What is a URL?
So, first of all, what is a URL and what does it do? A Uniform Resource Locator is something that is used to locate a website address in the search bar, on the web and at the click of a button. URL was created in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee. A URL will always contain; the protocol, a colon, two slashes, and a host (which is normally a domain name but sometimes it’s an actual IP address).
So now you definitely understand what a URL is I can continue trying to convince you that a URL shortener is the way to go. URL shorteners can go by many different names but they all work the same in the long run, names may include; Link shortener, Link compresses, URL condenser or even a Link shrinker.
Why are URLs so long?
You may be thinking, why are URLs so long in the first place? Well let me tell you, most URLs are so long because there are millions and millions of different websites on the World Wide Web and each new website that is made the URL will be a letter or syllable different and a letter or syllable more. Most links are extremely long with random complications and that’s because the web has been around for at-least a couple of decades now, so there’s bound to be an extremely large amount of websites knocking around. Although sometimes the reason for a lengthy URL address is to do with an SEO consultant (Search Engine optimiser), who normally would add lots of relevant words to the URL so it ranked higher on and closer to number one on Google’s search results. Obviously SEO’s are also a massive fan of URL shortening as long URLs can sometimes look messy and a bit suspicious.
When did URL shortening become popular?
URL shortening came around in 2002 when TinyUKL came about, then it was Bitly in 2009, then a while after that twitter (Shortener.t.co) then google made goo.gl on September 2010, and nine years later shut it down in March 2019. In May 2019 twitter had had enough of URL shorteners and programmed its own URL shortener which shortens URLs automatically in your tweet.
What benefits you from using a URL shortener?
What would benefit you from using a URL shortener? A URL shortener is a tool used to take a normal URL which is usually really long, and turn it into a shorter URL to make links look a lot tidier. It would make whatever URL you wanted shortening more manageable and you could tailor it to whatever suits your website best or whatever your linking it to. Because of the overpopulation of websites on the web it’s nearly almost impossible to get any sort of short URL for a brand new website, and it’s also near impossible to remember an original URL as it’s usually a random combination of letters and numbers.
See which one of your URLs gets clicked the most
Another incredible feature of URL shortening is that it tells you how many times it’s been clicked, so if you wanted to find out which link is more appealing, trying out different ones and seeing which one gets picked the most is a great way of seeing what the consumer wants to see as an advert.
The social media side of URL shortening
URL shortening is also big on social media at the minute, shortening links to look better in your Instagram bio or your Facebook profile just makes your wall look a lot more organised and neater. URL shortening is used mostly in twitter, as some of you know, when you tweet you only get a certain amount of letters to put (141) and if you used a normal URL link it would more than likely be too big for the tweet so you would be unable to post it. Shortening the URL helps users to be able to post more stuff in a small amount of words. URLs are very common on tumblr as each person’s blog has its own personal URL name (for example tumblr.com/123).
Shortening URLs is ‘Click bait’
If your wanting to get down with the kids then this is the way to go, get rid of your sloppy, long boring URL and swap it for a fresh snazzy new one that represents whatever you want it to! People are used to short URLs now, it’s considered very strange to not have a shortened URL. Apparently shorter URLs lead to a higher amount of clicks for your sight. Try it out and see for yourself.
It promotes sharing
Last but not least shortening URLs promotes sharing! If the URLs are shorter that means there’s more space to share other things! The internet is a massive and wonderful place and there’s so many amazing things you can do to promote yourself and your own business or webpage, take my advice and get in the now! What have you got to lose? Keep it short, sweet and simple with a URL shortener today.
Content written by Lucy Hall