What are Short URLs and should you be using them? This is a topic that I have seen quite a bit of discussion recently on Facebook so I thought that I would address this question in this article.

Some explanation first. Short URLs are long URLs that have been shortened to make them fit more easily in a text message, Facebook update, or Tweet. In and of themselves there is nothing wrong with Short URLs, but you should consider the Pros and Cons before using them.

There are lots of reasons why you may want or need to use a shortened URL. If you do a lot of Tweets on Twitter you will almost need to use Short URLs if you refer to web sites, recently Twitter initiated an auto URL shortening function on their site. The reason is due to Twitter’s limitation of 140 characters for a Tweet, basically what you would have available if you were using a cel phone for texting. So, if you want to put in a URL to a web page and include a bit of explanation you can easily go over that 140 characters. This is where shortening a URL is handy, it gives you more room for comment. Also some longer URLs are more than 140 characters in length, especially URLs from sites using Dynamic content to build pages, such as shopping sites and news services. Fortunately Twitter has information and links to URL shortening services to help you do this (more on these services later).

Here is an example of a URL that benefits from being shortened. This is a link to one of my training titles on Amazon, in this case my SEO (Search Engine Optimization) training title:

amazon.com/SEO-Optimization-Training-Lessons-Tutorials/dp/B004UXOE7I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1308018376&sr=8-3

This whole thing is the direct URL to the sales page on Amazon. The URL is 120 characters in length, leaving you with only 20 characters for comment if you are using Twitter and even if you aren’t it leaves you with a very hard to remember URL.

Here is the same URL shortened using a Short URL service on the web:

tinyurl.com/HTG-SEO

This URL was shortened using a free service at http://tinyurl.com. The HTG-SEO is a custom shortcut name that I selected, as long as no one else is using it you can choose any shortcut that you want. This URL is now only 26 characters long.

Another reason you may want to shorten a URL is to make it more user friendly and rememberable. Notice in the examples above how much easier it is to remember the shortened URL instead of the long one from Amazon.

So, two very good reasons to use a URL shortening service, now lets take a look at some of the downsides. You need to weigh the pros and cons and consider your audience before you use a shortened URL.

The biggest downside to URL shortening services is that you are no longer showing the actual URL. For instance in the examples above the first long URL is obviously going to http://Amazon.com, but in the second shortened URL it is not clear where the URL is pointing to. This can lead to concerns with your audience since they can not immediately tell where the link is pointing. It could be pointing to Amazon as you claim, or it could be pointing to a malicious web site instead. This is why I recommend against clicking on shortened URLs from people or sites you don’t know, it is a security risk. If your audience is unsure of who you are you may lose clicks using a shortened URL.

Another drawback is the lack of name recognition. If I directed my buyers to my home web site instead of Amazon I could use a much shorter URL naturally and keep my web site name visible at the same time. For instance here is a link to the same title sold on my web site:

howtogurus.com/SEO.htm

This is a nice, short URL that also contains the name of my main web site, much better than using a URL shortening service.

But what if you needed to sell an Amazon title or some other title with the same problem. Then a great solution is to set up an affiliate web site for your sales, with pages on your site drawn from the Amazon or other affiliate service. So your URL could look like the one above, which you would use in your advertising, and the links on the pages on your site would use the long URLs (such as the Amazon example above).

So, now for my recommendations:
– If your audience knows you then go ahead and use shortened URLs if needed
– If you want the name recognition then try to set up relatively short URLs on your own site
– You may need to use shortened URLs if you use a service like Twitter
– If your audience does not know you but you still need shortened URLs, again you should try to set it up through your own site
– And finally, if your audience does not know you and you can’t use your own web site then you can try using a service like http://tinyurl.com which has a preview feature, allowing your viewers to see the page before they go to it

To find services that create short URLs do a search on Google for \”short URL\”, you will find several free services that do a great job.

I have created a free video demonstrating how to use these sites, you can find it at http://www.web-design-and-seo-traffic.com/videos.html.

Author Bio: George Peirson is a successful Entrepreneur, Internet Trainer and author of over 40 multimedia based tutorial training titles. Read more articles by George Peirson at http://www.howtogurus.com Article copyright 2011 George Peirson

Category: Internet
Keywords: short urls,web site,shortened urls,url shortening,Social Media,Social Networking,Twitter