Ever got irritated seeing a never-ending gibberish link? You are not alone.
Your followers equally detest their screens bleeding with clunky blue links. They might perceive them to be spammy.
Well, you can’t deny the fact that they do look fishy. As a result, your followers might scroll past your links, or worse yet, unfollow your page.
So how do you post links without risking your integrity? We have the perfect solution in store for you – URL Shortening!
Before jumping on to the shortening part, let’s first understand why it is so massive?
URL or “Uniform Resource Locator” turns out to store the exact address of a file on the internet.
You can implement the URL shortening technique to make those lengthy and complex links into something short, simple, and even meaningful.
And how do you shorten your links? Use URL shorteners. They help you to cut short your tedious-looking links into a click-worthy one.
You can even customize them by adding custom phrases to add more relevance. It can also provide a micro context to your link’s content. You can use these URL Shorteners to track vital metrics.
The benefits don’t just end here. Let’s have a look at a few more of them.
Bitly is one of the URL shorteners that allows you to do a lot of things. You can shorten your URLs and see each link’s performance with various metrics like demographic data, click-throughs, and referral sources via its dashboard. This way, you can target your audience better and understand which campaigns are driving the most traffic.
Pros
Omar Ar
It is super easy to shorten links using their UI and also offers insightful easy to comprehend analytics of how well your links are doing in terms of engagement.
Cons
Verified reviewer
The support was poor. There was a “forced” change of package that locked us from editing old links. Waiting for over a month for support to do something about it. No help was offered.
This link shortener tool is a part of the Hootsuite platform. Ow.ly is optimized for social media sharing, and you can track the link’s traffic along with a range of metrics, including device and traffic channel. It helps you measure your ROI for all the links you post on your social media platforms and the entire campaign.
Pros
Harry W.
We use Hootsuite, and the ability to shorten links is really helpful.
Cons
Dan F
Let me first state that I am a 2x user. I tried Hootsuite in its infancy and then again about 8 years later. For me, the results were the same – not worth paying for. Hootsuite didn’t pull in enough information. The metrics were base level – anything I could have gotten from the actual social channel.
Replug is a branded link shortener that allows you to set up custom domains. It increases conversions with retargeting pixels, catchy calls to action, and QR codes. You can track your shortened and get deep analytics on your optimized links. From shortening to A/B testing, this URL shortener is one stop for all.
Pros
Rahima Khan
Replug is an invaluable resource for dynamic link shortening in this digital era. It simplifies the process of distributing links on websites, in marketing, and on social media. Email subscription and Custom URLs form on nearly every link operate like magic.
Cons
Andrew S
There are plan limits; although generous, if you go viral, you need to move up plans. The chrome extension does log you out after some time, so you need to keep logging back in if you have not used it for a while.
Sniply is a URL shortener tool with a twist. It not only shortens your link but every link that you share comes with a Call-To-Action (CTA) attached to it. It becomes an excellent way to advertise your website on every share. Not only that, it tracks the effectiveness of both the CTA and link so you can calculate your campaign’s ROI in one shot.
Pros
Verified reviewer
We use Sniply for all our shared links. The analytics are super helpful in seeing how effective it is for us.
Cons
Verified reviewer
It doesn’t always work on all sites. Sometimes it just won’t be supported, but you won’t know until you’ve done all the work.
This is one of the unique link shorteners that allows you to do a lot of things. Rebrandly helps you to customize and brand your shortened URLs. You can set up a new domain name for short URLs or set up your current website domain name to use with short URLs. It integrates with over 50 platforms that help seamlessly distribute your links.
Pros
Siddarth S.
The basic essence of this service is great. Just when I wanted custom shortened links, I found Rebrandly, and as their name suggests, they help rebrand those boring shortened URL links to our custom URLs.
Cons
Jürgen S.
What one might consider “standard” features for this type of software, come with add-on costs to an already pricey base.
TinyURL is one of those URL shorteners that allow you to shorten your links with no difficult steps. It doesn’t need you to be an expert at things. You don’t even need to have an account or go through any complicated steps like having too many options on the dashboard. You can also add TinyURL to your browser toolbar and create shortened links for the site you’re currently on.
Pros
Srdan T
TinyURL is a good link shortening service. You can use it directly without any sign-ups or even use their plugin to shorten any website you are on directly.
Cons
Reinout S
Their homepage is still the same for years. Not that big of a deal, but a little re-design of the homepage wouldn’t hurt. Also, a lot of URLs are taken already so it is pretty hard to find a URL that is free from time to time.
Bl.ink is one of the robust link shorteners available on the net. It allows you to create custom links, but unlike the other tools, the custom links are created using relevant words and not just a random string of characters put together. You also get various analytic reports that allow you to track clicks by time, language, date, device, location, etc.
Pros
Leigh C.
Very helpful and responsive customer support, easy URL builder, love the copy feature — greatly streamlines work. Just a nice, easy, elegant solution.
Cons
Verified reviewer
I wish more analytics were available through the software. Along with audience insights.
Bit.do has quite a simple website, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to know that this is one of those URL shorteners for social media marketing that is a simple and sweet tool that would meet all your needs. From shortening your links, generating traffic stats, customizing to having an automatic QR code generator, this tool has it all.
Pros
Verified reviewer
Bit.do is an easy-to-use tool and serves all my business needs. It doesn’t get too complicated for my team to understand.
Cons
Verified reviewer
I would like this tool to have more features than it currently has, as the pricing for this tool can be quite high for a small business like mine
With Clkim you can set up a branded domain in 2 minutes. If you already have a domain, all you need to do is point your domain to their servers and begin building branded links. They also have smart redirects.
Based on contextual triggers, the URL redirects users based on geography or mobile operating system so they can access the site in a way that’s best for them.
Pros
Kinga Edwards
Solid URL shortener platform with features of retargeting. I’ve been using it for a while, and generally like it.
Cons
Verified reviewer
Monthly fees and limited packages can limit the use of the software.
GoLinks is a top-rated link shortener that is known by various names. This super easy tool can shorten any link that is ready to be shared across all platforms. Its customized link shortener gives your links an easy-to-remember name that individuals and businesses can use. You can use the same in your emails, chats, conversations, and more.
Pros
Jon C
The ability to just create a go link for any website in our company. So nice and easy! Saves so much time and is an easy way to get those on your team on the same page.
Cons
Verified reviewer
Sometimes it’s hard to remember the shortcuts. I wish there would be some sort of recommendation engine or “did you mean” engine that would trigger during common misspellings or close matches. They have a crude version of this, but it isn’t very robust.
Conclusion
As more content surfaces online, the trust factor seeps underneath. That’s why you need to tempt users to click on your content and not scare them away. A shortened URL is contextual and instrumental in making your audience believe that you care for their time.
Making use of link shortener tools can make your life easy and generate more traffic and engagement. Plus, the valuable tracking metrics can give you a crystal clear picture of what’s working and what’s not.
While there are various tools to try out for URL shortening, we suggest you try out SocialPilot. It is a social media management tool that integrates with top URL shorteners like Bit.ly, Sniply, and Rebrandly.
So when you are scheduling posts for your social media accounts, the never-ending URLs automatically shortens with the link shortener you choose to connect with.
That’s how you get two major solutions at the price of one! Check it out for yourself by activating its free 14-day trial period to explore more of such excellent features in a single dashboard!
Link shorteners are tools that help create a super short and unique URL that will redirect to the specific website of your choice. These tools also allow you to make custom URLs that can be tracked.
Link shorteners are great for sharing clunky links on social media. They are also used for tracking purposes to measure campaign ROI or a content’s performance in terms of clicks/visits.
This helps one make their social media posts look aesthetically better. It is important to shorten your URL links because it is easier for an audience to trust and click a shorter link (provided it is shared from a credible source) compared to a longer link.
You can use SocialPilot for shortening the URL of any site for social media. SocialPilot provides you with top link shortener integrations like Bitly, Sniply, and Rebrandly. As soon as you paste the copied URL in the Post Composer section, your URL gets automatically shortened, ready to be shared on any connected social media account.