If you send business text messages in the United States from a regular phone number, your traffic has to be registered, and the reviewer reads your sample messages. A bit.ly link in one of them is a documented reason for rejection. This guide explains what 10DLC is, what the registry actually looks at, exactly what the sources say about shorteners, and the fix, which takes about 15 minutes.
What 10DLC is, in plain terms
10DLC stands for 10-digit long code: an ordinary US phone number, the kind with an area code, used by a business to send A2P (application-to-person) messages. That is any text sent by software on a company's behalf: appointment reminders, order updates, promotions, verification codes.
US carriers require A2P traffic on these numbers to be registered through The Campaign Registry (TCR). You do not deal with TCR directly; your texting provider (Twilio, Bandwidth, Telnyx, Vonage, Bird, and the platforms built on them) submits the registration for you. It has two parts:
- Brand registration: who you are as a legal entity.
- Campaign registration: what you send and why. Each campaign has a use case (marketing, account notifications, two-factor codes) and sample messages showing what the texts will look like.
Those sample messages are where links come in.
What the reviewer sees when your sample has a bit.ly link
A campaign reviewer cannot tell where bit.ly/3xK9pQ goes. Neither can the consumer who receives it. A link that hides its destination is the signature of phishing, which is the thing the whole registration system exists to keep out of the channel. So the rule is not subtle.
"If you present a business website URL in any part of your Campaign submission (such as sample messages) that uses a shortened URL, be aware that only certain forms of shortened URL are acceptable to The Campaign Registry."
"Specifically, you must use a dedicated, branded short domain that belongs to your business. You cannot use the sort of randomly-shortened URL typically furnished by a free service like bit.ly or TinyUrl; this will lead to rejection of the Campaign by TCR."
Twilio, Troubleshooting and rectifying A2P Campaigns. The corresponding rejection is Twilio error code 30892, "URL shortener in the sample message."Other providers say the same thing in their own registration guides, among them Bird and AWS End User Messaging. The underlying guidance comes from the carriers' own trade association.
"Message Senders should ensure that links to websites embedded within a message do not conceal or obscure the Message Sender's identity and are not intended to cause harm or deceive Consumers. Where a web address (i.e., Uniform Resource Locator (URL)) shortener is used, Message Senders should use a shortener with a web address and IP address(es) dedicated to the exclusive use of the Message Sender."
CTIA, Messaging Principles and Best Practices, May 2023, section 5.3.2. CTIA represents the US wireless industry; these are the voluntary best practices its member carriers follow.What "dedicated" and "branded" mean
Both words point at the same test: is the domain in the link used only by you?
bit.ly,tinyurl.com,t.co: shared by millions of senders. Not dedicated. Not branded.- A free "custom link" on a shortener that is still
bit.ly/yourbrand: the domain is still bit.ly. Not dedicated. go.yourbrand.com: a subdomain of a domain you own, pointed at a shortener that serves only your links on it. Dedicated and branded, and the reviewer sees your name in the sample message.
The full URL to your website is always acceptable. A branded short domain is acceptable and much easier to fit in 160 characters. A public shortener is neither.
The fix, step by step
- Pick a subdomain you own.
go.,txt.orlink.on your main domain. Your website is untouched. - Connect it to a shortener that supports custom domains. On Linkturf that means adding two DNS records at your registrar: a TXT record that proves you control the domain, and a CNAME that routes it. SSL is issued automatically once they resolve. Walkthrough here.
- Create the links your campaign will use, so the domain in your sample messages is exactly the domain in your live sends.
- Submit the campaign through your texting provider with those sample messages.
- Keep the destination one hop away. Your branded link should redirect straight to the page, not through a chain of other redirects.
Pre-submission checklist for sample messages
- Every link uses the full URL or your branded short domain. No public shorteners anywhere.
- The message identifies your business by name.
- Opt-out instructions are present, for example "Reply STOP to opt out." CTIA section 5.1.3 says senders should support the standardized STOP keyword and also act on plain-language requests like "unsubscribe" or "cancel."
- The sample matches what you will actually send. Reviewers compare samples against live traffic.
- You have documented consent for the recipients, and express written consent for anything promotional. CTIA section 5.1 lists what to retain: timestamp, medium, the exact language shown, the campaign, IP address, phone number and identity of the person who consented.
- Your privacy policy is easy to find from wherever people opt in (CTIA section 5.2.1).
Questions people ask
Does Linkturf register my 10DLC campaign? No. Linkturf is the link layer; registration is done with your texting provider. What Linkturf gives you is the dedicated, branded short domain that the registration requires, and the click analytics that tell you whether a campaign's taps drop off after a send.
Will a branded link guarantee delivery? No. Carriers weigh consent, volume, content, registration status and more. A branded domain removes one specific, documented risk. Anyone promising guaranteed delivery is guessing.
What if my campaign was already rejected for a shortener? Replace the public shortener in every sample message with your branded short domain or the full URL, then resubmit through your provider. Twilio's guide above walks through deleting and recreating a failed campaign.
Is a short code different? Yes. Short codes are 5 or 6 digit numbers with their own vetting process. This guide is about 10-digit numbers, which is what most small and mid-size businesses send from.