Can you? Especially considering all the potential consequences we've already discussed. I can't think of a single good reason to shorten a URL. 😛Įven without a big glaring warning screen, a shortened URL causes people to think twice before clicking on your links. Who wants to click on a questionable link?! I don't. It could lead to malware, spam, adult content, who knows! I can't tell by looking at the link itself, so I'm hesitant to click on it at all. Why? Because I don't know what's behind those links.
I mentioned that I rarely click on Bitly links, or any shortened link for that matter - such as TinyURL. URL Shorteners Affect Your CTR (Click Through Rate) The point is, it doesn't matter which cloaking/shortener service you use, you may ultimately run into this issue depending on what policies they choose to put into place or what actions they choose to take - which you have zero control over. Nice, hey? 😯Īs many bloggers have reported, similar warnings are being shown for the Google URL Shortner and Hootsuite's shortened Ow.ly links - particularly for shortened ClickBank affiliate links, but not exclusively. Which means tons of people have dead "money links" all over the web now. This is happening on A LOT of affiliate links shortened with Bitly (and other URL Shortener / link cloaking services too, I've discovered). Even with 17 years experience online and as a web savvy person, I'd be likely to back out of that one.Īnd by the way, two of the more recent Bitly links that gave me this error were pointing to MY site - so I know there was nothing questionable about the link. Would YOU continue if you saw this warning on your screen after clicking a link? Maybe YOU would, but you might be more educated than most surfers - or than your market. In most cases, this would stop someone in their tracks. I've been getting this warning message all over the web when I click on Bitly links (which is rare!): If you've been using Bitly to shorten URL's or cloak links, you should go back and double check all of your links. Let's look at one example: The Bitly URL Shortener And of course most people simply aren't aware of the consequences OR the alternate (better) options. It seems pretty common to just blindly take advice without considering the consequences, or doing your own research. I'm curious why people even use these third party services to shorten URL's? So curious in fact, that I recently asked - and got some really interesting answers. I've never understood why anyone would use a URL Shortener, but A LOT of people do, so it's time for a discussion and some eye-opening facts on this bad practice.
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