When you are using HootSuite, you can shorten any URL to an ow.ly or ht.ly link. It’s also popular so a lot of people recognize that a Bitly link is a shortened link and don’t automatically think it’s spam. For example, say you are using UTM codes to track website traffic.
For example, links that point to a page on will rewritten with any available link subdomain sharing that domain (e.g. ). Backlinks are followed by Google's robot to check if it’s a valid link. Use Custom Short URLs in blog posts to amplify my messages and promote my personal brand at the same time.
Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. Many people use URL shorteners when they share links to private content, and in fact many web services like Google Maps have offered automatic generation of shortened links for driving directions that reveal personal information like home addresses and sensitive destinations like "clinics for specific diseases (including cancer and mental diseases), addiction treatment centers, abortion providers, correctional and juvenile detention facilities, payday and car-title lenders, gentlemen’s clubs, etc."[34][35] Additional layer of complexity[edit] Short URLs, although making it easier to access what might otherwise be a very long URL or user-space on an ISP server, add an additional layer of complexity to the process of retrieving web pages. The customized bit.ly version allows you to use your own domain name for branded short links which can be easily shared on Twitter, Facebook or other social media sites. I also worry that because shorteners are essentially open proxies of HTTP they’ll be exploited by spammers and malware distributors to the point where businesses, anti-phishing, and anti-virus services will be forced to block them.
Does your website code allow the following external variables? utm_source= utm_campaign= utm_medium= For the sake of page security, a link is designed to fail if a query value outside of what is expected is fed in to a page. The Google Analytics campaign title combines the MailChimp campaign title with the date and the Campaign ID.
Services that don’t do this can end up being blacklisted on major websites which won’t allow links from such services to be displayed. Another consideration is that some countries also restrict what content can be used their TLDs, so if you intend in shortening content that might be in violation of these laws, you'll need to find another TLD. Namely, I want to make sure that if have an absolute internal URL with www vs non-www that I capture both cases. Click the owl head in the upper-left corner of the screen. Effectively the data passed is the same as before, however the call is different. This is something you’ll often hear from link shortener detractors. Build trust & increase click rate: people tend to click on the links that they trust rather than unknown URLs (ie. bit.ly/buSzh might be a spam link). To enable outbound link tracking, you need to add a little javascript to your website, and add a little code with each outgoing link that you want to track. Macro Name: element text Macro Type: Custom JavaScript Custom Javascript: The .textContent property is built into most browsers which is nice, but you can always adapt the macro to use innerHTML or innerText depending on your needs. The customizable part of the URL is case insensitive. Object Identifiers The link tracking service maintains its link to an object by using an object identifier (ID). Link shortening adds another of redirection to an “already creaky system“, according to Joshua Schachter, the founder of Delicious. Check out our review of this fantastic tool to see how it works. A friendly URL may be desired for messaging technologies that limit the number of characters in a message (for example SMS), for reducing the amount of typing required if the reader is copying a URL from a print source, for making it easier for a person to remember, or for the intention of a permalink. TinyURL tries to disable spam-related links from redirecting.[30] ZoneAlarm, however, has warned its users: "TinyURL may be unsafe. Undo Undo Shorten URL @ShortenURL 20 May 2011 More Revision 360: x Refactored Thanks.