How to shorten Google Drive links with Zapier

URL shorteners make it easier to share long links, turning an unwieldy string of characters into something short and shareable. The shortened link takes up less space—on a business card, say, or in a social media post—and if you use services that let you customize your links, they can be another way to reinforce your brand.

One of the most popular ways to shorten URLs was Google’s URL shortener, which shut down in March 2019. If you’ve been a Google user for a long time, you probably used goo.gl to shorten links to Forms, Docs, Sheets, or anything else you stored in Google Drive. If you’re looking for an automatic and easy way to shorten your Google URLs for easier sharing and collaboration, here are a few ways you can do that using Zapier.

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How to shorten Google Drive file links

If you regularly share Google Drive files, you could use a URL shortener like Bitly to automatically create those links every time you create a new file in Drive or in a specific folder. 

Before you begin

Create a new file in your desired Google Drive location. In later steps, Zapier will look for the most recent file in your Drive to test your Zap. 

Create your Zap

If you don’t have a Zapier account yet, you’ll be prompted to sign up. It’s free to get started. These are the steps you’ll follow, and we’ll walk you through each of them:

1. Log in to your Zapier account and head to the Zapier editor (if you’re in your Zapier account, you’ll want to click the Create Zap button in the upper left). 

2. Set up your Google Drive trigger step.

3. Set up your Bitly action step.

4. Test and turn on your Zap.

Set up your Google Drive trigger

First, we’ll set up the trigger—the event that starts our Zap. Search for and select Google Drive as your trigger app, New File in Folder as the trigger event, and click Continue. (If you don’t select a folder, this Zap would create a link for every new file created in your drive.)

Select your Google Drive account in the dropdown menu. If you haven’t connected it before, click on + Connect a new account to sign in to your Google Drive account and give Zapier permission to access it. You’ll do the same for Bitly. 

Once you’ve connected your account, click Continue. You’ll be able to choose the Drive for which you want to automatically create shortened links, as well as test each step of your Zap. 

Click on the dropdown menu under Drive to select a Google Drive to use. Then, select the folder you want to trigger—or start—the Zap. Only new files in this folder will trigger your Zap. Click Continue.

Next, we’ll need to test the trigger. Zapier will find a recent file in your Google Drive account. This will be used as a placeholder to set up the rest of your Zap. Click Test trigger. 

You’ll see a success message if Zapier can find a file. Check your sample to make sure it’s a file from the folder you selected. If not, you can go back to the previous step, select a different folder, and retest the step. 

If everything looks correct, click Continue. 

Customize your Bitly action step 

Now we’ll set up the action. An action is an event a Zap performs after it is triggered. So in this example, we want Bitly to shorten our Google Drive link. 

Select Bitly as the action app and Create Bitlink as the action event. Click Continue. 

Sign in to your Bitly account, and click Continue.

Click inside the URL field and select Alternate Link from the dropdown menu. This is the Google Drive URL you want to shorten with Bitly. Under the Title field, click and select Title. This is the name of your Google Drive file that will be used as the Bitlink title.

If you’d like to select the Bitly group and custom domain (available on paid Bitly plans), you can do so here. When you’re done, click Continue.

Test your Zap and turn it on

After you’ve set up your action, it’s time to test your Zap. When you click Test & review or Test & continue, Zapier will shorten your Google Drive file link with Bitly, according to how you set up your Zap in the previous steps. 

If you’d like to skip testing, you can click on Skip Test located on the top-right, but we recommend testing to make sure your Zap is set up correctly. 

Click on any of the testing buttons to continue. You’ll see this message if the test was successful.

You can go into your Bitly account to confirm, where you should see the Bitlink Zapier just created for you.

If you’re not happy with something in your test, you can go back to previous steps, make changes, and test again. 

If everything looks good, don’t forget to click Turn on Zap! 

How to shorten Google Docs file links

If you only want to shorten Google Docs links, a URL shortener like Bitly can help you create them automatically every time you create a new document. 

Here’s how to use Zapier to automatically shorten URLs: 

1. Head to your Zapier dashboard and click the Create Zap button in the upper left. If you don’t have an account yet, you’ll be prompted to sign up. It’s free to get started.

2. Connect your Google account. Set up and test your Google Docs trigger.

3. Customize how you want your Bitlink to look in Bitly. 

4. Test your Zap, and turn it on.

Set up your Google Docs trigger step

Select Google Docs as your app and choose your trigger event—either New Document or New Document in Folder), then click Continue. Choosing the New Document trigger will have this Zap create a Bitlink for every new document created in this account; using the New Document in Folder trigger will only create shortened links for new documents in a specific folder.

Next, select your Google account in the dropdown menu. If you haven’t connected it before, click on + Connect a new account to sign in to your Google Docs account and give Zapier permission to access it.

Then, you’ll need to select your folder and test your trigger. Zapier will find the most recent Google Doc you’ve created, which will be used in later steps. 

Click Test trigger. 

You’ll see a success message if Zapier found a document. If a Google Doc can’t be found, create one and try again. If your test information looks correct, click Continue. 

Customize your Bitly action step

Now we’ll customize the Zap’s action—the thing we want Zapier to do. Since we want to create a Bitlink, click Continue. 

If you want to select a different Bitly account, you can click on the dropdown menu to do so. If you want to connect a Bitly account not available in the dropdown menu, click + Connect a new account. 

When you’re done, click Continue.   

Next, you’ll need to set up your action by mapping fields from Google Docs to the appropriate place in Bitly. You’ll add the Google Docs direct link to the Url field and add the title. If you’d like to select the Bitly group and custom domain—which are paid Bitly features—you can do so here. When you’re done, click Continue. 

Test your Zap and turn it on

Now let’s test this Zap. When you click Test & review or Test & continue, Zapier will shorten your Google Docs file link with Bitly, according to how you set up your Zap in the previous steps. 

If you’d like to skip testing, you can click on Skip Test located on the top-right, but we recommend testing to make sure everything is set up correctly. 

Click any of the testing buttons to continue.

If your test was successful, you’ll see this message.

Now, we’ll go into our Bitly account to see if everything looks correct.

If something in your test isn’t right, you can go back to previous steps, make changes, and test again. 

If everything looks good, don’t forget to turn on your Zap by clicking on the blue Turn on Zap button or the slider.

How to shorten Google Form URLs

Google natively supports shortening Google Form links. Luckily it’s pretty straightforward. 

Open the specific Google Form you’d like to share, and click on the Send button. 

A window will pop up with several share options. Click on the little hyperlink symbol.

Click on the checkbox next to Shorten URL. 

And now your link is automatically shortened for you to copy and paste where you need it.

Shorten long hyperlinks automatically

Whether you’re trying to save characters or want to track who’s opening your files, you can shorten any URL automatically with Zapier. If you haven’t yet found a solution for your needs, we’ve tested out other options you might like.

This piece was originally published in March 2021 and was updated in December 2021 with contributions from Krystina Martinez.