CSV Import and Export for Short Links: Manage Your Link Library at Scale

For teams managing dozens or hundreds of links, the individual link creation interface is a bottleneck. URLW's CSV import feature allows you to create, organize, and migrate large numbers of short links from a spreadsheet — no API integration required. The CSV export feature, equally useful, lets you extract your complete link library and its analytics data for reporting, archiving, or migration to other tools.

CSV Import: Creating Links in Bulk from a Spreadsheet

The CSV import feature is available on URLW Pro and higher plans. It accepts a comma-separated file with specific columns, validates each row, and creates all valid links in a single batch operation.

The accepted CSV format:

url,slug,domain,tags
https://votresite.fr/page-1,page-ete,,newsletter
https://votresite.fr/page-2,page-hiver,,newsletter
https://votresite.fr/promo,,go.votresite.fr,promo

Column descriptions:

• url (required): The destination URL the short link should redirect to. Must be a valid HTTP or HTTPS URL.
• slug (optional): The custom slug for the short link. If left empty, URLW generates a random slug automatically.
• domain (optional): The custom domain to use for this link. Must be a domain already configured in your URLW account. Leave empty to use the default urlw.fr domain.
• tags (optional): A label to group links. Useful for filtering in the dashboard.

Running an Import

1. Prepare your CSV file in any spreadsheet application (Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets). Export as CSV (comma-separated, UTF-8 encoding).
2. In your URLW dashboard, navigate to Links → Import.
3. Upload your CSV file. URLW validates the file and displays a preview of all rows to be created.
4. Review the preview. Rows with errors (invalid URLs, duplicate slugs) are flagged in red before any links are created. Fix errors in your CSV and re-upload, or proceed and skip the invalid rows.
5. Confirm the import. URLW creates all valid links and provides a summary: links created, links skipped, errors.
6. Download the result CSV, which includes the generated short URLs for every successfully created link.

CSV Export: Your Complete Link Library

The export feature lets you download your complete link library — or a filtered subset — as a CSV file. Export options include:

• All links export: Every short link in your account with its slug, destination URL, creation date, and total click count.
• Filtered export: Filter by date range, tag, or domain before exporting to get a focused dataset.
• Analytics export: Export detailed click statistics for all links in a date range, with daily click counts per link.

Use Cases for CSV Workflows

Campaign preparation: Marketing teams routinely prepare entire campaign link sets in a spreadsheet during planning. Define all links, slugs, and UTM-tagged destination URLs in a spreadsheet, then import everything at once on campaign launch day — no manual creation one by one.

E-commerce product links: Export product URLs from your e-commerce platform, add desired slugs in a spreadsheet, and import to URLW in one batch. Result: a clean short link for every product, ready for use in catalogues, price comparison sites, and marketing materials.

Monthly reporting: Export analytics data as CSV at the end of each month to build your own reporting dashboards in Excel, Google Sheets, or a BI tool. The CSV data feeds pivot tables that summarize link performance across campaigns, channels, and time periods.

Link library migration: If you are moving from another shortener to URLW, export your existing links from the old service, format as URLW-compatible CSV, and import. Your entire link history arrives in URLW in a single operation.

Automating CSV Workflows

For recurring CSV workflows — weekly campaign link preparation, monthly analytics exports — the URLW API provides programmatic equivalents to all CSV operations. Automate the full workflow: pull destination URLs from your CMS or database, generate the CSV, post it to the API, and receive the results without touching the dashboard. API documentation is available at /en/docs/api.

Get Started

CSV import and export are available on URLW Pro plans. Create your account at /en/register and review plans at /en/#pricing.