Track clicks and scans
What uYou records when someone follows a link or scans a QR code, how to read the breakdowns, and why the numbers lag slightly behind real time.
Every short link records the traffic that passes through it. There is nothing to install and nothing to add to your website — the count happens at the redirect.
What is recorded
- Clicks over time, by hour
- QR scans, as a subset of clicks
- Location — city and country, derived from the network address
- Device — mobile, tablet or desktop
- Referrer — the site the click came from, where the browser reports one
- First and last click
What is not recorded: no individual identity, no cross-site tracking, no advertising profile. The raw network address is used to derive an approximate location and then discarded — it is not stored against the click.
Reading it
Clicks over time is the one to start with. Pick a window with the range control, or drag on the chart to zoom. Every breakdown below re-scopes to whatever window you select, so you can ask "where did the traffic on launch day come from" rather than only seeing lifetime totals.
Location tells you whether a campaign reached where you thought. For physical placements it is often the fastest way to spot which site is performing.
Referrer shows which platform sent the traffic. Direct traffic — typed, or from an app that does not pass a referrer — shows as direct, which is normal and usually large.
Link vs QR shows how much of a link's traffic came from the printed code rather than the digital share. If you use the same link for both, this is what separates them.
Why the last hour looks empty
Click data is processed on a schedule rather than as it happens, so the most recent hour or two will normally show little or nothing. That is expected. Come back later and it will be filled in.
This matters when you are watching a launch in real time — resist the urge to conclude a campaign has failed in its first thirty minutes.
Clicks are not visits
The click count is the number of times the redirect was served. Your website analytics count sessions that actually loaded. Clicks will normally be higher, because:
- some people leave before the page renders
- some clicks are prefetches or link previews
- site analytics miss anyone blocking their script
Use the shortener as the truth about the link, and your site analytics as the truth about what happened afterwards. If you want the two to line up on campaign attribution, add UTM parameters.
How long history is kept
Retention depends on the plan, and free accounts get a trial period of analytics before it stops being retained. See the pricing page for the current windows.
Frequently asked questions
How soon do clicks appear?
Analytics are processed on a schedule and typically appear within a couple of hours, so the most recent hour or two will look quiet.
Are QR scans counted separately from clicks?
Scans are counted as clicks and also broken out separately, so you can see how much of a link's traffic came from its QR code.
Do you track individual people?
No. There is no cross-site tracking and no personal profile — the data is aggregate counts by device type, referrer and approximate location.
Last updated 2026-08-24