URL Shorteners
URL Shorteners Overview
URL Shorteners Products
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Learn More About URL Shorteners
What are URL Shorteners?
Link or URL shortening tools are used to create shorter and easier-to-read URLs that redirect to a webpage. The shortened link is useful for social media networks where the number of characters is limited such as Twitter.
Link shortening tools also provide analytics and click tracking on the shortened links. Many social media management software products provide link shortening functionality natively and/or integrate with standalone link shortening tools.
URL Shortener Features
Features common to URL shorteners are:
- Easy to read real word links
- Branded links and short domains
- Embedding UTM parameters
- URL builder
- Link analytics and tracking
- Deep linking
- Campaign creation and performance metrics
- Mobile optimization
- Security and guaranteed link uptime
- User matching to track visitors across platforms
- API and social platform integrations
URL Shorteners Comparison
Before purchasing a URL shortener, consider the following key points:
- Free vs. paid: There are several free URL shorteners available on the web that provide basic link shortening capabilities. However, these free tools typically lack features like being able to produce a branded link, link analytics and tracking, or social media platform integration. Paid tools, on the other hand, will likely have these features.
- Budget: What does your budget look like? Will there be multiple people at your business using the URL shortening platform or just one user? Will you be generating more than 500 links per month and expect massive amounts of traffic to these links? The answer to each of these questions will impact how much a URL shortening platform will cost you.
- Ease of use: How user-friendly is the URL shortener you’re considering purchasing? Are you able to easily navigate around the user interface and find the features you’re looking for? Are the link tracking and reporting metrics easy to view and understand? Many URL shortening tools offer a free version or free trial of their software. Taking advantage of a free version or trial is a great way to assess the overall user-friendliness of the product before making a purchase.
Pricing Information
Popular URL shortening tools have free editions providing a limited number of links and custom domains. They also provide limited feature sets. Paid link management plans offer a larger volume of links and more custom domains. Paid plans are also more advanced and supply customer tracking and analytics. Enterprise-level plans support campaigns with A/B testing, marketing functionality (e.g. retargeting), and live support with onboarding and coaching.
URL Shortening Tools Best Of Awards
The following URL Shortening Tools offer award-winning customer relationships, feature sets, and value for price. Learn more about our Best Of Awards methodology here.
