Why To Use URL Shortener
Over the approaching weeks i will be able to be writing variety of articles on URL Shorteners. I even have been using Shortened URL’s for a few time and it wasn’t until people started asking me that I realised that they’re only really understood by people engaged in On-line Business. So this series of articles aims to provde something for the beginner and, hopefully, something for the more seasoned Online Professional.
In this first article i will be able to cover what’s a URL Shortener and what are the benefits and drawbacks of using one. i will be able to also provide an ‘Initial’ list of URL Shortening Providers (there are over 200 alive today!) which, over time, i will be able to provide further information on… so check back if you would like more details… or let me know if you would like a specific provider reviewed a touch quicker.
In future articles i will be able to cover, additionally to the provider reviews, a glance at Free vs purchased services; the way to check and validate a shortened link then on to some tracking information.
What is a URL Shortener?
A URL Shortener is just a way on the web for taking a consistent Resource Locator (URL) and making it substantially shorter long whilst still directing to the specified Internet page.
This is achieved by using an HTTP Redirect on a website name that’s short, which links to the web page that features a long URL.
What are the benefits of employing a URL Shortener?
Social Media
With the arrival of Social Media sites like Twitter and Identi.ca that only allow a comparatively small number of characters during a message, using long URL’s meant that there was little or no space for the particular message. Shortening the URL allows longer messages to be included alongside the URL.
Disguise
Shortening the URL allows the originating web address to be disguised. This has some disadvantages which i will be able to cover later but, from a positive perspective, it does allow an address to be made ‘more presentable’ i.e. by removing all those seemingly random characters and also to cover the originating name that, for whatever reason, people might not prefer to click on.
Readability
Long URL’s are sometime difficult to read and if you would like to write down one down then the probabilities or recording the URL incorrectly are high.
Memorable
In the same vein as readability the shortened URL is way more memorable. In many cases it’s possible to format the URL with an outline of your own choosing. Making URL’s memorable has obvious advantages from a marketing perspective. it’s much easier to recollect coki.me/myurl instead of buzzfeed.com/video/my_motivational_video_for_marketers …
Accumulate Statistics
For Internet or Affiliate Marketers URL Shorteners provide a mechanism to trace when, where and the way repeatedly a URL is clicked upon. Knowing these statistics is important to the success of anyone working on-line as you’ve got to understand your target market and once they are likely to be online and what sorts of product they’re likely to get . i will be able to come to tracking and statistics during a future post.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
A good URL shortening service will pass along information to the target page by using something called a 301 redirect. I won’t enter the technical details during this post but this may help your page to rank with sites like Google.
Free Service
Many of the URL services are freed from charge. for many uses e.g. Social Media, a free service is completely fine. i will be able to discuss during a future post the benefits and drawbacks of free vs purchased URL Shorteners.
What are the Disadvantages of employing a URL Shortener?
Like most things in life there’s normally a balance between advantages and drawbacks . an equivalent is true of URL Shorteners.
Spamming
The fact that you simply cannot see the small print of the link is employed by spammers as how of getting people to open links that they could otherwise ignore.
URL Shorteners Get Closed
Some URL Shorteners get closed down precisely because they do not control the extent of spam that emanates from their service. If this happens and you’ve got been using the service then all of your links become useless.
Using a Third Party Provider
The URL Shortener is effectively another third party within the process between you creating a URL and sending it to your audience. you ought to therefore choose your provider carefully.
Some Sites don’t allow Shortened URL’s
Due to the extent of spam related to some URL Shorteners, some sites won’t accept shortened URL’s. this is often important for Affiliate Marketers as some providers won’t allow shortended links that ask affiliate products, as they class this as spam!
Redirection Could end in Performance Issues
To resolve a shortened URL requires an additional translation between the shortened URL and therefore the target URL. Whilst this could be negligible it’ll also depend upon the provider you employ to shorten your URL’s.
Are URL Shorteners Good or Bad?
In my opinion URL Shorteners have a legitimate role to play, particularly where the anticipation or a URL isn’t long… which is especially true of Social Media.
My rule of thumb is that i exploit a URL Shortener for Social Media and for brief term affiliate campaigns. If I write articles or e-books that I expect to measure for a extended period of your time then i will be able to use the name … and mask this if it’s too long.