URL Shorteners and SEO -- The Real Story

One of the major arguments that people use against URL shortening services is that they are harmful to SEO efforts. Much like the MMR vaccine debate, this piece of pseudoscience is actually harming many of the businesses that choose not to use URL shorteners because of misinformation! Today we look at how good URL redirection services can be of enormous SEO benefit, not harm.

Site traffic is usually about more than URL keywords

Think about your own websurfing behaviour. If you are like the majority of internet users, you typically find new sites through search engines, like Google. However, once you have visited a site once or twice, you either bookmark it, or simply remember the homepage address and type it directly into your browser bar. New advancements in browser features, like Firefox's autocomplete from both history and bookmarks, make it ever easier for people to return to your site.

Unless you are a very new business, or you rely heavily on search engines for your traffic (in which case you need to start strategizing about longer-term internet marketing methods), having keywords in your URL isn’t the be-all and end-all of SEO.

URL Shorteners have no effect on your site traffic stats

Google uses the number of people visiting your site in a given time period as part of their algorithm, and whether people arrive at your site through a URL redirection or by typing the address into the browser, the effect is the same. You get bumped up the Google results for your core site.

Use 301 redirects, still get link juice

302 redirects will not produce all the link juice for your site that 301s will … so just make sure your URL shortening service uses 301 redirects! This will overcome much of the link popularity problem with URL shortening services.

Use short URLs for short-term links

Twitter and SMS marketing links are not made to last forever -- there really isn’t problem with using URL shortening services for short-term links. It wouldn’t make sense to use a short version of your URL for inclusion in the Yahoo directory, or as the main method of linking to your website from your blog, for example. Use them appropriately, and they are gold!

6 Factors to Consider When Choosing a URL Shortening Service

There are heaps of URL shortening services out there nowadays. There are some ultra-big players out there, but it is often the new blood that tries harder and eventually does better! If you're looking for a URL shortening service for Twitter and texting purposes, or simply for your failing memory (join the club!), today we review the most important features for URL redirection services.

1. Having short URLs!
   While TinyURL was one of the first URL redicrection services, they unfortunately existed before it was possible for websites to get domians other than the usual .com, .org, etc. This has meant that sites with shorter monikers, like http://ity.im (16 characters) andhttp://bit.ly (20 characters) have been able to trump TinyURL in this respect. When you only have 140 characters, you have to make every single one count.
   
2. Site uptime
   When you use a short URL, you introduce another point of instability into the link mix. Sites like tr.im and twurl had a cumulative total of between two and four days of downtime in a year. While it doesn’t look like much percentage wise, if you’re a business that could be a lot of clicks you miss out on. Go with a reliable service like http://ity.im -- 100% uptime.
3. Speed of redirection
   This won’t necessarily create a clear point of difference between number 3 on your list of favorite URL redirectors and number 4 … the difference is measured in milliseconds. However, speed of redirection is certainly important when seen at the fastest and slowest ends of the scale.
4. Customizability
   One of the things that many people complain about is the lack of English words in a short URL! Good URl shorteners offer you the option to customise the short version of your URL to include real human words -- this can be very soothing to the non-technically minded!
5. Previews
   Some of the good services also offer previews of where the content points. If you don't like the look of a web page, you have the option not to go there. This possibility was created in response to concerns about high levels of spam and virus-laden websites being accessed through short URLs.
6. Browser bookmarklets
   The option to drag your short URL directly to your browse toolbar and have it create a bookmark is very handy, especially for those of us that spend a lot of time on the net and need to keep ourselves organised!

Vital Stats About Popular URL Shorteners

Today we are doing a "Did You Know" post about the URL shortening services on the web. With the rise of Twitter, text message marketing, and an ever-more information laden world, URL redirection is becoming an essential service. Today we check out how the major competing services fare in the statistics, and how the up-and-coming stars of the URL redirect world compare.

1. Bit.ly has almost 70% of the Twitter market, but the MySpace link shortener comes next -- lnk.ms has about 17% of the 'market' there

2. From May to August 2009, while TinyURL stayed roughly steady in size (5.3 to 5.6 million unique visitors), bit.ly almost doubled in traffic from 2.9 million to 5.7 million

3. One of the latest short URL services to be launched is http://ity.im -- also providing one of the shortest URLs around at only 14 characters. The Twitter potential is said to be huge.

4. When it comes to length of URLs, ity.im leads at 14 characters, bit.ly weighs in around 20, youtu.be links have around 27 characters,

5. tr.im is considered one of the least reliable services -- they experienced around 80 hours of downtime in a year, compared withhttp://ity.im 's 100% and ow.ly's 100%.

6. SnipURL has the slowest response time of the major URL redirect services, at around 847 milliseconds for a redirection

7. As of August 2009, bit.ly was the giant of URL shortening with just under 80% of the market share

8. is.gd grew by 3721% in traffic terms over a 12 month period. While it is fairly well recognized, it still has a low market share however!

9. The URL shortener with perhaps the most interesting name is qurlyq.com … though the short URLs it creates are nowhere near ity.im's awesome16 characters.

10. TinyURl is one of the oldest shortening services -- it was around for years before other companies started to compete in the URL shortening arena.

11. Here are five URL services that almost nobody is aware of the existence of: jmp2,net, w3t.org, xaddr.com, doiop.com, and smal.ly.

The Great URL Shortening War of 2009!

"I was there for the great URL shortening war of aught-nine," we'll tell our grandchildren. "Tryin' times they were … Facebook had plenty of status but had only just turned cash flow positive, while Google reigned supreme…"

Well, perhaps not! Truth is though, that 2009 marked some pretty remarkable upheavals in the world of URL shorteners. Today we look at some of the major developments of the year.

Twitter dumps TinyURL

Poor old TinyURL got ditched in 2009, by one of the services that has the greatest use for a URL shortener. Twitter decided to change from the internet's oldest URL shortening service, to one of the best managed and most comprehensively featured ones, bit.ly. Bit.ly is sort of an inside job at Twitter; Betaworks is the startup accelerator behind Twitter, and also counts bit.ly among its projects.

TinyURL said to be worth $46 million

Before the great dumping occurred, TinyURL's worth was estimated by Techcrunch at around $46 million. Unfortunately, it seems that without a revamp of the web address of tinyurl itself, it stands little chance of gaining ground again. Shorter is always better, and tinyurl was launchedi nthe days before you had the choice to use anything except .com, .net, etc in your URL. So, TinyURL has addresses with http://tinyurl.com, while the new school offerings are much shorter.

Facebook, Google and Youtube get on board

After all the Twitter-fiasco dust had settled, Facebook and Google both announced that they were launching their own URL shortening services. While Google's could be used only on some Google platforms, and Facebook was mostly for Facebook pages, and Youtube's was ONLY for Youtube videos … we still saw articles across the web trumpeting bit.ly's demise. Whether the three big services will do much to the more flexible URL shorteners is yet to be determined, but it doesn’t look like the impact will be that great.

The standout newcomers

Along with the rise of bit.ly, a range of new URL redirection alternatives came to prominence. Among these was http://ity.im, one of the simplest and the best URL shorteners. It offers browser bookmarklets and shortening with a custom alias, and is beginning to build quite a user community with a responsive admin and development team.

Youtube's Own URL Shortener Reviewed

Youtube's URL redirection service is one of a new breed of URL shorteners, where major companies have launched their own services specifically for parts of their service platforms. Youtube's URL redirection service came after the other two internet big guns, Facebook and Google, announced their own similar services. Today we explore the Youtube URL shortening service, along with its benefits and drawbacks.

Shortener is a little long…

One of the major complaints (and indeed, talking points) about the Youtube URL shortener so far has been its length. While bit.ly links (the default settings for Twitter URL shortening) are only 18 characters, and other URL shortening services like ity.im are able to get links down to an amazing 16 characters (just over 10% of a Tweet length), youtu.be links are around 27 characters. This is because the Youtube IDs are 11 characters long in total, and the http://youtu.be must also be counted.

Only for Youtube videos

This aspect of the Youtube URL shortener is both a benefit and a drawback. The advantage is that there is little possibility of following a link with a virus, if the only place they can point is Youtube videos. A major hack would have to occur to make the youtu.be links unsafe. However, if you have a preferred URL shortener already, why bother using the youtu.be specific service just for Youtube videos?

Difficult process to manage

Most good URL shorteners have a simple interface with instructions. The Youtube service, however, works either when you:

• Enable the Autoshare feature on your Youtube account, sign in while you are watching videos, and then Favorite a clip. The service automatically sends youtu.be links to your Twitter and Google Reader.
• Alternatively, you can replace the " http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=" with http://youtu.be

While the process seems simple enough when you have it sitting in front of you, try to remember which URL characters you are supposed to replace without looking back at the guide above! Try to remember it in a few days time, also. Even if you do remember the method, take an informal survey of your friends and see how many remember it. You'll see that it is less than user-friendly! With ity.im and bit.ly, you go to the site, enter your URL and get a code … much easier.

7 Things People Don’t Tell You About URL Shorteners!

If you’ve been researching the benefits of using short URLs in your general and internet marketing, there are probably a few general points that stick out in your mind:

• Short URLs tend to increase click-through rates ... and therefore profit for your site.
• Short URLs are infinitely preferable when your marketing is in a format that requires re-typing the address (such as SMS marketing or print advertising).
• Short URLs can be vulnerable to spam links, since you can’t see exactly where the URL points.
• Short URLs contribute to the possibility of linkrot on the web, in case one or more of the shortening services stop functioning.

This leaves you with two fairly convincing arguments on either side of the fence. Unfortunately there is a lot more to the story than most sites tend to want to tell you! Today we are looking at the top 7 things that not many people realize about URL shorteners.

1. Many URL shortening services have a preview function that allows you to see what a page looks like, without actually clicking through to it. If users are worried about spam, they simply use the preview function to confirm that the site is legitimate.
2. It is best practice not to use short URLs as a permanent linking device. They are wonderful in certain circumstances, but shortening every URL on your site for all of your promotion is not the ideal long term solution. A website developer can work with you to create a longer-term solution.
3. There are plugins and scripts available that decode shortened URLs for users. Someone who is worried about the possibility of spam in short URLs may well have one of these scripts or plug-ins installed. However, a limited number of services are supported by these.
4. Bit.ly and tinyurl are not the only URL shortening services. There are doens of smaller ones, and some that offer very inventive features. These may include tracking and stats, the possibility of shortening URLs with your own domain, and so on.
5. It is believed that the lifespan of the average URL is around the same as that of a shortened URL. The major difference is that with shortened URLs there is the very small possibility of a heap of URLs suddenly becoming invalid all at once, whereas this happens gradually for ordinary URLs.
6. Businesses can sometimes avoid the need for using URL shortening services by careful URL design ... but when you have a content management system that automatically generates long URLs, this is near impossible. It is much easier to shorten as necessary, rather than redesign an entire site.
7. Some antivirus products will block shortened URLs en masse. If you don't want your viewers to be stopped from accessing your site, choose a service without known issues.

Should You Use Google's and Facebook’s URL Shortening Services?

There has been some (rather high profile!) discussion on the web recently about Google and Facebook’s decisions to introduce their proprietary URL shortening services, and the impact that might have on services from smaller companies. It seems like a clear-cut case of the big guy stomping out competition in the marketplace by virtue of their reputation and brand ... but is that really all there is to it? More importantly, if you are a website owner who needs a URL shortening service, should you use one of the Google/Facebook behemoths, or should you look further afield to find a service that is right for you?

Most importantly ... Google’s product is limited

The most important thing ot remember about Google’s URL shortening service is that it is only available when you are sharing URLs directly from within the Google toolbar or through Feedburner. You can’t use the same short URL for all your Tweets, for your print advertising, for your SMS marketing, and so on. You can only use it for sharing things through Google Toolbar or Feedburner.

Facebook’s URL shortener ... only for Facebook Pages

If you actively promote your business through Facebook (and many people do!), then the Facebook automatic URL shortening will be a plus for you. Unfortunately, in some ways, you don’t get to choose whether you use the Facebook URL shortening service ... if you share something through the site, it automatically does it for you. Of course, you can use any proprietary service as an alternative short URL.

For your own web pages ... go proprietary!

There are all sorts of arguments for and against using both large companies and big brands, and using smaller companies and less well-known brands. We tend to find that small companies are better at customer service, have more innovative features, are more likely to be free as opposed to requiring payment, etc. Another good reason for you to support smaller business when it comes to URL shortening is the idea of karma ... you are most likely a small or medium sized business, and you want customers to approach you rather than your big brand competitors. Why don’t you take your own advice?