Unless you want to track URLs, you have no need to run to an outside website in order to make your URLs smaller, Twitter only counts links for a certain number of characters now. In fact, each of Instagram’s 800 million user accounts could post one photo every single minute for about 42 and a half years before they have to worry about that limit being hit.
Another privacy problem is that many services' shortened URL format is small enough that it is vulnerable to brute-force search. With TinyURL, you can actually customize the end letters and numbers as an option. This point was underscored a few days ago when a popular one, tr.im, announced they were going to shut down at the end of the year. Linkrot[edit] The convenience offered by URL shortening also introduces potential problems, which have led to criticism of the use of these services.
TweetDeck and Seesmic (TweetDeck’s direct competitor) both offer numerous URL-shortener options (bit.ly, is.gd, TinyURL, and twURL), but only bit.ly offers click tracking. When used this way, all user activity on such elements is calculated and displayed as Events in the Analytics reporting interface. There is no way to stop affiliates from adding their own custom payout on click using this parameter. You can also get a visual glimpse of your engagement for a different perspective. Reporting breaks down by person, location, and device type. Other link tracker software use only cookies, which severely limits what you can track and how you track.
The permalinks you use in WordPress can be ideally created to be as short as possible. Let us know what you think of Bitly.com and other similar sites. Tagging your emails like this will give insight into how your emails compare to other types of marketing, how specific messages work across all mediums, which types of links work best in your emails, etc.
Example: South Park Studios uses cart.mn to recreate, in a shortened form, the name of one of its most well known characters. This can be added to existing JavaScript files or in a script block as long as it’s loaded somewhere within the HTML body (ideally, just before the closing tag). jQuery (or your alternative) must be loaded first although the Google Analytics tracking code can appear anywhere on the page. /* Track outbound links in Google Analytics */ (function($) { "use strict"; // current page host var baseURI = window.location.host; // click event on body $("body").on("click", function(e) { // abandon if link already aborted or analytics is not available if (e.isDefaultPrevented() || typeof ga !== "function") return; // abandon if no active link or link within domain var link = $(e.target).closest("a"); if (link.length != 1 || baseURI == link[0].host) return; // cancel event and record outbound link e.preventDefault(); var href = link[0].href; ga('send', { 'hitType': 'event', 'eventCategory': 'outbound', 'eventAction': 'link', 'eventLabel': href, 'hitCallback': loadPage }); // redirect after one second if recording takes too long setTimeout(loadPage, 1000); // redirect to outbound page function loadPage() { document.location = href; } }); })(jQuery); // pass another library here if required The event is recorded with the category name ‘outbound’, action name ‘link’ and the value set to the URL of the outbound page. If you’re logged in you can also get the shortlink for any page on WordPress.com, there’s a link under the “Blog Info” menu in your admin bar. Determines unique and non-unique click distribution. With Twitter, you just have to be as simple and short as possible. Google URL Shortener: This shortener is straight from Google and will be viewed as a Goo(dot)gl. Add X-Robots-Tag to my short links for granular control over how Google makes content available through search results. Or you can use a utility to display all the backlinks to your site and copy them from there. You should use the one that’s right for your use case, but below is what I typically use on this site. If your organization has multiple people shortening links and posting them, be sure to provide access and training to everyone involved. See the company's blog to learn more about the changes that are taking place. More » TinyURL.com TinyURL used to be one of the top shortening choice in the past, and people still use it a lot today, however it does include a couple more characters compared to others like Bit.ly and Goo.gl. The tool is free and can be used whenever you want.