Link shorteners are best friends with social media, SEOs, and people who want to hide where they are taking you. They are easy to use and manage and provide us with very useful information, although it is not always advisable to shorten your URL in order to find the best way to reach our audience.
How does it work?
Tools that shorten website URLs use extremely simple processes to make it.
That is, if we click on it and look at where we end up in the address bar of our browser, we will see that there is no trace of that shortened link, but that our browser window shows us a splendid full link.
Simplicity is a fact, the only thing a tool does to make it visible on social media is a simple temporary redirect. Basically they use a domain they have purchased and added directories or “empty” pages that redirect to the website we want to target.
As you can see, the process is simple and it will save us many headaches in the future to understand the advantages and disadvantages of it.
What are the advantages?
- Very long URLs can be shortened considerably. This makes them ideal for sharing on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter.
- THE destination URL can be obscured. However, there are more and more services that do not allow it. Google Ads also does not accept links for advertising search ads.
- Marketing campaigns can be evaluated in a targeted manner. How many times has the URL been accessed within a period? Where did the users come from?
- Using many tools is completely free! There are always premium providers with other services, but it is usually free
- Well-known URL shorteners are directly integrated into many programs and websites. It can be generated directly at the push of a button
- Short URLs do not negatively influence SEO! According to Google, a short URL has no influence on the page rank and can even be used as a normal backlink.
Main disadvantages
Shortening the URL can affect the reception of your message.
This is one of the disadvantages of it and it should be taken into account. How can shortening URLs pose this problem?
- It is not frequent but an external URL shortener can cease its activity and, with it, lose all the links cut with that tool that you have published in social networks, email marketing bulletins or other spaces. So if these are links you want to keep in the long term, keep that in mind. This problem does not occur if you are looking for a URL reducer for temporary offers.
- It can be marked as SPAM. And this is really problematic because it would prevent your message from reaching the audience you want to reach. But it can also mark you as a spammer and affect future actions. This does not usually happen when using a good tool to cut links, as it occurs more frequently with those of poor quality. But it is something to keep in mind.
- It generates a certain mistrust. If the user is not clear where it will redirect to, they will probably not click on it. And that loss of clicks and trust towards your message is one of the great disadvantages. Because it not only prevents you from getting your current message, but it also doubts your reliability, and that perception is much more serious.
To avoid problems with unreliable sites, we present the top 5 ..
Bityli
bityli.com can be used for all social networks or whatever application you need. You do not need to create an account, and if you wish, you can open a free account to which you will have access to all your links.
Rebrandly
Rebrand.ly is also a service that can shorten your links. Unlimited URLs can be shortened for free. However, the tracked metrics are limited. A maximum of 5,000 clicks per month can be tracked. Rebrandly is integrated in over 100 different tools and systems. For example, you can generate it directly via a Chrome or Firefox extension. There are also connections for Zapier, Slack or Google Sheets that can make everyday life easier.
Cuttly
cutt.ly is also a very fast and easy to use. Here you can generate it for free and even set a custom alias. A QR code can also be generated directly with a click. For each URL, performance data such as clicks, referrals, devices or GEO location are also stored here. This makes it easy to evaluate campaigns.
Zapier
Zapier is one of the most useful tools for this purpose. It also allows you various other options. Remember everything you have done and automatically generate what you need. Such complex options are certainly not necessary for everyone, but it is good to have them available, especially since they are all free.
Yourls
They even shortened their name, which is the acronym for “Your URL shortener”. But it is completely different from the previous ones. It is not a site, but an open source system, which can be installed on a server. If you want more control over the process and a greater degree of personalization, then this is a great choice. That is why it is good for your business because you will be able to influence everything.
Conclusion
If you don’t choose a good tool it can affect the user experience. You should know that when shortening URL when a user clicks on it, it does not go directly to your page. This should go through a redirect of the tool you have used to do it and this can slow down the loading of your website, especially if the tool used is of poor quality.
For many users, slow loading is a compelling reason to abandon the intention of visiting a website or accessing content. So it should be taken into account. If you are considering shortening URLs for your posts, before looking for an appropriate tool, be clear about the benefits of this action. And it also values the main disadvantages of it. So you can make an informed decision about its use.
