Step-by-step instructions for getting the most out of short links, QR codes, and bio pages.
Each guide below goes end to end on one task, including the parts that usually get left out — what to decide before you start, what to test before you commit, and what to check afterwards to confirm it worked. Every guide carries a realistic time estimate, and none of them assume you have done this before.
Two of them are worth doing before the others, because everything else builds on them. Setting up a custom domain determines what your links look like and whether you can ever move platforms without breaking printed material. Setting up UTM tracking determines whether the traffic those links generate is identifiable once it reaches your analytics, or whether it lands in a bucket labelled direct and stays there.
The remaining guides are task-specific: building a QR code menu that survives a price change without a reprint, putting together a link-in-bio page, adding password protection to a link that is not meant for everyone, and configuring deep linking so a link opens the app when it is installed and the website when it is not.
The step people skip is the cheapest one. A QR code that scans perfectly from a laptop screen at full brightness can fail on matte paper under fluorescent light, at the distance a customer will actually stand. Print one at final size on the final material, hand it to someone who has never seen it, and watch them try — that five-minute test catches contrast problems, size problems, and placement problems while they still cost nothing to fix.
The same applies to the destination. Check it on a phone rather than a desktop, since most scans arrive on mobile, and confirm the page still works when it is the first thing someone sees rather than the third page of a journey. If the destination might change later, make sure the code is dynamic first — the glossary entry on static versus dynamic codes explains why that decision cannot be reversed after printing.