A URL shortener is basically a tool which generates a unique short URL which you will then redirect to the particular site of your choice. Essentially: they create a URL much shorter and easier to remember. Typically, your new shorter URL will contain the shorter website address, plus a series of random letters, usually a combination of u, v, and &. The & is used to indicate the page number associated with your URL. You can use this to make the URL’s more unique to you and also to make them more targeted to search engines and web users. Generally, a URL shortening service will shorten all your URLs to at least three characters, which is often called a “long URL”.
Some of the most common services include: Yahoo! Search Marketing, Google Analytics, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, Ask, AOL Search, Netscape, Google Webmaster Tools, GoDaddy, and Netscape Marketing. While there are literally hundreds of URL sharpeners available, only a handful are actually worth considering for use on your website. URL shortening tools can be extremely useful in marketing your business as well as in increasing search engine visibility and ranking. As such, URL shorteners have become integral aspects of the online world.
URL softeners are great for increasing your chances of getting found on Google. They allow you to optimize your URL and make it easier for your URL to be found when people search for certain keywords. One of the ways many people get around having a long URL is to use a URL shortening tool such as Google’s shortened URL, or Yahoo! ‘s Shortcut’. However, while these tools are extremely convenient, they may not always provide the effect you’re looking for.
URL shorteners make URLs much shorter by replacing long characters with lowercase letters, or combining characters together to form a more compact phrase. While the practice of URL shortening has become commonplace, some sites still try to use characters other than lowercase letters and numbers. Some URLs may still end in long colons, plus spaces, minus signs, or quotation marks. To solve this problem, URL shortening software often allows you to create URL’s that only contain the characters you want, avoiding the risk of your URL being flagged by the search engines.
Another advantage to using a URL shortener such as Google’s shortened URL, is that it helps you to remember your URL. URL’s that are commonly shortened often appear much less frequently in web searches, which can help you save time when you’re looking for specific information about your business. URL’s can also be shortened in order to make them easier to spell and more memorable to users, or to make it easier for your website visitors to find your URL when searching for information about your products or services. In fact, the majority of Twitter users do not type in full URL’s, instead using short Snopes, Technorati, or other related shortened URL’s.
If you use a URL shortener, such as Google’s Chrome, you may notice that the search engine shows the shortened URL in the search results. The same thing happens with yahoo! Search. If you’ve ever searched for a URL on Bing or Yahoo!, chances are that you have come across websites that contain URLs that are actually URLs that have been shortened.