It reports back so we know that click turned into a result. Available on standard links and on each destination of a split test. Without it we can count clicks but not conversions.
UTM parameters: Extra labels added to the end of a web address (like utm_source=newsletter) so analytics tools such as Google Analytics can tell you which campaign sent the visitor. Optional, and only useful if you use one of those tools.
Query string: Anything after a ? in a web address. Ads and email tools often add these to carry tracking details. "Forward query string" means: pass whatever arrives on the short link along to the destination.

Standard link: One short link, one destination. The normal choice.
Rotator: One short link with several destinations, where each click goes to one of them. How the next destination is chosen depends on which rotator you pick.
Split test (A/B test): Sending some visitors to one page and some to another so you can see which performs better, then keeping the winner.
Destination row: Each possible landing page in a rotator or split test, listed one per row along with its own settings.
Weight / share %: How much of the traffic a destination should get. A destination with a weight of 3 gets roughly three times as much as one with a weight of 1.
Round-robin: Taking strict turns: click one goes to the first destination, click two to the second, and so on, then back to the start.
Quota: A set number of clicks a destination should receive before traffic moves on to the next one. Used when you have promised someone a specific amount of traffic.
Sticky: Remembering which destination a visitor saw the first time, so they see the same one on later clicks. Keeps the experience consistent and stops people bouncing between different pages.
Confidence %: How sure you want to be before declaring a split-test winner. Higher means fewer wrong calls but a longer wait. 95% is the common standard.

Open Graph (OG): The title, description, and image that appear when a link is pasted into social media or a messaging app. Setting these controls how your link looks when shared.
QR code: The square barcode people scan with a phone camera. It opens your short link, which means you can change where a printed code leads without reprinting it.
API key: A long secret password that lets another program act on your account — for example the WordPress plugin. Treat it like a password: never share or post it.
MFA (two-factor): Requiring a second step at login, such as a code from your phone, so a stolen password alone is not enough to get in.