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Best Way To Shorten A Link

by Moneyland
15 replies
Sometimes my URL's are too long for use on YouTube if I am directing to a particular page on my site etc.

I have heard of a site called Bitly.com a URL shortening service, would this be the best bet or are there better options out there :confused:

Thanks if you could let me know..
#link #shorten
  • Profile picture of the author Alex Sanderson
    I've never had any problems with bitly.com, haven't used them in a while though.

    Alex
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  • Profile picture of the author Reddy20
    try these:
    http://goo.gl/
    https://bitly.com/
    Ow.ly - Shorten urls, share files and track visits - Owly
    Bit.do URL Shortener - Shorten, customize and track your links

    Just pick one
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  • Profile picture of the author karolk
    I use two services:

    Bitly - like others have said, it's a great tool with a custom dashboard that lets you take a look at your stats, click throughs and so on.

    Wp.me shortener built in the Jetpack plugin. This is great for subpages on your WP-powered site. The main benefit is that it looks less spammy than bitly in some situations.
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  • Profile picture of the author karolk
    I use two services:

    Bitly - like others have said, it's a great tool with a custom dashboard that lets you take a look at your stats, click throughs and so on.

    Wp.me shortener built in the Jetpack plugin. This is great for subpages on your WP-powered site. The main benefit is that it looks less spammy than bitly in some situations.
    Signature

    You know what, I won't try to lead you in with fake promises and false advertising. So let me just be honest. If you're looking for some online business advice for normal people (with no hype and constant product pushing) then hop over to newinternetorder.com

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  • Profile picture of the author johnlagoudakis
    If you have a Wordpress site, install a url shortening plugin like Pretty Link Lite and create your own shortened urls.

    I'd never use a free url shortening service. If they decide to ban certain links (for whatever reason), your link goes nowhere.
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  • Profile picture of the author DomRau
    I use bitly.com too Very easy to use and had no problems yet
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  • Profile picture of the author yakim1
    Back in 2003 I created a Redirect Generator called EZ-RedirectGen. It is an exe program so may not work for Mac users.

    I would create a folder on my domain named "r". This r folder is where I would put all my redirect links so they would all be in one spot and easy to find.

    This Generator will create the html code that you copy/paste in a notepad file and then name the file anything you want that has to do with the link you want to redirect to, but save it as an htm file.

    So for this generator download link I might use EZ-RedirectGen.htm. Then I would upload this file to the r folder.

    I did not want to put my redirects on any of these free url shortener sites. You never know when they will be blacklisted or go out of business and then all your links are suddenly not working.

    I don't use it any more because my software that I created now hold all my redirects in a database. But it still uses the same format... DomainName/r/filename.htm

    Here is the direct download link to this handy little generator...

    http://crazydealsweekly.com/r/EZ-RedirectGen.htm

    There are instructions right on the generator interface. I don't think the readme file with the generator program functions any more but the software still does.

    It only takes a couple of minutes to have a shortened url on your own site with this generator.

    Best regards,
    Steve Yakim
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  • Profile picture of the author Rok Solid
    Another good free url redirection plugin for Wordpress is GoCodes
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    • Profile picture of the author lerxtjr
      The closer you can make it look like your own domain name and part of your own website the better. Otherwise a good percentage of people just figure it's an affiliate link and they don't click. Or, they're just not sure where a bit.ly link or whatever url shortener will be bringing them. Could be hooked up to an executable virus for all we know.

      I always use a 301 redirect. This happens in your .htaccess file inside your website. So you are essentially commanding yourdomain.com/really-long-ugly-url-with-lots-of-stuff to redirect to yourdomain.com/coolpage

      htaccess can vary depending on how your server is setup so I don't feel qualified to layout any particular code to make it happen for you. Best to have a programmer type help to get you started. Then you'll be able to add new redirects whenever you want. There is also a wordpress plugin that handles redirects but thought I'd give the general overview in case your site is not in wp.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    Originally Posted by Moneyland View Post

    Sometimes my URL's are too long for use on YouTube if I am directing to a particular page on my site etc.

    I have heard of a site called Bitly.com a URL shortening service, would this be the best bet or are there better options out there :confused:

    Thanks if you could let me know..
    Personally, I use my own domain and hosting for this. I just don't trust other companies for this.
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    • Profile picture of the author hawaii777
      So, it's ok to use a 301 direct to shorten my own blog posts? I thought I heard that's not a good idea. I do have "Simple 301 Redirects" plugin, but I'm a little hesitant to use it.
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  • Profile picture of the author onlinebizgiant
    My favorite tool is pretty Link. It makes easy to shorten links with your domain name. But you need to have a wordpress site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Web Xpress
    I always use goo.gl
    It is awesome and provides a good result. Other shorter sometime blocked by ISP but goo.gl is allowed everywhere.
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