With that said, if you do need to track your URLs, or you want alternative ways to post there are plenty of ways to do it: Bit.ly: Probably the most popular URL shortener for Twitter because it was one of the first to let you track your tiny URLs. Turn Click Tracking On or Off For compliance reasons, click tracking is required in all free accounts and new paid accounts. On 14 August 2009 WordPress announced the wp.me URL shortener for use when referring to any WordPress.com blog post.[11] In November 2009, shortened links on bit.ly were accessed 2. TweetDeck and Seesmic (TweetDeck’s direct competitor) both offer numerous URL-shortener options (bit.ly, is.gd, TinyURL, and twURL), but only bit.ly offers click tracking.
Head over to the Tools page and you will see instructions for adding a Bitly bookmarklet and/or browser extension to your favorite web browser. While URL shorteners have had some incredible usage tied to the growth (and constraints) of Twitter, I question their sustainability as a business.
Many people use URL shorteners when they share links to private content, and in fact many web services like Google Maps have offered automatic generation of shortened links for driving directions that reveal personal information like home addresses and sensitive destinations like "clinics for specific diseases (including cancer and mental diseases), addiction treatment centers, abortion providers, correctional and juvenile detention facilities, payday and car-title lenders, gentlemen’s clubs, etc."[34][35] Additional layer of complexity[edit] Short URLs, although making it easier to access what might otherwise be a very long URL or user-space on an ISP server, add an additional layer of complexity to the process of retrieving web pages. If you’re promoting your own website, then you can use the standard conversion tracking codes to record sales and leads throughout your sales funnel.Pinterest Stumbleupon Whatsapp Email Advertisement Web analytics is important to keep track of your websites. I also worry that because shorteners are essentially open proxies of HTTP they’ll be exploited by spammers and malware distributors to the point where businesses, anti-phishing, and anti-virus services will be forced to block them. Your fully customized, network specific tracker URL will then appear for both clicks and impressions. Tag Name: External Link Tracking » GA Universal Tag Type: Google Universal Analytics Web Property ID: Your Google Universal Analytics UA id Event Type: Event Event Tracking Parameters Category: External Links Action: {{element url}} Label: {{element text}} Value: 1 Non-Interaction Hit: True Firing Rules Links - External Conditions {{event}} equals gtm.linkClick {{element url}} does not match RegEx (ignore case) ^/[^/] {{element url}} does not match RegEx (ignore case) ^[\w:]*//(www\.)?searchsignals\.com You can always rename the category and change the order of the label and action if you want to see it differently in the default Google Analytics view. You will need to make sure you have the standard google tracking script on your page too.
Abuse[edit] URL shortening may be utilized by spammers or for illicit internet activities. Some shortening services, such as goo.gl, tinyurl.com, and bit.ly can generate URLs that are human-readable, although the resulting strings are longer than those generated by a length-optimized service. Not all redirection is treated equally; the redirection instruction sent to a browser can contain in its header the HTTP status 301 (permanent redirect), 302, or 307 (temporary redirect). Go to Admin > Edit Posts, hover over the post link, look at the status bar, the number at the end of the URL is the post ID. Turn your links on and off, point them to a new destination or add new options any time.
Here's an example of a tracking link using custom variables for the email and phone parameters: The following HasOffers parameters can be used in your affiliate tracking links: Mobile Tracking Parameters When you want to support mobile device attribution, you can use our mobile tracking parameters in your affiliate tracking links: Thank you for your feedback! Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. This will allow you to plan your content strategy accordingly. Some shortening services, such as goo.gl, tinyurl.com, and bit.ly can generate URLs that are human-readable, although the resulting strings are longer than those generated by a length-optimized service. Many people use URL shorteners when they share links to private content, and in fact many web services like Google Maps have offered automatic generation of shortened links for driving directions that reveal personal information like home addresses and sensitive destinations like "clinics for specific diseases (including cancer and mental diseases), addiction treatment centers, abortion providers, correctional and juvenile detention facilities, payday and car-title lenders, gentlemen’s clubs, etc."[34][35] Additional layer of complexity[edit] Short URLs, although making it easier to access what might otherwise be a very long URL or user-space on an ISP server, add an additional layer of complexity to the process of retrieving web pages. If you're willing to pay, consider Pretty Link Pro or these low cost solutions on Code Canyon. A Microsoft Security Brief recommends the creation of short-lived URLs, but for reasons explicitly of security rather than convenience.[6] History[edit] An early reference is US Patent 6957224, which describes ...a system, method and computer program product for providing links to remotely located information in a network of remotely connected computers. For example: Services Brochure In the above URL we’ve added the parameter “?pdf=Services-Brochure” to the end of the PDF URL link. Google Analytics even has a URL Builder tool where you can generate a URL with UTM parameters. The reason for this is because cookies cannot be set cross-domain, and pageviews, interest data and campaign-specific purchase attribution would not function.