Prepare Your Own Import File
The importer reads exports from Bitly, TinyURL and Rebrandly on its own, but it is just as happy with a file you build yourself. Any spreadsheet becomes an import file once it is saved as CSV. This page is the exact contract: what the file needs, which column names are recognized automatically, and what happens to each value.
Your file is read in your browser and never uploaded. Only the links you confirm on the preview screens are sent to Snipzr.
What the file needs
One header row, then one row per link. Only a single column is required: the destination, the address the short link should send people to. Everything else is optional.
| Column | Required | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Destination | Yes | Where the link points. Must be a normal http or https address, up to 2048 characters. A row without one is left out, and the wizard tells you how many were. |
| Short link | No | The link's current short address, for example links.example.com/spring. The part after the domain becomes the back-half we try to keep. |
| Title | No | The link's name in your dashboard. |
| Created date | No | The link's original creation date. Imported links keep it, so your history stays in order. |
A ready template
Save this as links.csv and replace the rows with your own:
destination_url,short_url,title,created_at
https://example.com/spring-sale,links.example.com/spring,Spring sale,2025-04-02
https://example.com/careers,links.example.com/jobs,We are hiring,2025-06-17
https://example.com/whitepaper.pdf,,Whitepaper download,
The empty cells are fine: that third link imports with no back-half request and no date.
The column names we recognize
Matching ignores case, spaces, underscores and hyphens, so Long URL, long_url and longurl
are all the same header. If your headers are not on this list, nothing is lost: the Columns
step shows every column in your file, and you can point each field at the right one by hand.
| Field | Recognized headers |
|---|---|
| Destination | destination_url, long_url, destination, original_url, target_url, target, url, redirect_to |
| Short link | short_url, short_link, link, alias, bitlink, tinyurl, slashtag |
| Branded short link | custom_link, custom_short_url, branded_link, custom_bitlink |
| Title | title, name, link_title, description |
| Created date | date_created, created_at, created, creation_date, created_date, date |
Some provider exports carry two short links per row: their own shared-domain one and a branded one on your domain. When both columns exist, the branded one wins, because that is the address your printed material actually carries.
From Excel or Google Sheets
Export your sheet as CSV: in Google Sheets File, Download, Comma separated values; in Excel
Save as, CSV UTF-8. Commas inside a destination are fine as long as the cell is quoted, which
both programs do on their own, and the invisible marker Excel adds to the front of a file is
handled too. The file can be .csv or .txt, up to 10 MB.
Dates
Most common date shapes work, including 2025-04-02, 2025-04-02 14:30 and full ISO timestamps.
A date that cannot be read, or one with a year before 2000 or after 2100, is treated as unknown:
the link still imports, dated the day of the import. A strange date never costs you the link.
Short links and back-halves
The back-half is taken from the short-link column: the part after the domain, including nested
ones like team/spring. A bare links.example.com/spring works without https:// in front.
Whether a back-half can be kept depends on where the link lands, which the
import guide explains; every decision is
shown to you on the check screen before anything is created.
Re-importing a Snipzr export
Your Snipzr export is itself a valid import file: its destination_url,
short_url, title and created_at columns are all recognized automatically. Export from one
workspace and import into another, or hold the file as a backup you know you can restore from.