When sharing content online you won't always want to be using the full url of a website. That's why if you have any social media profiles at all it's likely you've come across a link that looks something like this: http://tinyurl.com/m8elgew These links are usually set up through a third party site where you simply paste in the full link and they will shorten it to something like the previous example.
As a side-note some of these websites will also let you choose a custom vanity url so people can have an idea of your content in advance (example: http://bit.ly/getwishlistmember) and some services such as bit.ly will even let you track the number of clicks.
There are other hidden benefits that many people get out of using url shorteners as well as a simple short link. Affiliate marketers advertising other peoples products for cash will often need to use links which hold their name on the end and will not want to share this link directly with the world for a few reasons. Affiliate links are often; ugly, confusing, left unclicked or even worse; all three.
URL shortening services took off in such a big way because everYone can find a use for them, from the casual Internet user sharing funny images with a friend all the way through to the Internet Professional who makes their living online. At a guess I'd say you fall into the latter category or at least somewhere in-between seeing as how you've made it to this site and that is why you must be aware of the potential piTfalls.
“When Good Links Go Bad!”
You've been promoting something for a while now and have shared your links in literally hundreds of places online. Suddenly without warning the company that you've been promoting goes bust and you are left with hundreds of links leading to a dead site. Perhaps it's something as simple as the company that you've been linking to starts to slack a little and you decide that it's time to promote somebody else that is consistently providing a better product or service. In either of these situations with a traditional url shortener you are left in a position where you will need to not only find a replacement service to offer but also work on building new links to the replacement offer.
Another thing that happens more often than you'd think is that somebody has a bad experience when clicking on a shortened link and then no longer trusts anything that comes from that domain. Whilst most companies offering short urls do their best to keep the bad guys out this could happen on any of the public url redirect sites and you find yourself losing out on valuable page views.
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Great article, there are many pitfalls we have determined with Short URLs. Short links have helped people to easily share content in more cleaner manner but due to the generic nature of URL shortening, they have also brought significantly pitfalls most notably the rise in spam causing a mistrust of unidentifiable links.
A Branded Link, on the other hand, puts your brand on your link. They are completely customizable meaning you can have your brand and a relevant keyword as part of your link. By showing people who are willing to associate your brand with the link you are sharing will increase your link trust. As a result of increased link trust, you could increase your click through rate by 39%.
When comparing Branded Links and Short Links we found that the benefits for Branded Links significantly outweigh those for Short Links.
For a more in-depth comparison check out our article: Rebrandly.blog/Branded-vs-Short-Links