There are several benefits to shortening links. All these benefits will lead to an increase in business through 'easier to run' marketing campaigns. On this page, we are going to run you through a few of these benefits, as well as point you in the direction of a few link shorteners that we feel will make your business operation a whole lot easier.
Why? How Does it Work?
URLs are pretty long. In fact, they are ridiculously long. Look at any Amazon link, and it will easily be over 100 characters. The purpose of a link shortener is to reduce a link to no more than 20 characters or so. This means that not only is the link memorable, but it is also going to be a bit easier to share around the web.
On Twitter, for example, you would never be able to share a 100+ character link. There isn't enough space in a tweet box. However, you can shorten it down to 20 characters and still have space for a snappy little message. The links also look a little bit 'prettier' when you shorten them down, too.
One of the main reasons as to why we recommend the use of a link shortener, however, is the fact that a good link shortener can record information on who is visiting that link. Yeah. You can do this on your end too, but link shortening makes it so much easier to do. You really have to do nothing but shorten the link. If you have done this all yourself, you would have to send up campaigns and the like in Google Analytics. Doing this is just....annoying. Once you have this information, it can be easier for you to plan future campaigns that you want to run. This can lead to business growth.
So, how does it accomplish all of this? Well, once you have found a link shortener you want to use, you type in the URL you want to shorten. The site will then do this, and give you a link back. This link, when visited, will simply redirect to the initial link you gave them. Depending on the link shortener you have used, it may also record a few stats at the same time.
Bitly Link Shortener - The All-Around Link Shortener
Our favorite link shortener is Bitly. While there is a free option available (and you do not even need to create an account for this), most of the fun from Bitly comes when you make a premium business account. You have a wealth of features that other products do not offer. This means that it can be perfect when you are trying to put together a top marketing campaign. In fact, the amount of data is incredible.
Once you have an account, you will have a ton of control - overseeing the stats for people who clicked your links. For example; you can check where the link was clicked, the geographic location of the clicker, whether the link was shared, etc.
There are over 20 different things that you can track with Bitly link shortener, and we believe all of them are going to play well into your marketing campaigns. The best part is that the whole system is easy to use. Within seconds, you will know exactly how their UI works. This makes it great for going back and checking your data regularly. It shouldn't take too long.
If you are going to opt for a link shortener, then we do recommend that you shorten the URL for your sites using Bitly. It may cost a bit of money, but when you realize just what it can do, you will quickly realize that it is money 'well spent'.
4 Best Free Link Shorteners Other Than Bitly
While we do recommend that you use the Bitly link shortener, there are other free link shortener options out there. In this section, we are going to take a little look at four of our favorite ones to keep your URL nice and short.
It is worth noting that there used to be a Google URL shortener, although this was discontinued by Google when they purchased Firebase. So, while there is a Google link shortener available in Firebase, it is a rather convoluted system and isn't really designed for people who want something nice and simple, i.e., it is more a complete marketing suite. Sooner or later, you are probably going to need to pay to use Firebase, too, which means we can rule it out of our list of free link shorteners.
Owl.ly
This is a link shortener option that was originally designed for those who use Hootsuite in order to manage their Twitter accounts. However, nowadays, it is a URL shortener used by just about everybody, although you are still going to need to have a Hootsuite account if you want to use this free link shortener.
One of the major benefits of Owl.ly is that you can enjoy perhaps one of the URL shortener products on the market. The links are nice and simple, and while all of the analytics features are going to be rather basic, it is going to be more than enough for a simple campaign.
Snip.ly
Snip.ly is perfect for those who are not anticipating that many clicks per month on their links (it caps off at 1,000), but the plans beyond this are pretty affordable. The wonderful thing about Snip.ly is that it is more than just a simple link shortener.
It will allow you to create 'calls to action' from the links that you create (called snips). This means that Snip.ly is perfect for people who need more dynamic links. It certainly works well when it comes to social media conversions, although usage is limited when it comes to PPC advertising.
LiveChat
This link shortener is one of the most fully-featured of the free URL shortener options. With this, you have full control over the customizability of your links, If you create a free account with LiveChat, you will also have the ability to track stats for the link e.g. how many times it has generated a click.
TinyURL
Probably one of the most popular of the free link shortener options. With this one, you don't get many options. In fact, you can't even create an account. TinyURL is simply for creating a link nice and quickly. You actually can customize the URL string for a bit of branding if you want, but because it is so popular, many of the options that you want will have likely been taken already.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. The benefits of link shorteners for business growth, and why you should really be shortening any URL today. You have no excuse not to use one because there are so many free link shorteners available on the market.
