A URL shortener creates URLs that are more manageable and easier to share. In addition, they make it possible for smaller businesses to track marketing and other types of traffic efforts. This post will educate you about URL shorteners and how to choose appropriate applications for them, as well as provide recommendations for the eight best URL shorteners that may assist you in managing your organization’s online presence.
What exactly is a shortener for URLs?
An online program that helps you minimize the length of your URL is known as a URL shortener (Uniform Resource Locator). The goal is to condense the address of your website into something more straightforward to keep track of and more accessible to recall when necessary.
Bit.ly, Goog.le, and Tinyurl.com are just a few examples of the many URL shorteners currently available on the internet. When you shorten a URL using this option, the connection between your new link and the original URL will remain intact. Therefore, everyone who clicks on your unique link will be taken to the previously used URL.
What to search for in a software program that shortens URLs
You are tracking your clicks and performing analytics.
If you choose to share a post from another blog with your blog’s readers, that blog will not be able to determine how many people viewed the item or who clicked through to the source. The information will all be saved in the Google Analytics account corresponding to that specific individual. If you decide to use a URL shortener, you will be provided with a unique short URL. You will be able to track the number of hits your link receives, the locations from which they originate, and the kind of devices that users are utilizing.
Similar to most marketing solutions, the more accurate and comprehensive these analytics may be, the higher the associated cost. Premium options for marketing will gather as much information as possible and can even provide different URLs to users in other locations or on different devices. Free options typically include only basic click-tracking (although there is usually an expiration date); however, premium options for marketing will collect as much information as possible.
The ability to personalize URLs.
The best URL shorteners will allow you to personalize the shortened versions of your created URLs. This indicates that you can tweak them to be more relevant and utilize many links in various adverts and posts on social media to assess click-through rates. While many basic or free plans for a short link generator just enable you to edit the last part of the URL (such as https://smallurl.com/best-homes), this will allow you to establish a custom domain (so you will receive homes.is/best).
Standalone application.
There is a wide selection of choices regarding URL shortening services. Our search was limited just to including standalone services that were easy to start. There are also self-hosted alternatives available, such as The Polar and YOURLS, which, despite being cost-effective and inexpensive, require a significant amount of technical competence to be recommended. Other URL shorteners are built within programs that we did not consider.
For example, Ow.ly is wholly integrated with Hootsuite, and most mailing providers include some kind of URL shortening and tracking functionality. On the other hand, we did not consider applications like Shor. that use a single URL that can be updated to circumvent the restrictions a social media profile has on the total number of hyperlinks featured on that profile. This is not to argue that these applications are not worthwhile; however, they go beyond what most individuals require a URL shortener tool to achieve in their daily lives.
Getting one’s money’s worth
I was especially interested in pricing tables and the features that various degrees of short URL generators may provide. If you don’t require extensive data, the free plans may be superior to the premium plans offered by competing apps. At the very least, this is the case.
8 Best URL shortener for 2022
1. Short.io
You may shorten your URL, make it more personal, and share fully-branded ShortURLs with your consumers with the assistance of the Short.com tool.
Plans with premium features can be purchased for an additional $15 or $150 per month. Pricing: The primary goal is free.
Custom Domain: You Can Have It!
Tracking pixels that are a yes.
2. FB.me: Facebook URL Shortener
You can manually make this happen for pages by replacing “facebook.com” with FB.me. For example, Facebook.com/thenextweb would become fb.me/thenextweb. Facebook does this automatically for its URLs, but you can also make it happen manually for pages.
3. Bitly
When it comes to shortening URLs, Bitly is a reliable and well-known tool that you may use.
This free option enables you to generate shorter links by utilizing the name of your Bit.ly domain, in contrast to the premium service, which allows you to use the name of your environment.
When you upgrade to the paid version of Bitly, you receive access to services like link retargeting. In addition, via your Dashboard, you may monitor individual links and view the statistics that are pertinent to those links. In addition, it monitors how successful your marketing activities are in a given place.
4. Rebrandly
The most trustworthy link management software is Rebrandly, which allows users to recognize, track, and share URLs by using shortened URLs. This free custom URL shortener tool contains additional features like onboarding, account administration, deep linking, link retargeting, and custom statistics.
Free in addition to paid premium plans
Custom Domain: You Can Have It!
No to the AB Tests
Pixel Tracking: Not at This Time
5. TinyURL
TinyURL is the most effective URL shortening tool that you can use while maintaining your anonymity. You can change the URL string that will show up in your abbreviated URL.
You may, for instance, construct https://smallurl.com/fitness rather than a random URL such as https://smallurl.com/y3xvrfpg.
TinyURL does not save any personally identifying information, and creating an account is not required to use the service. On the other hand, it does not provide any advanced functionality, such as analytics or other tools, which is a significant drawback.
6. Adf.ly
There are downsides and upsides to using the Adf.ly service. The best part is that you get paid every time someone clicks on the shortened URL you provided them with. When your balance reaches $5, you will receive payments through Alertpay and PayPal. The disadvantage of this is that there is five-second long advertising that must be viewed before the URL may be sent to its main page. After waiting for five minutes, you will have the option to “Skip add,” at which point the main page will be shown. The four other URL shorteners are a better choice if you want to eliminate commercials that play for five seconds.
7. ClickMeter
With ClickMeter, you can monitor the success of all marketing hyperlinks in a single area and compare and optimise them to achieve a higher conversion rate. It assists in directing visitors to your website in the direction that will ensure the highest possible conversion rates. In addition to that, it enables you to identify blocklists and broken links. In addition to that, it assists you in recognizing click fraud, blocklists, and latency.
8. Goo.gl
Google, the most popular search engine in the world, runs the URL shortening service known as Goo.gl, which is considered the best of its kind. Simply enter the URL you desire to shorten, and in a matter of moments, the URL will be displayed to you in its shortened form. When you log in to the account associated with your Google account, the URL will be formed automatically. At that time, you will have the option of establishing a record of your short URLs. The Goo.gl website can display information regarding short URLs. This information includes the number of times the URL was viewed, the user’s profile, the referrer to the click, and a variety of other details.
How do you take advantage of URL shorteners in your marketing efforts?
- Include a shortened version of the URL that leads to your video.
- Use a personalized short domain to produce links that will stick in people’s minds.
- Keep a record of every click made, and watch how those clicks change over time.
- Create a personalized Bit.ly link by clicking here.
This article on the blog was penned with the assistance of the Blogwi website.
