Shorter Urls

How To Make Money With URL Shorteners

2010-08-04T19:25:00.001-07:00

There is one particular new URL shortening service that has just been launched - the world's first that actually offers revenue to its members based on how many people click the shortened links that they send out all over the web. Given that these links can point to anything you like (not just sites that are trying to sell you something!), there seems to be a massive untapped market and potential for earnings. Today we look at some of the fastest and easiest ways to make money with short URLs - hold on to your Paypal account!

Tweeting with short URLs
People are quite used to clicking on shortened URLs in Twitter ... and the microblogging site sees a massive amount of traffic every day!
Sharing links on Facebook
Facebook is one of the biggest activity hubs on the internet ... and its social! People will often click links because their friends recommended them, their fellow group members told them they thought it was interesting, and other people who 'Like' the same pages they do recommended visiting. The best part of earning money this way is that you don't have to share unrelated links that will annoy people - simply put your short URL in place of the regular one!
Myspace, Bebo, Friendster, Qzone
All of these social networking sites have a massive amount of traffic - most of us probably have friends on one or more of them, but as on Facebook, the real short URL clicking potential is in sharing information with other members of 'Groups' or 'Pages' and their equivalents on Bebo etc.
Your blog
Blogs are an amazingly rich source of clicks - and you can use your anchor text to point to a short URL just as you would to point to an ordinary length URL.
Blog comments
Many net-izens realize that blog comments can be just as rich and comprehensive a source of information as a blog post itself. Choose your type of blog post carefully - the ones where people are most likely to actually read that other comments and click in the links on them are in academic, scientific, political and current events niches.
Yahoo Answers
It's always useful to provide extra information in your Yahoo Answers in the form of a link - make it a conveniently shortened one and you'll be earning cash by helping inform people.
Forums
The same principle applies to forums - answer a question well, than provide extra information in the form of a shortened link.
Email jokes
It is always advisable to use shortened URLs in emails anyway, because of the possibility that the email client will break a long link. You can use anchor text with the shortened URL within an email message, just as you can with blogs.

What to Expect from the Best URL Shorteners

2010-08-04T19:24:00.001-07:00

The first generation of URL shorteners were revolutionary. Very simple ... but a massive step forward from the complete broken email links, horrible-looking URLs and inability to share Google Maps listings on Twitter! URL shorteners have progressed far past that simple random conversion-and-redirect stage, though. New generation short URL services are offering more features than ever before ... here's what you can expect from some of the most cutting edge shorteners!

Revenue earning potential!

That right ... you can actually earn cash when your friends, family, and the web at large clicks on your shared links made with URL shortening service ity.im - as in 'I am itty ... itty bitty!'. It's a world-first concept and set to be a very easy way for people to earn money on the new web; http://ity.im is also offering cash for referring friends that become members of the site, winning weekly contests and hosting the site's ads on your own website.

Traffic statistics

This idea was a revolution when tinyurl first introduced it a year or two ago. Now it is commonplace - you can't have a URL shortening service without having traffic statistics associated with the links it creates.

Preview services

Some URL shorteners also have inbuilt URL un-shorteners in them - very useful considering the amount of spam that is now shared via short URLs which can hide the dodgy domain names which would otherwise remain unlicked.

Polls, surveys and feedback

Here new short URL service http://ity.im takes another bow - it allows you to add module to your site to conduct surveys, mini-polls and elicit user feedback.

Personalized shortening

Some short URL services let you choose your own code - doiop is an example, and there are several others than do this as well. This means you get the benefit of a short domain, removal of parameters and session IDs, and also a more memorable URL. Some shortening services simply pay attention to the sequence of consonants and vowels within the URL to mean that you can 'pronounce' the address, even if it is gibberish. MemURL does this.

5 Best Practices in Linking for Web Usability

2010-08-04T19:23:00.001-07:00

The entire World Wide Web is built on links. They are the only way to navigate around a website; they are the way that Google delivers us its information-rich goodness ... without links, the internet would look very different than it does. Few people actually realize that there is a well established set of protocols for linking in terms of web usability, governing everything from when to use short URLs, to when anchor text is needed, what to write and the appearance of your links. Here we check out 5 of those best practices.

Using anchor text
When you use anchor text for a link, you are embedding a hyperlink within text that is not the actual web address itself. Google uses the anchor text that links are embedded within as part of its algorithm which determines in what order sites will appear when you type in a search. Using anchor text is considered a best practice in some cases - it provides a description of the embedded link, which helps people decide whether it will be useful to click on.
Length of anchor text
Make your anchor text long enough to accurately describe the content of the embedded link, but no longer. When you make a portion of text into a link it removes the readability of the text. People will either struggle to get through the sentence or paragraph, or will skip it altogether ... ignoring the link it contains in the meantime!
When to use non-anchored URLs
Non-anchored URLs are almost never recommended - they usually contain combinations of numbers, letters, words and non-alphanumeric characters that are simply unintelligible to people. Visually impaired people using screen readers will have to listen to all that gobbledegook, too. If you must use your URL as a link, shorten it with a URL shortening service (see below).
Length of non-anchored URLs
In many cases, it is considered best practice to shorten long URLs with a free, widely available URL shortening service. This means that email clients will not break the link if it runs over a line break, it will fit within the character limits of a Tweet or a Facebook status update, etc.
Alt text for images as links
Keep your alt descriptions accurate, but above all, fairly short. People using screen readers won't get the visual impact of a picture simply by hearing it described anyway, and will find a long description of a simple image a royal pain.

A Looong List of Un-Saveable Looong URLs!

2010-08-04T19:22:00.001-07:00

Many long URLs can be saved. They're long ... they're intimidating ... they're most certainly not user friendly ... but at least links like Google Maps addresses, Yahoo articles and on-site search listings can be shrunk down to a manageable size with a good URL shortening service. However, when your long URL is a part of your company's branding, the situation becomes a little more hopeless! You can hardly hand out business cards with an address like http://ity.im/0bf on them, after all. So today we take a look (and try to learn a lesson from!) some of the longest, un-saveable URLs on the web!

1.http://www.yellowbirdsdonthavewingsbuttheyflytomakeyouexperiencea3dreality.com/

These people could have had www.yellowbird.com, but no ... they really wanted to be unique! I know that you have to have a point of difference in order for your business to survive. But should you really be known for terrible, difficult to remember URLs? It is a great site, though!

2. www.europeantileandstoneinstallation.com
I understand the rationale behind this very non-short URL ... but I still don’t believe it's necessary! Euro Tile and Stone, Stone Tile Installations, Euro Stone ... any of the above would have worked far better.

3. www.thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com
Faboo! I love this long URL. Unfortunately, I think that despite its good sense of humor and intentions, it probably loses a lot of its branding by being fed into URL shorteners more than any other single domain on the web!

4. www.leesfamousrecipechickenofcincyandky.com

This long, unsaveable URL is no longer in commission. Perhaps if they had used a good URL shortening services the site would have got enough visitors to pay for itself ...

5. www.kerkenenmensenmeteenverstandelijkehandicap.nl

This is a Dutch site - it isn't a purposefully made gobbledegook URL. Again, this site is no longer with us in web-land (or perhaps has simply been moved to a more manageable URL!).

And just for fun ... this URL is certainly saveable with a URL shortening service. This is why they were invented!

http://www.realtytrac.com/MapSearch/MapSearch/MapSearch.aspx?
zipcode=70471&zipOnly=true&Submit.x=0&Submit.y=0&Submit=Submi
t&#eyJCYXNpY1JlcXVlc3QiOnsiWmlwIjoiNzA0NzEiLCJDb3VudHlDb2RlIj
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iOm51bGwsIkJlZHJvb21Db3VudFRvIjpudWxsLCJCYXRocm9vbUNvdW50RnJv
bSI6bnVsbCwiQmF0aHJvb21Db3VudFRvIjpudWxsLCJTcXVhcmVGZWV0RnJvb
SI6bnVsbCwiU3F1YXJlRmVldFRvIjpudWxsLCJGcm9tRGF0ZSI6bnVsbCwiVG
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Fighting the Short URL Spam Peak

2010-08-04T19:20:00.001-07:00

As a society, we've gone through the five psychological stages of change with spam. First it was denial, when everybody knew these messages were a pain but the authorities denied there was any issue. We got angry; we tried to bargain with the spammers, we were fearful of what would happen if spam levels kept increasing ... until now we have come to a sort of tacit acceptance of spam. We joke about its existence, laugh at the crazy people who think we believe that 'organs' can be enlarged with a failsafe cream, and the 'Nigerian princess' meme has worked its way into household conversation. But spam is not something that should just be accepted; it is actually a major method for spreading viruses and committing identity theft. Recently, spam sent via short URLs reached an historical peak. So, what are the URL shorteners doing about it? And what can you do about it?

The Short URL Spam Problem

Even at the beginning of 2010, spam sent with URL shortening services was still a minor problem. In April, there were a few blips on the radar as spammers began testing out the possibilities of spreading links with short URLs. In May, 0.5% of all spam email messages used shortened URLs, but in June the number skyrocketed to 2.5% and has remained high ever since.

Top URL Shorteners Take the Solution Into Their Own Hands

Reputable URL shorteners have been taking the problem into their own hands; telling spammers that their accounts will be suspended automatically after more than one violation. The target domain will be blocked from use with the shortening service, and if it is a revenue sharing URL shortener, the user account and any payouts would be suspended.

How users can help

There are two main ways that users can help prevent spam in general, and prevent becoming the victim of virus-laden spam:

Report spam that you receive to the URL shortening service. They will have the ability to block domains. Yes, this action is a drop in the ocean ... but if everyone does it, the spammers efforts will be seriously hampered.

Preview your short URLs: Use a URL un-shortening service such as PrevURL to check on links from people that you are unsure of ... or simply don't click links from any person that you don't personally know!

Long URLs vs Short URLs - Let the Battle Begin!

2010-08-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

There is now over a zettabyte of information on the web. There are thousands of new pages added every day. And every single one of those needs to have a URL! Even those who are relatively URL savvy - following best practices and protocols such as including both your company name and a description of your service, using hyphens where necessary and being memorable - may not be aware of some of the intricacies associated with URL length. Today we draw battle lines and some rules of war, and see who'll win ... long URLs, or short URLs?!

Readability

In the war between long and short URLs, it isn’t easy to determine who'll win the readability battle. Here are some of the factors that play into the readability of a particular URL:

Whether it is hyphenated or not
Whether the URL forms an intelligible sentence or 'story' of some kind. For example, www.whatchildrenreallywant.blogspot.com is long, but more readable than www.w4tyh41111.ca
Whether you capitalise the start of words

If you’re choosing a URL for your main business domain name, obviously memorability is key. This doesn’t always directly relate to URL length - long URLs are not necessarily more difficult to remember than short ones. If your URL rolls off the tongue and doesn’t include any 'mean tricks' (like replacing the word 'for' with the number 4), it will be memorable. Another draw!

URL Length for link sharing

There are some great URL shorteners available on the net, with ultra-fast interfaces, built-in image servers, interactive features, robust servers and even revenue generating potential.

When you're sharing links in a Facebook status, an email, and especially in a Tweet, you'll most likely be deep linking to a page other than the site's home page. If you're linking to a blog post, you may even have the entire post title hyphenated out in the URL. If those enormous addresses even fit in a Tweet, they look messy and sometimes even intimidate people so much that they choose not to click on them. When long URLs are shared in an email, if they run over a line break some email clients will not preserve the link, making people copy and paste. Short URLs are the clear link-sharing battle winner!

Most of the time URL length is not the only consideration - apart from when you're trying to share links with people online! Both long and short URLs work well in different situations - match your length to your task.

URL Shorteners and SEO -- The Real Story

2010-02-01T09:42:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-01T09:40:00.000-08:00

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.

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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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

2010-02-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-01T09:35:00.000-08:00

"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

2010-02-01T09:34:00.001-08:00

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!

2010-01-25T08:24:00.000-08:00

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?

2010-01-16T20:14:00.000-08:00

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?

The Problems of Short URLs ... and How to Overcome Them!

2010-01-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

If you have ever gotten interested enough in URL shortening to start investigating it, you are just as likely to have found pages telling you why short URLs are the scourge of the Internet as pages that explain why they are so vital to Internet marketing success! Today we are examining some of the problems that URL shortening can bring up, and how smart companies can overcome them with a little planning, some diligently followed processes and smart choice of URL shortening provider.

Short URLs don’t pass link love or add to Pagerank
This downside to some URL shortening services comes from the fact that Google doesn’t recognize clicks on your shortened URLs as visitors to your domain, since they are redirected. Therefore the clicks that you get through your short URLs don’t contribute to your Pagerank, or so the argument goes. However, some URL shortening services do offer URL shortening and re-directs within your own domain to counter this problem. Also, in the internet marketing equation your Google ranking and the effectiveness of your website in converting visitors are two equal, but separate pillars of profitability. Just get the visitors to your site using the shorter URLs, and use other strategies to bump up your Google ranking -- this is the prevailing advice.
Short URLs contribute to linkrot on the web
We all know how annoying it is to decide that you want to read a page, only to find that the link is broken. If a short URL service stopped working, then all the redirects it had put in place would also. This possibility worries website owners and developers alike. However, in 2009 a project known as the ‘’301 Works’’ was begun by the Internet Archive with initially 20 collaborating companies. If your service is listed, then your short URLs will always work, no matter the end fate of the business providing them. This should also stop people going automatically to larger services through worry about sustainability, and increase competitiveness.
Short URLs are vulnerable to spam and behavioral tracking
All that is needed is a little communication with your URL shortening service to ensure this isn’t the case. Make sure they seem like a reputable company – that you can actually call their offices, that they answer emails, and that they are located in a country where the Internet is well-regulated. If every person using short URLs did this, their general reputation would skyrocket!

Top 4 Reasons Why Websites Use Short URLs

2010-01-16T20:09:00.001-08:00

So, you have a website. Every page has its own URL created by your web developer, or automatically created by an algorithm encoded in your page. Why could you possibly need your URLs changed to something else entirely? There are a few simple but very important reasons why people use URL shortening and URL redirects. Today we’re looking at why these services exist – and how your site could benefit by using them.

Short URLs get more clicks
When people encounter a long URL that isn’t encoded as a hyperlink with anchor text, it looks intimidating. People tend to think thatshorter URLs will be closer to the main site page, and therefore contain more general informaiton that is closer to what they imagine they will need. After all, if only an obscure page on a website contains the term you are looking for, you might be able to get more comprehensive information elsewhere.
If you use Twitter marketing, you need short URLs
Twitter limits its messages to 140 characters or less. A URL may only be counted as one word, since it has no spaces, but every little &ocsid= or &page_query_1125463 eats away at your character limit! And if you can’t tell your Twitter followers anything about the link, they aren’t likely to click on it.
If you use SMS marketing, you need short URLs
The same rule as in Twitter marketing applies for SMS marketing. You have 140-160 characters, depending on your recipient’s mobile phone service, to get your message to them. If your characters are completely taken up by a website address, you’ll get few clicks. In addition, unless an enormous percentage of your clients use mobile internet devices as their phones (and you would really want that percentage to be close to 100%!), many will have to re-type the URL into their browser to visit the site. Long URLs increase the likelihood of typos, and missed opportunities for your website
You want to include a URL in your print advertising
Unfortunately, technology hasn’t progressed to the point where print publications are web-enabled, and we can just tap printed words in a magazine to get to a website! Again, people must re-type addresses they see in print ads, and if you want to send them to a deep link in your site, every extra character is another possibility of creating a typo. If it looks like work, people simply won’t bother ... and your advertising dollar is wasted!

URL shortening and redirection services are an integral part of the web already, and are vital for truly integrating your web and traditional marketing efforts. Best of all, many great services are free to use!