URL shortener benefits explained

Generally url shortening is not pursued as marketing tactics. It is pursued passively without much emphasis. But in this blog we will be telling you how your url shortening will help you.

In this blog, I will be telling you about the Google URL Shortener service (which is free) & why 

digital marketers like this  URL shortener services.

Why a link shortener?

URLs are clunky, very lengthy and sometimes very ugly. They don’t show a lot of sense for users and readers, and they destroy the aesthetics of content. Also a large URL doesn’t add value to anyone.

 A link shortener is needed because it will make your url look small and will save lot of space.

 Twitter has 140 character limit and hence it is essential for us to keep using link shorteners.

About Google URL Shortener

There are a few URL shorteners in digital world and one of the best is from Google. Google URL Shortener is a very simple service that will shorten your URLs and also track their clicks.

How to start using Google URL Shortener

Here’s what you need to do:

• After you’ve published your article, get the URL.
• Go to Google URL Shortener.
• Paste your URL in the field, confirm you aren’t a robot, and click on Shorten URL.

• You’ll get a popup box with the shortened URL and details of your article with a ‘See analytics data’ option.
• Click Done.

You’ll see a page with the following details (a mini analytics page for your article):

1. Number of clicks
2. Traffic sources
3. Platforms

• You can also access and analyze all your previous links that you’ve shortened and are connected to your account in the main Google URL Shortener page.

 Benefits of  Google URL Shortener

• 1. Using a shortened URL in an email:

A lot of emails contain chain of long links that are lengthy and difficult to read.

Check out the example of an ugly URL in an email:

The email should be always be short and precise. Hence having a long url will make your URL look bulky and unreadable will spoil your email aesthetics.

• 2. Using a shortened URL for offline marketing:

A short URL is used in offline marketing. If you are printing posters or a small ad in a newspaper, it’s best to put a short URL in there. These URLs are very easy to remember and take up very less space.

You must directly use Google URL Shortener to shorten your affiliate links. Double redirection  links are flagged & you end up losing money. Hence set up your own URL shortener service using GoDaddy for affiliate links or use link cloaking plugins for making your ugly affiliate links look pretty.

• 3. On social media:

You must use a shortened URL in your posts. There is space limitation on social media when you market your content. Hence use a shortened URL, so  that there is more space for writing out a detailed description of whatever service you’re marketing to earn your money.

Also the attention should be on content and not the url. That’s where the short url come into play.

Check out an example of how a shortened URL is used in Twitter:

• 4. Using the analytics on a Google URL:

If you are a blogger, then you will be having multiple posts on your website  every month and every day. Your blog posts and your content are the core of your business. If they don’t perform well, your blog won’t either.

You can simply use analytics to compare and assess how your blog is doing. Analytics are the real model of your website. They will let you know whether you are doing good or bad in market space.

Check all the posts for a particular month and compare them based on the clicks received and the referrer (i.e. where the traffic comes from). This a real-time report card of a blog’s performance.

These are the benefits of using the Google URL Shortener.