Help

Only users with a Unity ID and password may login to the Go Links service and create links.

• Faculty and staff at NC State can login and create custom links.
• Students can create randomized Go Links, but cannot create Go Links with custom URL text.
• Guest users can visit links, but cannot manage or create links.

If you are unsure if you should use a certain word or phrase as your Go Link, then please check with the NC State Service Desk before creating or publicizing that link.

If you create a link that violates university policy, or should officially point to a target other than the one you specified, you will be required to change or remove the link. Please note that even if the link has already been published, it is still subject to review.

Absolutely. You can generate a QR code for your Go Link by adding .qr to the end of your Go Link. For example:
go.ncsu.edu/google
go.ncsu.edu/google.qr

You can use a QR code the same way you use your traditional Go Link URL; the QR Code will always point to the target URL specified for the Go Link. You are free to use the QR code on printed materials, in emails, and other media formats.

"Modifiers" are pieces of text that you can add to the end of your Go Link identified after a colon.

For example:
go.ncsu.edu/google (no modifier)
go.ncsu.edu/google:twitter (modifier = twitter)

Use modifiers to enhance the statistics you are collecting for a single link. For example, instead of having to create multiple Go Links for multiple marketing campaigns, just create one Go Link, and then use modifiers for the different mediums you are using.
go.ncsu.edu/your-news-article:twitter
go.ncsu.edu/your-news-article:facebook
go.ncsu.edu/your-news-article:bulkmail
go.ncsu.edu/your-news-article:poster

Detailed modifier names are allowed, if preferred, such as;
go.ncsu.edu/your-news-article:Twitter-Your-News-Article-Statistics

You do not have to set up modifiers ahead of time. Simply add them to any Go Link at any time. The statistics will be recorded for the overall total for the Go Link's hits (modifier or not), and specifically for each time a modifier is used.

It is important to note that only the first modifier will be acknowledged. For example, if you had go.ncsu.edu/google:twitter:facebook, the statistics will be recorded as if "twitter:facebook" is a single modifier. You will not get separate statistics for Facebook and for Twitter in that example.

Basic hit count information for Go Links, as well as hit counts for any modifiers used, are tracked by the Go Links service and available in your Link Details.

Sharing access to your links is the best way to ensure they don't become orphaned in the future. If you leave the university, you will want to ensure that someone else can still maintain your Go Links.

To share your link, you can either provide the unity id or google group you want to share when first creating your link. If your link is already created, simply scroll to the "Sharing" section of your link's page and click "Share with..."

Sharing your link grants the same level of access to the user(s) that you have.

Tags are a useful way to organize your links into similar groupings. Tags are strictly personal - no one else can see your tags or manage them. You can assign an existing tag to a link via the link creation page. You can also do this by scrolling to the "Tags" area of your link's page and clicking "Add Tag". From here, you may create a new tag or assign an existing one.

You can view all your tags on the My Tags page. This page shows:

• The number of links associated with each tag
• Total hit counts for all links within a tag
• A "View Links" button to quickly filter your Manage Links page by that tag
• Options to delete tags you no longer need

You can also filter by tags directly from your Manage Links page using the "Filter by Tag" dropdown.

Quick Filters provide an easy way to find links that need attention or meet specific criteria. You can access Quick Filters from your Manage Links page using the "Quick Filters" dropdown.

Health & Status filters:

• Bad Links - Shows links that are broken or returning errors (4xx/5xx status codes)
• Disabled Links - Shows links you've manually disabled
• Not Monitored - Shows links you've excluded from automated health checks

Usage filters:

• Never Used - Shows links that have never received any hits
• Inactive This Year - Shows links created before this year that haven't been used since January 1st
• Inactive 1+ Years - Shows links that haven't been used in over a year

Sharing filters:

• Shared with Me - Shows links that others have shared with you
• Not Shared with Groups - Shows your private links that aren't shared with any groups

You can combine Quick Filters with text searches and tag filters for more precise results.

Go Links automatically sends quarterly summary emails to help you maintain your links. These emails are sent on the first Monday of January, April, July, and October at 10:00 AM EST.

Your quarterly summary includes:

• Total Links - How many links you've created
• Most Popular Link - Your most-used link and its hit count
• Total Hits This Quarter - Combined usage across all your links

The email also alerts you to action items that may need attention:

• Inactive Links This Year - Links created before this year that haven't been used since January 1st
• Private Links - Links not shared with any groups (consider sharing to prevent orphaned links if you leave the university)
• Broken Links - Links returning errors that need to be fixed or removed

Each action item includes a direct link to view and manage the relevant links using Quick Filters.

If you are concerned about the usage of a particular Go Link, you should first try and contact the link owner. To do this, simply search for the link in the directory, click the link (using the left-hand column) to view its details, and click the red Contact Link Owner button.

If you feel the Go Link is being abused, report the Go Link using the red Report button on the top right-hand corner of the page.

Go Links leverages both Google's Safe Browsing API and Phishtank in order to identify unsafe web resources. Examples of unsafe web resources are social engineering sites (phishing and deceptive sites), and sites that host malware or unwanted software.

Any URL identified as unsafe is not permitted for use as a Go Link.

A Go Link that points to a redirected URL, including other short-link services (bit.ly, TinyURL) is not recommended. Google actively blocks emails that include Go Links with multiple redirects. Additionally, by combining the Go Links service with other link shortening services, you increase the risk that your Go Link can be compromised and used maliciously.

Yes! Users with the appropriate permissions can generate personal access tokens that will allow them to make requests. Review the API Documentation for more information.

Due to the nature of the service, bulk health checking is only available to staff members. Students can share their links with a full-time faculty or staff member to include it in their health checking.

When you run a health check, Go Links checks all links you can manage, which includes:

• Links you own
• Links shared with you directly
• Links shared with Google Groups you belong to

However, the "Bad Links" list on the Link Health page only shows links you own. This means the failed link count in your health check email may be higher than what you see on the page.

To see shared links that are failing, visit the individual link's page or use the "Shared with Me" quick filter on the Manage Links page.

Health checks have different cooldown periods depending on the type of check:

• All Links - Can be checked once every 24 hours
• Bad Links Only - Can be re-checked once every 15 minutes
• Tagged Links - Can be checked once every 60 minutes

Health check requests are processed asynchronously in the background. You can monitor the real-time progress on your Manage Links page, which shows:

• Current status (pending, processing, or completed)
• Progress bar with links checked so far
• Estimated time remaining for completion
• Number of failed links found

The page automatically updates as the health check progresses, so you don't need to manually refresh.

Occasionally the link health check will return a response that doesn't quite match reality. IE a redirect or failed response when the target URL requires authentication.

In these cases, you can choose to exclude the link from future health checks so that it isn't marked as invalid. Note that while this is enabled, Go Links will not mark the link as bad, even if at some point it does in fact turn into an actual bad link.

Go Link target URLs must resolve, or route to a working address. Any link that redirects to a URL that fails will be marked bad.

Target URL redirects that are marked as bad Go Links can include but are not limited to:

• 400 Bad Request – The request is malformed; often indicates a broken or malformed target URL.
• 401 Unauthorized – Target URL requires authentication; redirect may fail for anonymous users.
• 403 Forbidden – Target URL is access-restricted; the redirect reaches the server but is denied.
• 404 Not Found – The target resource does not exist (most common for broken links).
• 405 Method Not Allowed – The server accepts different HTTP methods than the redirect uses.
• 408 Request Timeout – Target server took too long to respond.
• 410 Gone – Resource was intentionally removed; clear signal of a permanently dead URL.
• 429 Too Many Requests – Target rate-limits requests; redirects may intermittently fail.
• 500 Internal Server Error – The target server failed unexpectedly.
• 502 Bad Gateway – Upstream server (target) fails through an intermediary.
• 503 Service Unavailable – Target server is down or overloaded.
• 504 Gateway Timeout – Intermediary couldn't get a response from the target in time.

Additionally, any Go Link that redirects more than 5 times will be marked invalid.