diff --git a/app/Factories/LinkFactory.php b/app/Factories/LinkFactory.php
index cb13d3d..0e468e2 100644
--- a/app/Factories/LinkFactory.php
+++ b/app/Factories/LinkFactory.php
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ use App\Helpers\LinkHelper;
 
 
 class LinkFactory {
+    const MAXIMUM_LINK_LENGTH = 65535;
+
     private static function formatLink($link_ending, $secret_ending=false) {
         /**
         * Given a link ending and a boolean indicating whether a secret ending is needed,
@@ -39,6 +41,13 @@ class LinkFactory {
         * @return string $formatted_link
         */
 
+        if (strlen($long_url) > self::MAXIMUM_LINK_LENGTH) {
+            // If $long_url is longer than the maximum length, then
+            // throw an Exception
+            throw new \Exception('Sorry, but your link is longer than the
+                maximum length allowed.');
+        }
+
         $is_already_short = LinkHelper::checkIfAlreadyShortened($long_url);
 
         if ($is_already_short) {
diff --git a/app/Helpers/LinkHelper.php b/app/Helpers/LinkHelper.php
index ba9733c..b876d77 100644
--- a/app/Helpers/LinkHelper.php
+++ b/app/Helpers/LinkHelper.php
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ class LinkHelper {
          * check whether the link is in the DB.
          * @return boolean
          */
-        $link = Link::where('long_url', $long_url)
+        $link = Link::longUrl($long_url)
             ->where('is_custom', 0)
             ->where('secret_key', '')
             ->first();
diff --git a/app/Models/Link.php b/app/Models/Link.php
index 98ae8c6..9792c94 100644
--- a/app/Models/Link.php
+++ b/app/Models/Link.php
@@ -4,4 +4,27 @@ use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
 
 class Link extends Model {
     protected $table = 'links';
+
+    public function setLongUrlAttribute($long_url) {
+        // Set crc32 hash and long_url
+        // whenever long_url is set on a Link instance
+
+        // Generate 32-bit unsigned integer crc32 value
+        // Use sprintf to prevent compatibility issues with 32-bit systems
+        // http://php.net/manual/en/function.crc32.php
+        $crc32_hash = sprintf('%u', crc32($long_url));
+
+        $this->attributes['long_url'] = $long_url;
+        $this->attributes['long_url_hash'] = $crc32_hash;
+    }
+
+    public function scopeLongUrl($query, $long_url) {
+        // Allow quick lookups with Link::longUrl that make use
+        // of the indexed crc32 hash to quickly fetch link
+        $crc32_hash = sprintf('%u', crc32($long_url));
+
+        return $query
+            ->where('long_url_hash', $crc32_hash)
+            ->where('long_url', $long_url);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index 01ac744..5c9fcb0 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@
         "paragonie/random_compat": "^1.0.6",
         "torann/geoip": "^1.0",
         "geoip2/geoip2": "^2.4",
-        "nesbot/carbon": "^1.22"
+        "nesbot/carbon": "^1.22",
+        "doctrine/dbal": "^2.5"
     },
     "require-dev": {
         "fzaninotto/faker": "~1.0",
diff --git a/composer.lock b/composer.lock
index d879a5f..232733f 100644
--- a/composer.lock
+++ b/composer.lock
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
         "Read more about it at https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md#composer-lock-the-lock-file",
         "This file is @generated automatically"
     ],
-    "content-hash": "5f2914dd5b6b0d6b08ee9051f55ef09f",
+    "content-hash": "270b76198a63efcbd85347ec35e337f4",
     "packages": [
         {
             "name": "composer/ca-bundle",
@@ -120,6 +120,355 @@
             ],
             "time": "2015-07-23T00:54:12+00:00"
         },
+        {
+            "name": "doctrine/annotations",
+            "version": "v1.3.1",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/doctrine/annotations.git",
+                "reference": "bd4461328621bde0ae6b1b2675fbc6aca4ceb558"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/doctrine/annotations/zipball/bd4461328621bde0ae6b1b2675fbc6aca4ceb558",
+                "reference": "bd4461328621bde0ae6b1b2675fbc6aca4ceb558",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "doctrine/lexer": "1.*",
+                "php": "^5.6 || ^7.0"
+            },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "doctrine/cache": "1.*",
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "^5.6.1"
+            },
+            "type": "library",
+            "extra": {
+                "branch-alias": {
+                    "dev-master": "1.4.x-dev"
+                }
+            },
+            "autoload": {
+                "psr-4": {
+                    "Doctrine\\Common\\Annotations\\": "lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations"
+                }
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "MIT"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Roman Borschel",
+                    "email": "roman@code-factory.org"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Benjamin Eberlei",
+                    "email": "kontakt@beberlei.de"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Guilherme Blanco",
+                    "email": "guilhermeblanco@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Jonathan Wage",
+                    "email": "jonwage@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Johannes Schmitt",
+                    "email": "schmittjoh@gmail.com"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "Docblock Annotations Parser",
+            "homepage": "http://www.doctrine-project.org",
+            "keywords": [
+                "annotations",
+                "docblock",
+                "parser"
+            ],
+            "time": "2016-12-30T15:59:45+00:00"
+        },
+        {
+            "name": "doctrine/cache",
+            "version": "v1.6.1",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/doctrine/cache.git",
+                "reference": "b6f544a20f4807e81f7044d31e679ccbb1866dc3"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/doctrine/cache/zipball/b6f544a20f4807e81f7044d31e679ccbb1866dc3",
+                "reference": "b6f544a20f4807e81f7044d31e679ccbb1866dc3",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "php": "~5.5|~7.0"
+            },
+            "conflict": {
+                "doctrine/common": ">2.2,<2.4"
+            },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "~4.8|~5.0",
+                "predis/predis": "~1.0",
+                "satooshi/php-coveralls": "~0.6"
+            },
+            "type": "library",
+            "extra": {
+                "branch-alias": {
+                    "dev-master": "1.6.x-dev"
+                }
+            },
+            "autoload": {
+                "psr-4": {
+                    "Doctrine\\Common\\Cache\\": "lib/Doctrine/Common/Cache"
+                }
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "MIT"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Roman Borschel",
+                    "email": "roman@code-factory.org"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Benjamin Eberlei",
+                    "email": "kontakt@beberlei.de"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Guilherme Blanco",
+                    "email": "guilhermeblanco@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Jonathan Wage",
+                    "email": "jonwage@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Johannes Schmitt",
+                    "email": "schmittjoh@gmail.com"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "Caching library offering an object-oriented API for many cache backends",
+            "homepage": "http://www.doctrine-project.org",
+            "keywords": [
+                "cache",
+                "caching"
+            ],
+            "time": "2016-10-29T11:16:17+00:00"
+        },
+        {
+            "name": "doctrine/collections",
+            "version": "v1.4.0",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/doctrine/collections.git",
+                "reference": "1a4fb7e902202c33cce8c55989b945612943c2ba"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/doctrine/collections/zipball/1a4fb7e902202c33cce8c55989b945612943c2ba",
+                "reference": "1a4fb7e902202c33cce8c55989b945612943c2ba",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "php": "^5.6 || ^7.0"
+            },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "doctrine/coding-standard": "~0.1@dev",
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "^5.7"
+            },
+            "type": "library",
+            "extra": {
+                "branch-alias": {
+                    "dev-master": "1.3.x-dev"
+                }
+            },
+            "autoload": {
+                "psr-0": {
+                    "Doctrine\\Common\\Collections\\": "lib/"
+                }
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "MIT"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Roman Borschel",
+                    "email": "roman@code-factory.org"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Benjamin Eberlei",
+                    "email": "kontakt@beberlei.de"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Guilherme Blanco",
+                    "email": "guilhermeblanco@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Jonathan Wage",
+                    "email": "jonwage@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Johannes Schmitt",
+                    "email": "schmittjoh@gmail.com"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "Collections Abstraction library",
+            "homepage": "http://www.doctrine-project.org",
+            "keywords": [
+                "array",
+                "collections",
+                "iterator"
+            ],
+            "time": "2017-01-03T10:49:41+00:00"
+        },
+        {
+            "name": "doctrine/common",
+            "version": "v2.7.2",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/doctrine/common.git",
+                "reference": "930297026c8009a567ac051fd545bf6124150347"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/doctrine/common/zipball/930297026c8009a567ac051fd545bf6124150347",
+                "reference": "930297026c8009a567ac051fd545bf6124150347",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "doctrine/annotations": "1.*",
+                "doctrine/cache": "1.*",
+                "doctrine/collections": "1.*",
+                "doctrine/inflector": "1.*",
+                "doctrine/lexer": "1.*",
+                "php": "~5.6|~7.0"
+            },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "^5.4.6"
+            },
+            "type": "library",
+            "extra": {
+                "branch-alias": {
+                    "dev-master": "2.7.x-dev"
+                }
+            },
+            "autoload": {
+                "psr-4": {
+                    "Doctrine\\Common\\": "lib/Doctrine/Common"
+                }
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "MIT"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Roman Borschel",
+                    "email": "roman@code-factory.org"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Benjamin Eberlei",
+                    "email": "kontakt@beberlei.de"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Guilherme Blanco",
+                    "email": "guilhermeblanco@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Jonathan Wage",
+                    "email": "jonwage@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Johannes Schmitt",
+                    "email": "schmittjoh@gmail.com"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "Common Library for Doctrine projects",
+            "homepage": "http://www.doctrine-project.org",
+            "keywords": [
+                "annotations",
+                "collections",
+                "eventmanager",
+                "persistence",
+                "spl"
+            ],
+            "time": "2017-01-13T14:02:13+00:00"
+        },
+        {
+            "name": "doctrine/dbal",
+            "version": "v2.5.11",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/doctrine/dbal.git",
+                "reference": "1b1effbddbdc0f40d1c8f849f44bcddac4f52a48"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/doctrine/dbal/zipball/1b1effbddbdc0f40d1c8f849f44bcddac4f52a48",
+                "reference": "1b1effbddbdc0f40d1c8f849f44bcddac4f52a48",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "doctrine/common": ">=2.4,<2.8-dev",
+                "php": ">=5.3.2"
+            },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "4.*",
+                "symfony/console": "2.*||^3.0"
+            },
+            "suggest": {
+                "symfony/console": "For helpful console commands such as SQL execution and import of files."
+            },
+            "bin": [
+                "bin/doctrine-dbal"
+            ],
+            "type": "library",
+            "extra": {
+                "branch-alias": {
+                    "dev-master": "2.5.x-dev"
+                }
+            },
+            "autoload": {
+                "psr-0": {
+                    "Doctrine\\DBAL\\": "lib/"
+                }
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "MIT"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Roman Borschel",
+                    "email": "roman@code-factory.org"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Benjamin Eberlei",
+                    "email": "kontakt@beberlei.de"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Guilherme Blanco",
+                    "email": "guilhermeblanco@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Jonathan Wage",
+                    "email": "jonwage@gmail.com"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "Database Abstraction Layer",
+            "homepage": "http://www.doctrine-project.org",
+            "keywords": [
+                "database",
+                "dbal",
+                "persistence",
+                "queryobject"
+            ],
+            "time": "2017-02-04T21:20:13+00:00"
+        },
         {
             "name": "doctrine/inflector",
             "version": "v1.1.0",
@@ -187,6 +536,60 @@
             ],
             "time": "2015-11-06T14:35:42+00:00"
         },
+        {
+            "name": "doctrine/lexer",
+            "version": "v1.0.1",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/doctrine/lexer.git",
+                "reference": "83893c552fd2045dd78aef794c31e694c37c0b8c"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/doctrine/lexer/zipball/83893c552fd2045dd78aef794c31e694c37c0b8c",
+                "reference": "83893c552fd2045dd78aef794c31e694c37c0b8c",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "php": ">=5.3.2"
+            },
+            "type": "library",
+            "extra": {
+                "branch-alias": {
+                    "dev-master": "1.0.x-dev"
+                }
+            },
+            "autoload": {
+                "psr-0": {
+                    "Doctrine\\Common\\Lexer\\": "lib/"
+                }
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "MIT"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Roman Borschel",
+                    "email": "roman@code-factory.org"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Guilherme Blanco",
+                    "email": "guilhermeblanco@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Johannes Schmitt",
+                    "email": "schmittjoh@gmail.com"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "Base library for a lexer that can be used in Top-Down, Recursive Descent Parsers.",
+            "homepage": "http://www.doctrine-project.org",
+            "keywords": [
+                "lexer",
+                "parser"
+            ],
+            "time": "2014-09-09T13:34:57+00:00"
+        },
         {
             "name": "dompdf/dompdf",
             "version": "v0.6.2",
diff --git a/database/migrations/2017_02_04_025727_add_link_table_indexes.php b/database/migrations/2017_02_04_025727_add_link_table_indexes.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e87d648
--- /dev/null
+++ b/database/migrations/2017_02_04_025727_add_link_table_indexes.php
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+<?php
+
+use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
+use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
+
+class AddLinkTableIndexes extends Migration
+{
+    /**
+     * Run the migrations.
+     *
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function up()
+    {
+        Schema::table('links', function (Blueprint $table)
+        {
+            // Add long_url hashes
+            $table->unique('short_url');
+            $table->string('long_url_hash', 10)->nullable();
+            $table->index('long_url_hash', 'links_long_url_index');
+        });
+
+        // MySQL only statement
+        // DB::statement("UPDATE links SET long_url_hash = crc32(long_url);");
+
+        DB::table('links')->select(['id', 'long_url_hash', 'long_url'])
+            ->chunk(100, function($links) {
+                foreach ($links as $link) {
+                    DB::table('links')
+                        ->where('id', $link->id)
+                        ->update([
+                            'long_url_hash' => sprintf('%u', crc32($link->long_url))
+                        ]);
+                }
+        });
+    }
+
+    public function down()
+    {
+        Schema::table('links', function (Blueprint $table)
+        {
+            $table->dropUnique('links_short_url_unique');
+            $table->dropIndex('links_long_url_index');
+            $table->dropColumn('long_url_hash');
+        });
+    }
+}
diff --git a/database/migrations/2017_02_08_003907_alter_link_clicks_to_integer.php b/database/migrations/2017_02_08_003907_alter_link_clicks_to_integer.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9879d67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/database/migrations/2017_02_08_003907_alter_link_clicks_to_integer.php
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+<?php
+
+use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
+use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
+
+class AlterLinkClicksToInteger extends Migration
+{
+    /**
+     * Run the migrations.
+     * Changes the "clicks" field in the link table to
+     * an integer field rather than a string field.
+     *
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function up()
+    {
+        Schema::table('links', function (Blueprint $table)
+        {
+            $table->integer('clicks')->change();
+        });
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Reverse the migrations.
+     *
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function down()
+    {
+        Schema::table('links', function (Blueprint $table)
+        {
+            $table->string('clicks')->change();
+        });
+    }
+}