3 Great URL Shorteners with Analytics

URL shorteners trim down regular links so they can be shared more easily on Twitter and other social media platforms. My favorite side benefit of URL shorteners is that every link click can be tracked as it's redirected to its final destination.Not all URL shorteners actually offer analytics, though, so if you need tracking you must choose wisely. To help you along, I recommend these 3 URL shorteners with analytics:

1) bit.ly

It's the Twitter default, and therefore very popular. Full-featured analytics are available to whoever creates a short URL and any other person who cares to look. The trick to seeing stats for any bit.ly link: add a "+" sign at the end of the short URL (for example, http://bit.ly/djG9TM becomes http://bit.ly/djG9TM+). Bit.ly also offers a Pro account with an enhanced dashboard for private use by link publishers.

• Best for you if: you want to stick with a popular choice and you don't mind sharing your stats with the world.
• Site: bit.ly
• Screenshot:

 

2) cli.gs

This URL shortener has many of same features as bit.ly, but stats for URLs are not public. In other words, you must be logged in to view your own stats, and you cannot view stats for URLs you did not create. Another differentiator: cli.gs displays geolocation data as a map overlay rather than a chart - nice if you're a "visual" person.

• Best for you if: you need full-featured analytics and privacy.
• Site: cli.gs
• Screenshot:

 

3) ow.ly

This tool takes on the problem from a different angle: the URL shortener and the associated reporting interface are embedded within Hootsuite, a social network management client. It takes a bit of work to set up an account and learn how to use it, but the stats are really well done. You get analytics for individual messages as well as a summary roll-up. Another very useful feature: an optional form helps you append campaign codes to your URLs before you shorten them.

• Best for you if: you're looking a comprehensive system for managing posts OR you want help appending tracking codes as you shorten URLs.
• Site: hootsuite.com
• Screenshot:

 

These 3 tools are my top picks. For a more complete review of URL shorteners (both with and without analytics), see Danny Sullivan's post from April 2009.

Comments

[Thattalldude]

Also of very important note, bit.ly allows you to use your own custom short url. http://ttdu.de/bZeJj8

[Wholesale Electronics]

And then there's also StumbleUpon's su.pr. Also has a great analytics that lets you determine which time of the day is best for you to post based on historical figures.

[Randy Marsh]

ow.ly has many times made my tweeds "link cant be found or something like that and it just went to their default page. I use other services and they seem to be fine. I avoid ow.ly since it did this to like 10 of my tweets until I said totally forget them on my behalf.

[Chris Hewitt]

Nice content; I was unfamiliar with cli.gs but like the privacy feature on the analytics. It is especially relevant to a topic I just wrote about regarding URL shorteners and a job search.

I have been doing a lot of hiring lately and found another simple use for social media tools to track interest in a person's candidacy. By simply using URL shorteners and including them on your resume, you can begin tracking your application (much like a marketing campaign).

You can read the full details in my blog post: http://bit.ly/Tracking-Your-Resume

I used bit.ly for my writing because of its security efforts to protect users and (as Thattalldude pointed out) you can personalized URLs. However, the privacy feature of cli.gs is a good point of reference for the article...as candidates may not want to make interest in their resume public.

[June Dershewitz]

Thanks for reading and commenting, everyone. I'm pleased to report that my post was recently featured on Guy Kawasaki's Holy Kaw blog (http://holykaw.alltop.com/3-great-url-shorteners-with-analytics), so it's gotten a fair amount of attention.

@Randy I understand your concern about stability of short URL systems. As I was doing research for this post I came across another contender, that I liked - tr.im - and I chose not to feature them because I got several errors while testing. I've never had trouble with ow.ly, but thanks for sharing your experience. With any URL shortener we have to weigh convenience versus risk. Link rot is a very real risk.

@Chris Thank you for sharing your post - using short URL analytics to track resume interest is a very creative idea! The thing I like best about it is that you can monitor traffic to links that reside anywhere on the internet - your LinkedIn profile, your Twitter page, etc. I will definitely recommend this approach to job-seekers.

[Robin White Owen]

Hi, What did your research tell you about tinyURL.com? Is anyone still using this service?

[June Dershewitz]

@Robin tinyurl.com has existed since 2002 and continues to be actively used. You can see for yourself by going to Twitter and conducting a search, like this: http://twitter.com/#search?q=tinyurl.com

I haven't included tinyurl.com in my list because it does not offer analytics. That's why it's so important to "think before you shorten" if you really do want stats.

[TakeThe_Plunge]

I use Bit.ly myself - I have heard of ow.ly but the other - cli.gs, is new to me. I like bit.ly shortener because it records in real time, the amount of clicks each link gets, and you can view the graph right away as well.